Helen Kalvak

Helen Kalvak was born in 1901 at Tahiryuaq (Tahiryuak Lake) on Victoria Island and was raised in the Prince Albert Sound area. She was the only surviving child of Inoqtamik and Halukhit. Her father trained her as an angatkuq (shaman), and she was one of very few women to have traditional facial kakiniq (tattoos). She married Edward Manayok, a hunter and drum dancer from eastern Victoria Island.

In 1960, following her husband's death at Walker Bay, Kalvak moved to Holman (present-day Ulukhaktok). In 1961, she helped Roman Catholic priest Rev. Henri Tardy establish the Holman Eskimo Co-operative and became a founding member of the Ulukhaktok Arts Centre.

Kalvak began drawing in her 60s when Father Tardy encouraged her after observing her sketch clothing designs. Between 1962 and 1978, she produced an estimated 1,800 to 2,000 drawings depicting traditional Inuit life, oral histories, and spiritual themes. Her work featured women as healers and sorcerers, with dynamic figures in fluid motion using organic shapes and bold colors.

Between 1965 and 1985, over 150 of Kalvak's drawings were made into prints in annual collections, representing the largest body of published work by any Ulukhaktok artist. Her first print retrospective was held at La Guilde in Montreal in 1968. Notable exhibitions included "The Coming and Going of the Shaman" (1978) and "The Inuit Amautik" (1980) at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

In 1975, Kalvak was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and in 1978 she was appointed to the Order of Canada. Canada Post featured her work "The Dance" on a stamp in 1979. By 1978, Parkinson's disease prevented her from continuing to draw.

Kalvak's work is held in collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of History, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq. She died on May 7, 1984, and the local school was renamed Helen Kalvak Elihakvik School in her honor in 1986. Her granddaughter, Julia Manoyok Ekpakohak, is also an artist.