Françoise Oklaga

Françoise Katalik Oklaga was born in 1924 in Salliit (Coral Harbour), a small community situated on Southhampton Island, located midway between southern Baffin Island and the Kivalliq mainland in what is now the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Known simply as Katalik within her Indigenous Inuit community, Oklaga was adopted at a young age by a family from Igluligaarjuk (Chesterfield Inlet). Although she grew up within a coastal culture, she relocated to the inland Kivalliq settlement of Qamanittuaq (Baker Lake) following her marriage to Emile Oklaga, whose family was from the region. Perhaps because she was a relative newcomer with no direct affiliation to the major groups that then comprised her adopted settlement’s vibrant art scene, Oklaga didn’t begin producing drawings for the local coop until 1976. Oklaga’s brother was the well-known Kinngait graphic artist Pudlo Pudlat. Oklaga died in 1991.