Alootook Ipellie

{{short description|Inuk graphic artist, political and satirical cartoonist, writer, and photographer (1951–2007)}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Alootook Ipellie

| honorific_suffix =

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| pseudonym =

| birth_name = Alootook Ipellie

| birth_date = 1951

| birth_place = Nuvuqquq, Northwest Territories, Canada

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2007|09|08|1951|8|31}}

| death_place = Ottawa, Canada

| occupation = Graphic artist, satirical cartoonist, poet, photographer

| language = Inuktitut, English

| genres = {{hlist | Graphic novel | satire | cartoon }}

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| notableworks = Arctic Dreams and Nightmares (1993)

| relatives = Taina Ipellie (daughter), Ennutsiak (grandfather)

| awards = Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame, 2016

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Alootook Ipellie{{Cite web|title=Ipellie, Alootook {{!}} Inuit Literatures ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᓪᓚᒍᓯᖏᑦ Littératures inuites|url=https://inuit.uqam.ca/en/person/ipellie-alootook|access-date=May 31, 2021|website=inuit.uqam.ca}} (1951 in Nuvuqquq, Northwest Territories – September 8, 2007, in Ottawa){{cite news|date=December 13, 2010|url=http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/1312101_alootook_ipellies_work_lives_on_in_europe/|title=Alootook Ipellie's work lives on in Europe: A fitting legacy for Ipellie|newspaper=Nunatsiaq News|location=Iqaluit, Nunavut|access-date=August 16, 2012|archive-date=February 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180213043946/http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/1312101_alootook_ipellies_work_lives_on_in_europe/}} was an Inuk graphic artist, political and satirical cartoonist, writer, photographer, and Inuktitut translator.

Early life and education

Ipellie was born in the small hunting camp of Nuvuqquq{{cite web|url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/8255/9311|title=Alootook Ipellie: The Voice of an Inuk Artist|author=Kennedy|first=Michel P.J.|work=Studies in Canadian Literature |year=1996}} near Frobisher Bay, Northwest Territories, now known as Iqaluit, Nunavut on Baffin Island. His father, Joanassie, died in a hunting accident before Ipellie's first birthday,{{Cite journal|last=McMahon-Coleman|first=Kimberley|date=September 18, 2017|title=Dreaming an identity between Two Cultures: The Works of Alootook Ipellie|url=https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol28/iss1/12|journal=Kunapipi|volume=28|issue=1|issn=0106-5734}} and his mother, Napatchie, moved with him to the hamlet of Frobisher Bay.{{cite news|author=MacPhee|first=Joyce|title=Remembering Alootook Ipellie|date=October 29, 2007|newspaper=The Epoch Times}}

"He spent his childhood and early teenage years adjusting to the transition from the traditional nomadic Inuit way of life to life in government-sponsored Inuit settlements."{{cite web|url=http://www.theytus.com/Contributors/Alootook-Ipellie|title=Biography|author=Theytus Books|year=2007}} His grandfather was the sculptor Ennutsiak.{{Cite web|title=Long Biography & Citations|url=https://www.inuitartfoundation.org/lite/iad/artist-info/bio-citations/Alootook-Ipellie|access-date=January 8, 2021|website=Inuit Art Foundation}}

There was no high school in his community so Ipellie had to move to complete his education. He ended up at Ottawa's High School of Commerce where he discovered his artistic ability. Ipellie eventually settled in Ottawa.

Career

Ipellie worked as a journalist, cartoonist and editor for Inuit Monthly (aka Inuit Today) during the 1970s and 80s.{{Cite web|url=https://www.strongnations.com/gs/show.php?gs=3&gsd=1165 |title=Alootook Ipellie |publisher=Strong Nations |access-date=March 13, 2020 }} In 1974, he started producing the comic strip "Ice Box" that became a regular feature in Inuit Monthly. "The cartoons featured the Nook family and provided northern readers with a humorous look at issues affecting the Arctic. The Nooks, like Ipellie himself, were living through a transitional period in the North during which traditional Inuit language, social structure, and means of survival were being superseded by the new social, religious, and political structures of the South."{{Cite journal|last=Kennedy|first=Michael P. J.|date=1995|title=Southern Exposure: Belated Recognition of a Significant Inuk Writer-Artist|url=http://www3.brandonu.ca/cjns/15.2/kennedy.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210220211735/http://www3.brandonu.ca/cjns/15.2/kennedy.pdf |archive-date=February 20, 2021|journal=The Canadian Journal of Native Studies |volume= 15| issue = 2|pages=347–361|via=Open Access}}

