Artist in Residence Program

Helen O’Connor is a Yukon visual artist who makes paper by hand to create sculpture, artist books, and installations. Her works reflect a reverence for nature and are influenced by personal mythmaking, exploring ideas of materiality, place, and ecology. For O’Connor, the transformation from plant to paper to work of art is magic!

O’Connor was first introduced to hand papermaking in combination with printmaking while completing a fine arts degree at the University of Western. Compelled to learn more about its history and cultural perspective she has travelled to study traditional methods of papermaking in China, Japan, Italy and India.

In 2020, O’Connor completed a Master of Education in Visual Art at the University of Victoria. Her graduate research explored the use of invasive plant species in both Whitehorse and Victoria as a material for art, examining their ecological impact and cultural meaning, as well as their medicinal and botanical properties.

As Kluane National Park, Artist in Residence, Helen O’Connor will research papermaking and artmaking using the invasive plant species white sweet clover. By transforming this widespreading plant into handmade paper, her work will explore relationships between landscape, ecology, and material process.

During her residency she will offer public workshops in papermaking and paper crafts, including simple journal and bookmaking, inviting visitors and community members to explore creative connections between plants, place, and art.

O’Connor was a selected by a national jury for the Yukon Prize 2025 Long List. She exhibits her handmade paper artwork locally and internationally. Her studio, Stovepipe Paper, is located in Whitehorse.

Christine Dunbar was born and raised in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (NWT), and moved back to Yellowknife in September 2025 after living in Ontario for two years. While in Ontario, Christine attended Wilfrid Laurier University for her Master of Science in Integrative Biology degree, where she studied muskox seasonal detections in Thaıdene Nëné Indigenous Protected Area, NWT. For her undergraduate degree, Christine attended Lethbridge Polytechnic where she completed her Bachelor of Ecosystem Management degree and an undergraduate thesis on arsenic contamination within soil samples near Yellowknife.

She has extensive experience working in the North, having worked in multiple summer student positions with the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT), and later becoming an intern after finishing her undergraduate degree. As the Watershed Programs Intern, Christine worked in remote areas on the Slave River sampling water and fish for contaminants with both Indigenous governments and academia. For her master’s degree, she completed field work at Daring Lake Research Station in the NWT, deploying camera traps on the remote tundra landscape to capture wildlife. Christine has recently accepted a position with the GNWT as the Wildlife Laboratory/Field Technician.

Christine is Inuvialuit and Cree on her mother’s side, and Ukrainian and Scottish on her father’s. Her Inuvialuit name is “Nauyaq” which translates to “seagull”. Her mother, Carrie Norris, was born and raised in Inuvik, NWT, spending ample time on the land with her family growing up in the Arctic circle. Christine’s grandmother, Junice Arey, comes from Utqiaġvik, Alaska, and moved to the NWT when she was young with her family. Christine’s grandfather, Fred Norris, was Cree and came from Fort McKay (now known as Fort McMurray), Alberta. Christine is named after her great grandmother Christine Norris, who was a Cree woman known as one of the best trappers in the Mackenzie Delta. She lived most of her life at a remote bush camp near Inuvik, raising her children there and living off the land.

Christine began beading in 2020 during the pandemic to pass the time. She had a growing collection of beaded earrings and wanted to try making her own. This hobby quickly became a full-time business that would thrive. Christine has sold her beadwork across Canada, the United States and Europe, and had a pair of earrings appear in Vogue. She has hosted several workshops across Canada to help others connect to their Indigenous culture, or to those interested in learning the artform. Christine takes inspiration from nature, modern art, and her Indigenous heritage.