
1911 – 1980
Ikayukta Tunnillie
Ikayukta Tunnillie was born in a camp near Iqaluit but the first home she remembered was Amadjuak camp where she lived with her adoptive parents, Atatamee and Ekigapik. In 1956 her husband, Tunilli, who was known among the Inuit as a shaman, died at Tikoot camp. Ikayukta moved to Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) around 1966-67 when illness reduced her camp to numbers too low for safety while living on the land. Encouraged by her daughter, Kakulu Sagiatuk (1940-2020), Ikayukta started to draw about 1963. Kakulu was once quoted as saying that she didn’t really like her mother’s drawings because they were not sufficiently realistic. Although not prolific by Cape Dorset standards, Ikayukta produced about ten drawings a week, usually choosing to work on very small pieces of paper in felt-tip pen. Between 1971 and 1980, Ikayukta had thirty prints in the annual Cape Dorset print collections. Excerpted, with light edits, from Strange Scenes: Early Cape Dorset Drawings by Jean Blodgett and Susan Gustavison, published by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, January 1993.
Media: Coloured Pencil, Felt-tip Pen
This information has been generously provided by Dorset Fine Arts. For more information on Cape Dorset art and artists, visit Dorset Fine Arts.