Helen Agaaqtuq Konek is a

Inuk Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and ...

elder An elder is someone with a degree of seniority or authority. Elder or elders may refer to: Positions Administrative * Elder (administrative title), a position of authority Cultural * North American Indigenous elder, a person who has and tr ...

from

Arviat Arviat (, syllabics: ᐊᕐᕕᐊᑦ; formerly called Eskimo Point until 1 June 1989) is a predominantly Inuit hamlet located on the western shore of Hudson Bay in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada. Arviat ("place of the bowhead whale") is ...

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

. A 1949 photograph of her went viral in 2019.

Early life

Konek was born as Helen Agaaqtuq in May 1932 in a

tupiq The tupiq (plural: ''tupiit'', Inuktitut syllabics: ᑐᐱᖅ) is a traditional Inuit tent made from seal or caribou skin. An Inuk was required to kill five to ten ''ugjuk'' (bearded seal The bearded seal (''Erignathus barbatus''), also calle ...

on the eastern shore of

Henik Lake Henik Lake is located in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada. The lake is made up of two lakes, North Henik Lake and South Henik Lake with a narrows separating them. Of the two, North Henik Lake is the smaller with an area of , while South He ...

. Helen's father was Piqqanaaq Agaaqtuq and her mother was Paalak Agaaqtuq.Payne, Carol. (2013). ''The Official Picture: The National Film Board of Canada's Still Photography Division and the Image of Canada, 1941-1971.'' Canada: McGill-Queen's University Press. p183 She had three brothers: Nanauq, Pukiluk, and Kinaalik.Gerald Kuehl, Portraits of the Far North (volume 2), ISBN 9781989282328, 2022 As a child she accompanied her brothers and father on

caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

hunting trips, including to

Ennadai Lake Ennadai Lake is a lake in the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is long, and wide. It is drained to the north by the Kazan River. A section of the Kazan River from the outlet of Ennadai Lake to Baker Lake, was designated as a part of the Ca ...

in the Ahiarmiut's territory. Helen was photographed in 1949, aged 17, by Richard Harrington as part of a series taken while he was travelling around the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

. The photograph was taken in ᑭᖓᕐᔪᐊᓕᒃ (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: of big hill).

Adult life

By 1952, the Agaaqtuq family were living close to the

Padlei Padlei is a former community in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is located on the mainland on the north shore of Kinga (Kingarvalik) Lake at the juncture of the Maguse River. Whale Cove is to the east, while the Henik Lakes are to the ...

trading post. In 1953, Helen started living as a couple with James Konek, the son of a storekeeper in Arviat. They both lived in Arviat in winter and in Barren Lands area in the summer. The 1950 Caribou Inuit famine caused Helen's mother Paalak to die in 1957, the rest of the family survived on fish, rabbit, and

ptarmigan ''Lagopus'' is a small genus of birds in the grouse subfamily commonly known as ptarmigans (). The genus contains three living species with numerous described subspecies, all living in tundra or cold upland areas. Taxonomy and etymology The ge ...

. The

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

forcibly displaced the Konek family in 1960 from Padlei to Arviat. One of Harrington's photographs of Konek entering her igloo was widely shared online in 2019 after her journalist grandson Jordan Konek tweeted it. Konek is an

,Laugrand, F. B., Oosten, J. G. (2014). Inuit Shamanism and Christianity: Transitions and Transformations in the Twentieth Century. United States: McGill-Queen's University Press. and lives in Arviat, Nunavut.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konek, Helen 1932 births People from Arviat Inuit from Nunavut Canadian Inuit women Living people