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Pitseolak Ashoona, graphic artist (b on Nottingham I, NWT c 1904; d at Cape Dorset, NWT 28 May 1983). She is known for lively prints and drawings showing "the things we did long ago before there were many white men" and for imaginative renderings of spirits and monsters. She began working in the late 1950s after James HOUSTON started printmaking experiments at Cape Dorset. She created several thousand drawings reflecting her love and intimate knowledge of traditional INUIT life. Talent ran in her family. She was married in 1922 to Ashoona, a capable hunter who died young, and their sons Kumwartok QAQAQ and KIAWAK Ashoona and daughter Napachie Pootoogook also became artists. Highly articulate, she told her story in the illustrated oral biography Pitseolak: Pictures out of My Life (from recorded interviews by D. Eber, 1971), which became an NFB animated documentary. She was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1974. See also INUIT ART.
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Author DOROTHY HARLEY EBER
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The Canadian Encyclopedia © 2010 Historica Foundation of Canada
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