Jessie Oonark, ( ᔨᐊᓯ ᐅᓈᖅ; 2 March 1906 – 7 March 1985) was a prolific and influential Inuit artist of the Utkuhihalingmiut Utkuhiksalingmiut whose wall hangings, prints and drawings are in major collections including the National Gallery of Canada. Early years She was born in 1906 in the Chantrey Inlet (Tariunnuaq) area, near the estuary of the Back River in the Keewatin District of the Northwest Territories (now Nunavut)—the traditional lands of the Utkukhalingmiut Utkukhalingmiut, Utkukhalingmiut (the people of the place where there is soapstone). Her artwork portrays aspects of the traditional hunter-nomadic life that she lived for over five decades, moving from fishing the camp near the mouth of Back River on Chantrey Inlet in the Honoraru area to their caribou hunting camp in the Garry Lake area, living in winter snow houses (igloos) and caribou skin tents in the summer. Oonark learned early how to prepare skins and sew caribou skin clothing. They subsisted mainly on trout (lake trout and Arctic char), whitefish, and barren-ground caribou. The knife used by women, the ulu, their traditional skin clothing, the kamik, the amauti were recurring themes in her work. Oonark has had a major museum retrospective with accompanying scholarly monograph. Despite a late start – she was 54 years old when her work was first published – she was an active and prolific artist over the next 19 years, creating a body of work that won critical acclaim and made her one of Canada's best known Inuit artists. Utkuhikhalingmiut She was a fluent speaker of the Utkuhiksalingmiut language. Utkuhiksalingmiut is a subdialect of Natsilik Netsilik (Natsilik) within the Western Canadian Inuit dialect continuum. Just as it was true for the art of other first-generation Inuit artists from that area—Luke Anguhadluk and Marion Tuu'luq—Utkuhiksalingmiut oral history and legends were strongly reflected in Jessie's artwork. In later years, in Baker Lake, they became a small minority, and fewer people could speak the language. Biography Jessie Oonark's parents were Qiliikvuq and Aghlquarq(Aglaguaq). Aglaguaq and his brothers hunted muskox. Oonark's spent most of her time the in Chantrey Inlet where fish were abundant. The Utkukhalingmiut had many taboos, one of which was the drawing of images. According to Marie Bouchard— a researcher, art historian, and community worker who lived in Baker Lake for many years— "Oonark's grandmother repeatedly warned her that images could come to life in the dark of night." Oonark's mother married