Charlie Sivuarapik

Charlie Sivuarapik (Sheeguapik) (1911 – 26 September 1968) was an Inuk sculptor, illustrator and storyteller from Povungnituk in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada who settled in the then newly established village of Puvirnituq in the 1950s where he remained for his life. Due to declining illness, he was unable to hunt to support his family. Sculpting became a way for Sivuarapik to support himself and his family economically until he died of tuberculosis in 1968.

Biography

Charlie Sivuarapik was born in approximately 1911 in northern Quebec, Canada. When he was about 40, he moved to a village that was being newly settled by the Hudson's Bay Company named Puvirnituq (population: 1,692 as of the 2011 census). Sivuarapik was ill with tuberculosis for much of his life, which prevented him from participating in the traditional male role of hunting in his community. In efforts to support his family economically, he turned to stone carving.

Charlie's career was first influenced by James Houston who visited Puvirnituq in 1948 and 1950 to encourage many in the area to begin carving as a means of livelihood. Peter Murdoch, the founder of the Federation des cooperatives du Nouveau-Quebec and the co-manager of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Father André Steinmann, patron of the Puvirnituq Sculptors Society, were also early mentors of Sivuarapik's.

Sivuarapik studied his own anatomy to obtain a more precise understanding of proportion and shape. The pair also travelled to Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and Pittsburgh. This trip allowed the revenue for the Povirnituq Cooperative Society to increase from 1968 ($250,000) to 1969 (over $500,000).

His work is held in a variety of museums, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Flint Institute of Arts, the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Hood Museum of Art, and the Canadian Museum of History.

Works Lapland Longspur, c. 1950, black stone, 6.8 x 11.4 x 4.7 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. Povungnituk Fish, c. 1967, stone, 7.6 x 25.4 x 11.4 cm, private collection. Povungnituk Otter in Trap, c. 1960, stone, 5.1 x 3.2 x 8.9 cm, private collection. Hunter and Polar Bear, c. 1960, black mottled stone, ivory, and sinew, 26 x 13 x 5 c, private collection.

Notable achievements First Inuk member of the Sculptors Society of Canada Founding member and first president (1958–1967) of the Povungnituk Co-operative Society