Elisapee Ootoova

Elisapee Ootoova (January 6, 1931 – May 18, 2021) was an Inuk elder who preserved and promoted Inuit traditional knowledge.

Early life Qiliqti was born on January 6, 1931, near Lancaster Sound on Devon Island. Qiliqti was the daughter of a white member of the RCMP and an Inuk woman named Ataguttiaq. However, she was raised by her adoptive father, named Qamaniq, who was a hunter.

When Qiliqti was a year old, her family returned to the Mittimatalik/Pond Inlet area, where her mother was from. She lived in her family's hunting camps in the Mittimatalik region, where her father would catch whales and seals and birds. Her father would do most of the hunting, assisted by her older brother. Qiliqti had four siblings in total. When Qiliqti was older, she had another sister, but she died at the age of 2. After Qiliqti's younger sister died, her mother had another daughter.

Later life Elisapee Ootoova wrote the "Uqausiit Tukingit", a dictionary of the Tununirmiut traditional language of north Baffin Island. In the 1990s, she worked with fellow Pond Inlet native Martha Kyak in order to prepare Inuktitut teaching resources. She co-authored an encyclopedia of traditional Inuit knowledge, and served as a consultant for many books and films on Inuit knowledge and history.

She was invited to participate in the founding ceremonies for the territory of Nunavut in 1999, where she tended a qulliq and gave an address. She invited her audience to care for their environment. In 2002, she was also awarded the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case. In 2003, she was appointed a member of the Order of Canada. In 2017, she lit the qulliq at the official announcement of the Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation Area.

Death On May 25, 2021, it was announced that Elisapee Ootoova had died at some point during the previous week.