Akitiq Sanguya

Today, Akitiq Sanguya still practices her art. After the covid-19 pandemic, Akitikq is once again having her art displayed. In the summer of 2022, Akitiq will be featured amongst other Inuit artists at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The exhibition, Kakiniit/Hivonighijotaa: Inuit Embodied Practices and Meanings, uses traditional Inuit tattooing and its connections to Shamanism to explore indigenous cultural reclamation and Inuit identity. Kakiniit (Inuit traditional tattoos) are important to the Inuit identity and were once prohibited by missionaries. However, in recent years there has been a revitalization of Kakinniit and their importance to the Inuit.

Featured in the Winnepeg Art Gallery from November 2019 to May 2020. Subsist is a collection of works from a multitude of indigenous artists. The collaboration symbolizes the degeneration of their culture from global capitalism and colonialism.

In 2016 Akitiq taught a three-week course on traditional Inuit sewing techniques. Made possible by the local non profit group the Ilisaqsivik Society elder committee. The class taught students how to make kamiks which are traditional Inuit footwear composed of animal hides.

In the early 2000s Inuit from the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and Makivik Corporation of Nunavik called upon the Canadian government to create the Qikitqani Truth Commission. This commission would investigate colonial practices, including forced relocation, cultural assimilation and the RCMP dog killings.

By the 1960s fine Inuit art was being pushed toward southern markets. This was in an attempt to build the self-sufficiency of the Inuit. Most of the art was done traditionally and featured cultural aspects of the Inuit within them.

Akitiq Sanguya (1935) is an Inuit sculptor from Clyde River/Kangiqtugaapik.