Tipatshimuna 
Description:
Wooden dolls. One is carved in the form of a human male with bent knees and no arms. Eyes and eyebrows drawn on face. The other is in the shape of Innu female (clothed). Legs and feet carved, arms outlined against body. Eyes, nose and mouth carved, eyes and eyebrows drawn in pencil. Hem of skirt drawn with pencil also.
References:
Angela Andrew. 2000. “Artists Know the Spirits.” In N. Byrne and C. Fouillard (eds.). It’s Like the Legend: Innu Women’s Voices. Charlottetown: Gynery Books. pp.152-155. Lucien M. Turner. 1979[1894]. Indians and Eskimos in the Quebec-Labrador Peninsula. Quebec: Presses COMEDITEX. James W. VanStone. 1982. The Speck Collection of Montagnais Material Culture From the Lower St. Lawrence Drainage, Quebec. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History. Fieldiana, Anthropology New Series No.5. James W. VanStone. 1985. Material Culture of the Davis Inlet and Barren Ground Naskapi: the William Duncan Strong Collection. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History. Fieldiana, Anthropology New Series No.7.
Innu Narrative:
“These are innishits. This is Innu-carved. This one is a man and the other one is a woman. This is a girl and the other one is a boy. They are called anikuessits (carved dolls).” Pinamen (Rich) Katshinak
Other Info:
Turner collected a fully-dressed wooden, female doll while working with the Barren ground Innu at Fort Chimo (Kuujjuaq) but provides no information about the making and use of dolls among the Innu (Turner, 1979 [1894}:162-163). The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago has a doll collected by Frank Speck “made from strips of tanned moose skin stuffed with moss or grass and stitched together with thread. Features are indicated with dark red cotton thread. A hat and dress are made of red wool felt, and strips of blue tape are sewn around the arms and waist. Short lengths of blue and clear seed beads are sewn on the hat. A length of clear beads circles the waist. Short lengths of blue and clear beads strung on purple thread…are attached to the waist” (VanStone, 1982:19). The Field Museum collection also contains six dolls collected by William Duncan Strong in the Davis Inlet-Voisey’s Bay area in 1927-1928, “all of which show considerable signs of age and use; they clearly were not made for the collector” (VanStone, 1985:36). The bodies of the dolls are either made of wood or caribou hide or cotton stuffed with grass. Features are either penciled (in the case of the wooden doll) or stitched with black thread (ibid.:36). The clothing on all of these dolls reflects the period dress of the Barren ground Innu at the time, i.e., caribou hide coats, fur on the outside. None of the dolls are clothed in the “Montagnais” style that is typical of contemporary examples of dolls made by women in Sheshatshiu.
Several women continue to make tea-dolls in Sheshatshiu and Natuashish. In 2005 these women included Matinen (Selma) Michelin, Anishen (Rich) Andrew, Shanut (Pasteen) Gregoire, Mani-Shan (Pasteen) Nui, and An-Pinamen (Gregoire) Pokue. Anishen (Rich) Andrew reported that she designed her dolls herself based on the way her elders used to dress when she was growing up. “Tipatapinukueu (Maki [Apinam] Atuan) an elder here in Sheshatshiu, made the first tea doll I ever saw. There are different stories told about these dolls. Some people say kids used to carry tea dolls in the old days when the Innu travelled long distances in the country. Some say the elders carried the dolls. When the group ran out of tea, only the elders drank tea. I wanted to make this tea doll of the past, but I created my own kind of tea doll in the way I dress them up.” Anishen (Rich) Andrew (2000:153).
Today, the vast majority of Innu tea dolls are made as craft items for sale; they are no longer made for Innu children to play with. In 2004 tea dolls fetched anywhere from $150 to $300, and today are still sold either to individuals or through several craft stores in Newfoundland and Labrador.