He also participated in films like The Owl and the Raven[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070175/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk2 The Owl and the Raven] and Legends and Life of the Inuit[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0228515/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk1 Legends and Life of the Inuit]

He then went on to create the comic strip Nuna and Vut in the 1990s.{{Cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/alootook-ipellie-exhibits-carleton-cuag-manx-1.4843971|title=Determined curators piece together Inuk artist's oeuvre|date=October 2, 2018|work=CBC News|access-date=March 13, 2020}} These cartoons explored Inuit life during the creation of Nunavut. Using humour and illustrations, he commented on the social issues and inequity in Inuit communities.

Some of his poetry "The Igloos Are Calm in the Camp," "the Dancing Sun," "The Water Moved an Instant Before" were published in special issues of Canadian Literature.{{Cite web|url=https://canlit.ca/canlit_authors/alootook-ipellie/|title=Alootook Ipellie|website=Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review-US|access-date=March 13, 2020}} Professor Michael P. J. Kennedy believes "Ipellie to be one of Canada's finest, and under-rated, aboriginal writers."{{Cite web|url=https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/Nunavut_native_revived_artistic_career_after_long_hiatus/|title=Nunavut native revived artistic career after long hiatus|date=September 21, 2007|website=Nunatsiaq News|access-date=March 13, 2020}}

He collaborated with authors providing the illustrations to books like Paper stays put : a collection of Inuit writing edited by Robin Gedalof.

Ipellie made a significant contribution to literature of Canada with the publication of his short story collection " Arctic Dreams and Nightmares," presenting the changes and challenges faced by Inuit. This was the first published work by an Inuk author.

=Poetry and prose=

In 1971, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND), published three of then 17-year-old Ipellie's illustrated poems in their magazine, North.{{citation |work=Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) |location= Ottawa |date=May–June 1971 |series=North |volume = XVIII |number=3 |title=Alootook Ipellie |pages=34–37}}This May–June 1971 article was published in North, a scarce publication by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in Ottawa.){{rp|34–7}}{{Cite web|url=https://culturedays.ca/en/events/b2473b0c-b0e9-4657-a3a5-69fd75fecd71|title=Hot to Warm and Cool to Cold|last=Days|first=Culture|website=Culture Days|date=September 27, 2019 |access-date=March 13, 2020}}

In his poem entitled "Hot to Warm and Cool to Cold", he wrote,

{{blockquote|

:"The mosquitos are at large today

:As the wind stills, as the sun heats,

:And we walk the rocks under,

:Searching the hills for the meat

:And hide of the useful caribou

:that feeds and clothes my family,

:Through four different seasons

:When the winds change from

:Hot to warm, and cool to cold."|Ipellie Alootook. 1971.}}

Other poems that have been published in poetry anthologies and journals, include " Nipikti the Old Man Carver," "Frobisher Bay Childhood," "Damn Those Invaders" and "Siqiniq 'The Sun'".{{rp|355}}

In 1980, Ipellie collaborated with Robin Gedalof in the University of Washington Press publication of Paper Stays Put: A Collection of Inuit Writing—a collection of "stories, poems, essays, plays, memoirs and songs" written by Inuit from Canada and illustrated by Ipellie, that was used as a GED teacher's.

{{Cite book| edition = 1| publisher = Hurtig |location=Edmonton| isbn = 978-0-295-95971-9| last1 = Gedalof| first1 = Robin |first2=Alootook |last2=Ipellie| title = Paper Stays Put: A Collection of Inuit Writing| date = 1980 |pages=172}}
{{Cite book| publisher = University of Washington Press| isbn = 978-0-295-95971-9| last1 = Gedalof| first1 = Robin |first2=Alootook |last2=Ipellie| title = Paper Stays Put: A Collection of Inuit Writing| date = June 1, 1982}}

In 1993, the first book that exclusively featured Ipellie's stories and his pen and ink drawings, was published—Arctic Dreams and Nightmares.{{Cite book| publisher = Theytus Books| isbn = 978-0-919441-47-7| last = Ipellie| first = Alootook| title = Arctic Dreams and Nightmares| location = Penticton, British Columbia| date = January 1, 1993}}

In 2005, Ipellie wrote the foreword for the illustrated book entitled The Diary of Abraham Ulrikab: Text and Context, the story of Ulrikab (1845 - 1881) who became an attraction in one of Carl Hagenbeck's ethnographical shows in Hamburg, Germany.

