Alootook Ipellie: Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border

Alootook Ipellie (1951-2007) was born at Nuvuqquq on Baffin Island and grew up in Iqaluit before moving to Ottawa as a young man. He started working as a translator, illustrator and reporter for Inuit Monthly (renamed Inuit Today) in the early 1970s, and later was its editor.

Through his widely read poems, articles and essays, Ipellie gave voice to important cultural, political and social issues affecting Inuit Nunangat, with humour and immense patience.

Ipellie was a prodigious artist, creating hundreds of political cartoons, serial comic strips including “Ice Box” and “Nuna and Vut,” and larger drawings, of which those published in his book Arctic Dreams and Nightmares (1993) are well known.

CUAG acknowledges with gratitude the many lenders whose generosity has made Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border possible. The organizational lenders are: Richard F. Brush Gallery at St. Lawrence University, Canada Council Art Bank, Cape Breton University Art Gallery, the Government of Saskatchewan, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Nortext Publishing Corporation and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated.

The individual lenders are: Annalise and Kurt Biedermann, Ernie and Sandy Bies, Victoria Freeman, Charles R. J. Gardner, E. Gedalof and S. Davies, C. Hunt and R. Goldsworth, Lynn Jamieson and the late Geoffrey S. Lester, Marjorie and Michael P.J. Kennedy, Joyce MacPhee, Fred and Gardiea Maiczan, Senator Dennis Patterson, and Kirk Reid, as well as others who wish to remain anonymous.

This is a touring exhibition