Helen Kalvak

Helen Kalvak

Helen Kalvak (1901-1984);
Artistic Community: Holman Island, Northwest Territories, Canada.

Helen Kalvak was born in 1901 in a camp on the shores of Tahiryuak Lake on Victoria Island. She was the only surviving child of Inoqtamik and Halukhit, who taught her traditional legends and hunting skills. Her father began training her as an angatkok, or shaman; eventually, she was respected not only as an angatkok but also as an atotainaktok, a person with supernatural powers that came from both spirit helpers and magic songs. She was one of very few women to have traditional tattoos on her face and hands. She married Manayok, a hunter from eastern Victoria Island, and both were celebrated as singers. In 1960, Manayok passed away and Kalvak moved into the community of Ulukhaktok. Father Henri Tardy encouraged her to draw after watching her sketch of some clothing before she made it, which was unusual. She produced more than 1,800 drawings between 1962 and 1978, 154 of which were made into prints between 1965 and 1985. Her graphic works tend to focus on themes of traditional life in the western Arctic in surprising detail. Her keen eye recorded everything from the design of traditional skin clothing to the minutiae of insects that live in the local water, all of which are represented in this collection. She was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy in 1975 and into the Order of Canada in 1978.