Tivi Etok (born 1929 in Qirnituarjuq,

Nunavik Nunavik (; ; iu, ᓄᓇᕕᒃ) comprises the northern third of the province of Quebec, part of the Nord-du-Québec region and nearly coterminous with Kativik. Covering a land area of north of the 55th parallel, it is the homeland of the I ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

) is an

Inuit art Inuit art, also known as Eskimo art, refers to artwork produced by Inuit, that is, the people of the Arctic previously known as Eskimos, a term that is now often considered offensive. Historically, their preferred medium was walrus ivory, but s ...

ist,

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

, and

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

. In 1975, he was the first

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 ...

printmaker to have a collection of his own prints released. He is now an Elder.

Early years

Etok was born in the camp of Qirnituartuq, near the community of

Kangiqsualujjuaq Kangiqsualujjuaq (; ) is an Inuit village located at the mouth of the George River on the east coast of Ungava Bay in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada. Its population was 956 as of the 2021 census. Names The settlement's original name, Fort Sever ...

, Nunavik, Quebec. His mother was Sarah, and he has a brother, Joe Willie. The family originated from the

Tasiujaq Tasiujaq ( iu, ᑕᓯᐅᔭᖅ, meaning: ''Which resembles a lake'') is a northern village (Inuit community) in Nunavik, in northern Quebec, Canada. Its population in the Canada 2021 Census was 420. Geography Tasiujaq was built on the sho ...

region, later moving to the areas of

Nachvak Nachvak Fjord is a deep fiord in northern Labrador nearly wide and long. The fjord is divided in two arms on the western end called Tallek and Tasiuyak. The Torngat Mountains that surround Nachvak Fjord are the highest in Labrador, where both Mou ...

fiord in

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

Torngat Mountains The Torngat Mountains are a mountain range on the Labrador Peninsula at the northern tip of Newfoundland and Labrador and eastern Quebec. They are part of the Arctic Cordillera.

, and the Koroc River area of Quebec's

Ungava Bay Ungava Bay (french: baie d'Ungava, ; iu, ᐅᖓᕙ ᑲᖏᖅᓗᒃ/) is a bay in northeastern Canada separating Nunavik (far northern Quebec) from Baffin Island. Although not geographically apparent, it is considered to be a marginal sea of the ...

watershed.

Career

Using sticks, Etok began drawing as a child. His early drawings were of animals and villages, while his later work consisted of supernatural beings and illustrations of legends. After attending a print workshop in

Puvirnituq Puvirnituq ( iu, ᐳᕕᕐᓂᑐᖅ) is a northern village (Inuit community) in Nunavik, on the Povungnituk River near its mouth on Hudson Bay in northern Quebec, Canada. Its population was 2,128 as of the 2021 Canadian census. Of all oth ...

, he learned how to earn money as a printmaker in the 1970s. In 1967, he befriended

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

Donat Savoie Donat Savoie (born in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian anthropologist, was the interim Executive Director of Canada's Inuit Relations Secretariat and chief federal negotiator for Nunavik self-government before his retirement in 2006. Early years ...

who stayed with Etok and family while doing research for his masters thesis. The household included Etok, Sarah, and Joe, as well as Etok's wife, Susie (née Baron; 1939–2006) of Koroc River, and children, Minnie, Tomasi, Aatami, and Charlie. Etok and Savoie's friendship has lasted through the years, even after Savoie became a government official.

Later years

Now considered an Inuk Elder, a

trilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

(

Inuktitut Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...

, English and French) biography of Etok's life was written by Jobie Weetaluktuk, and published in

in 2008. The previous year, Scott Heyes' 2007 study entitled ''Inuit Knowledge and Perceptions of the Land-Water Interface'', researched Kangiqsualujjuaq people, especially their knowledge and perceptions of their surroundings, and included Etok, plus three generations of his family.

References

External links

Tivi Etok's biography
on Inuit.uqam.ca

Photo, family members
{{DEFAULTSORT:Etok, Tivi 1929 births Living people People from Nunavik Inuit printmakers Inuit illustrators Artists from Quebec 20th-century Canadian printmakers Canadian illustrators Inuit from Quebec Canadian male artists 20th-century Canadian male artists

Early years

Career

Later years

References

Further reading

External links