Kakulu Saggiaktok

Artist Bio: Kakulu Saggiaktok (b. 1940)

Kakulu Saggiaktok is an Inuit artist based in Cape Dorset. She was born in 1940 on the Hudson’s Bay Company’s supply ship Nascopie, while en-route from Clyde River to Pangnirtung. Her family belonged to a small group of Inuit who had traveled from Baffin Island to trap and hunt furs in the northern regions. Kakulu was still very young when her family re-settled back in the Cape Dorset area.

When the then newly established co-operative introduced its graphic arts program in the 1960’s, Kakulu, along with many other of her contemporaries began to take interest in contributing to the Co-op, with Kakulu taking particular interest in drawing and graphic arts. Many of her images explore spirit themes – predominantly the concept of transformation from animal and human form; a predominant theme in traditional folklore and mythology of the Inuit.