The paint is red and black.

Anthropology catalogue ledger book entry for this object identifies it as a "soup ladle." This was mistranscribed on artifact catalogue card as "soap ladle."Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/78 , retrieved 12-17-2019: Ladle carved from a single piece of wood. The ladle has a short handle with a triangular section cut out. This opening may have been for hanging the ladle on a peg. More information here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/36: Ladles made from wood, horn and ivory were used for dipping water and for stirring and serving broth.

Simple, undecorated wooden ladles share everyday duty with plain dishes and bowls. This ladle is decorated only with a shallow groove paralleling the inner rim, a conventional ladle feature throughout much of the northern coast. The wood, probably alder, has been stained almost black by an infusion of the candlefish oil which it once contained. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)