Pitseolak Ashoona, 1907-1983

Pitseolak Ashoona began creating art in the last two decades of her life — and helped found a modern form of Inuit art! She was one of the last generation of Inuit raised in a traditional nomadic hunting lifestyle, but after her husband, Ashoona, died in the early 1940s, Pitseolak made an unusual choice for an Inuit widow and did not remarry. An arts and crafts program in Cape Dorset introduced her to drawing and printmaking in the 1960s; her captivating artwork depicted "the things we did long ago before there were many white men," and her work became enormously popular. Fortunately, she was also prolific, creating over 7,000 drawings and prints during her career! Pitseolak was named to the Royal Academy of the Arts in 1974, and received the Order of Canada in 1977. "I know I have had an unusual life, being born in a skin tent and living to hear on the radio that two men have landed on the moon," she said. "I am going to keep on [making prints] until they tell me to stop... If I can, I’ll make them even after I’m dead."