John Pangnark
1920 - 1980
Born in 1920 at Windy Lake, John Pangnark (1920-1980) was a member of the Ahiarmiut (“people of the other side”), a group of inland dwelling Inuit who relied extensively on hunting caribou for their food and clothing. After the famines of the late 1950s, Pangnark, along with other members of the Ahiarmiut, were relocated by the Canadian government to the coastal community of Arviat. In the early or mid 1960s, Pangnark began making stone sculptures for sale to the coop in Arviat. In 1970, he travelled to Japan to demonstrate carving at the World’s Fair in Osaka, indicating the strong reputation he had already started to achieve at this time. Pangnark continued to make sculptures almost right up until his death in 1980.
