Inuks Playing Stick Pull Game, 1983
by Manasie Akpaliapik (b. 1955)
Arctic Bay, Northwest Territories, Canada
soapstone, antler
10” high x 15” wide x 9” deep
Manasie Paneloo Akpaliapik, was born in Arctic Bay, Northwest Territories, on August 23, 1955. One of Canada's most eminent Inuit sculptors, Akpaliapik began his life as a nomad. His family travelled three times per year as the arctic seasons changed, living the traditional way of their ancestors.
Akpaliapik was raised in a family of artists. His father and mother, Lazaroosee and Nakyuraq Akpaliapik are both sculptors in the community of Arctic Bay. His adopted grandparents, artists Peter and Elisapee Kanangnaq Ahlooloo, and his maternal great aunt Paniluk Qamanirq taught him to carve when he was about ten years old. He learned by watching them, and as they carved the elders entertained Akpaliapik with Inuit legends and stories.
Akpaliapik went to school in Iqualuit, Winnipeg, and Greenland. He moved to Montreal in 1979 and began carving professionally, to return to Arctic Bay in 1985 to learn drum dancing and kayak making in preparation for EXPO 86 in Vancouver, where he demonstrated these skills at the N.W.T. Pavilion. He was one of three artists commissioned to carve a coat of arms for the new Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec; performed the drum dances at an International Cultural Festival, Shiraoi, Japan, 1989; returned to the Northwest Territories in 1989 to learn and record stories and songs from elders in Arctic Bay, Igloolik, and Pond Inlet, sponsored by a Canada Council Grant.
Akpaliapik is interested in taking the stories and legends he heard as a child while he watched his grandparents carve, and depicting them in his carvings. It is his way of ensuring that these important stories live on to inspire subsequent generations who will be pushed even further from their ancestral way of life. In addition to recounting these stories, Akpaliapik's pieces also probe into the social issues affecting aboriginal people. His own substance abuse problems and the alarming frequency of suicide in many native communities have both been explored in Akpaliapik's carvings.
His works have been collected by museums, they have been included in many books including Sculpture of the Eskimo and The Inuit Imagination and his work has been featured in solo exhibitions by several museums.
