John Tiktak

John Tiktak was born in 1916 at Kareak, a small camp situated between the coastal communities of Arviat and Whale Cove. A member of the Padlermiut (“people of the willows”), he learned to hunt caribou from his father, later moving to the coastal settlement of Arviat, where he started his own family. In 1958, Tiktak moved again, this time to Rankin Inlet (Kangiqliniq) in order to work in the community’s recently opened nickel mine. After the mine closed in 1962, he started making stone sculptures to sell to the coop in Kangiqliniq, having previously taught himself how to carve. He soon came to the attention of Robert Williamson and George Swinton, both visitors from southern Canada with a deep interest in contemporary Inuit sculpture. In 1970, Swinton organized a retrospective of Tiktak’s work that was held at the University of Manitoba School of Art, making the former hunter the first Inuit artist in history to receive a solo exhibition at a public institution. A member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Tiktak passed away in 1981.