A metal drum, dusted and fading, frames the edge of land and light. The sun breaks clean across an ice-locked horizon, distant yet grounding. Industrial memory sits in the foreground, silent but loaded. This is the balance: between use and loss, sky and surface, heat and cold, stillness and what is coming next.
Shifting Horizons: Edges of Ice and Snow

Barrel Horizon

By Tony Eetak
A metal drum, dusted and fading, frames the edge of land and light. The sun breaks clean across an ice-locked horizon, distant yet grounding. Industrial memory sits in the foreground, silent but loaded. This is the balance: between use and loss, sky and surface, heat and cold, stillness and what is coming next.
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Where extraction meets extinction, and the sun keeps setting.

When I took this photo, I wasn’t trying to say anything dramatic. It’s just a drum, just a sunset—but that’s the point. These small, quiet things carry the weight of everything that’s changing. Oil heats our homes, but it also represents a cycle that’s melting the ground beneath us. That contradiction is everywhere. I use photography to hold both beauty and warning in the same frame.

The land isn’t just reacting to climate change—it’s talking to us. Through colours, textures, the way ice sits or doesn’t. As a young Inuk artist, I’m not just recording these signs—I’m responding to them. With every photo, I’m saying: look closer. This is our story, too.

Filed Under: 7015-21-0023, Nunavut, SDG 13, SDG 15
Picture of Tony Eetak

Tony Eetak

Tony Eetak is an emerging artist, musician and culture connector from Arviat, Nunavut, now exploring the arts in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A founding member of the Art Borups Corners, Tony has a demonstrated passion for photography, music, composition, and visual arts. With over five years of experience as a dedicated volunteer, collaborator and co-funder of several arts projects, Tony has been involved in various participatory arts events through organizations like the Arviat Film Society, Global Dignity Canada, Inclusion in Northern Research, and Our People, Our Climate. His contributions earned him recognition as a National Role Model by Global Dignity Canada in 2023. His work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Manitoba Arts Council and the OpenAI Researcher Access Program.

This project was supported by:

Shifting Horizons: Edges of Ice and Snow

An Inuit Youth Perspective by Tony Eetak
Step into the world as seen through the lens of Tony Eetak, a young Inuit photographer bearing witness to the profound transformations shaping his homeland. This virtual exhibition offers an intimate and powerful journey into the Arctic. Eetak’s images capture the delicate beauty and increasing fragility of a world undergoing rapid change. From endless ice and shifting weather patterns to the resilience of his community amidst these challenges, his photographs are a poignant testament to the deep connection between people and place. Experience the Arctic through a fresh, vital perspective – a call for understanding and action in the face of a changing climate.