Pitseolak Date of issue of stamp: March 8, 1993 Designed by: Heather J. Cooper The stamp is a head and shoulders portrait of Pitseolak. 3,600,000 copies of the stamp were printed by Ashton-Potter Ltd.

© Canada Post Corporation Reproduced with permission

Pitseolak Ashoona. Born Nottingham Island, Northwest Territories circa 1904. Died May 28, 1983. She was brought up in a traditional Inuit lifestyle, traveling from camp to camp with her people. In 1922 she married and with her husband she would have 17 children. Sadly only 6 of her children would live to adulthood. After the death of her husband life became in difficult. A local civil administrator encouraged the widow to carve, sew and draw scenes from her memories of the traditional way of life. Her clothing, with telling scenes, sold and she began to work with pen, and coloured pencils. At her home in Cape Dorset she produced drawings of monsters and spirits of Inuit tales, scenes of early Inuit life and other memories from her heart. These works are now located in galleries and private collections around the world. As well as leaving her own personal works, three of her sons became gifted stone carvers and a daughter, Napadive Poottoogook a graphic artist. In 1971 she told her story in the book : Pitseolak : Pictures out of my live. The National Film Board of Canada turned the illustrations from the book into an animated film. Pitseolak was a member of the Royal Academy of the Arts and in 1977 she received the Order of Canada.