ASHOONA, PITSEOLAK

itseolak Ashoona had “an unusual life, being born in a skin tent and living to hear on the radio that two men landed on the moon,” as she recounts in Pictures Out of My Life. Born in the first decade of the twentieth century, she lived in semi-nomadic hunting camps throughout southern Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin Island) until the late 1950s when she moved to the Kinngait (Cape Dorset) area, settling in the town soon thereafter. In Cape Dorset she taught herself to draw and was an active contributor to the annual print collection. By the 1970s she was a world-famous artist, with work exhibited across North America and in Europe. She died in 1983, still at the height of her powers. -Christine Lalonde, ACI, accessed April 17, 2024