{{Cite book| publisher = University of Ottawa Press| isbn = 978-0-7766-0602-6| last1 = Ipellie| first1 = Alootook| last2 = Blohm| first2 = Hans-Ludwig| editor-first1 = Hartmut | editor-last = Lutz| title = The Diary of Abraham Ulrikab: Text and Context| location = Ottawa| date = September 1, 2005}}
{{Cite book| author1 =Lutz, Hartman |author1-link=Hartmut Lutz |author2=Grollmuß, Kathrin |author3=Blohm, Hans |author3-link=Hans Blohm |author4=Ipellie, Alootook |year= 2007 | title =Abraham Ulrikab im Zoo: Tagebuch eines Inuk 1880/81 |language=de | location = Wesee, Germany | publisher = Von der Linden Verlag | isbn = 978-3-9263-0810-8 }} The book was published in German in 2007.

His 2007 illustrated book entitled The Inuit Thought of It: Amazing Arctic Innovations and translated into French as Innovations inuites: il fallait y penser—co-authored by David MacDonald, received a number of awards including the Canadian Children’s Book Centre's Best Books for Kids & Teens in 2008.

{{Cite book| publisher = Annick Press| isbn = 978-1-55451-087-0| last1 = Ipellie| first1 = Alootook| last2 = MacDonald| first2 = David| title = The Inuit Thought of It: Amazing Arctic Innovations| location = Toronto, New York| date = September 1, 2007}}
{{Cite book| publisher = Éditions Scholastic| isbn = 9780545992299| last1 = Ipellie| first1 = Alootook| last2 = MacDonald| first2 = David| title =Innovations inuites : il fallait y penser| location = Toronto, New York| date = September 1, 2007}}

He co-authored content for Inuit.net with Carol Rigby on Nunavut.{{Cite web| title = Eskimo Art, Inuit Art, Canadian Native Artwork, Canadian Aboriginal Artwork|first1=Alootook |last1=Ipellie |first2=Carol |last2=Rigby| access-date = February 20, 2021 |archive-date=October 11, 2019| date = October 11, 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191011153811/https://inuit.net/artists/About-Iqaluit.html |url=https://inuit.net/artists/About-Iqaluit.html}}

His 2009 illustrated book entitled I Shall Wait and Wait, which was published after he had died, described the traditional Inuit seal hunt.

{{Cite book| publisher = Scholastic Canada| isbn = 978-1-55448-733-2| last = Ipellie| first = Alootook| title = I Shall Wait and Wait| date = 2009}}
{{Cite book| publisher = Rubicon via Scholastic Canada| isbn = 978-1-55448-733-2| last1 = Ipellie| first1 = Alootook |location=Oakville, Ontario |first2=Anne-Marie |last2=Bourgeois| title = I Shall Wait and Wait| date = 2009}}

Artwork in public collections

Ipellie's artwork has been included in a number of public collections and galleries including in the Carleton University Art Gallery,[http://www.cuag.ca/index.php/collections/inuit/ CUAG Inuit Art Collection] the Canada Council Art Bank in Ottawa,[https://artbank.ca/art-piece/ben-ho-wins-the-biggest-race-of-his-life-thumbs-down-07_8-0029?author=Ipellie%20Alootook&name=Ben-Ho%20Wins%20the%20Biggest%20Race%20of%20his%20Life%2C%20Thumbs%20Down&year=2007#f:@category_e=Work%20on%20paper Ben-Ho Wins the Biggest Race of his Life, Thumbs Down 2007] and the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence University in New York.[http://digitalcollections.stlawu.edu/collections/inuit-art/bycreator/Ipellie,%20Alootook "Canadian Government Laboratory" "Maternity Den - Soap Box"]{{Cite web|url=https://www.inuitartfoundation.org/lite/iaf/iad/artist/Alootook-Ipellie/exhibitions|title=Alootook Ipellie {{!}} Inuit Art Foundation {{!}} Artist Database|last=Foundation|first=Inuit Art|website=Inuit Art Foundation|access-date=March 13, 2020}}

Awards and honours

In 2019, Ipellie was inducted into the Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame.{{cite news |last1=MacDonald |first1=Heidi |title=Inuit cartoonist Alootook Ipellie and Fiona Smythe are joining the Giants of the North Hall of Fame |url=https://www.comicsbeat.com/inuit-cartoonist-alootook-ipellie-and-fiona-smythe-are-joining-the-giants-of-the-north-hall-of-fame/ |work=The Beat |date=April 23, 2019}}