Teacher, columnist, translator, and storyteller born near Tavani (Nunavut) in 1942 – died in Arviat (Nunavut) in 2011.
Mark Kalluak was born in 1942 near Tavani, a mining settlement in the Kivalliq region, on the west coast of Hudson Bay, in present-day Nunavut. He grew up on the banks of the Maguse River, where he was raised according to the traditional Inuit lifestyle. In 1948, he and several other Inuit children who had contracted polio were sent to Winnipeg, Manitoba for treatment. Mark Kalluak spent four years in hospital and never fully recovered the use of his hands. During his time in Winnipeg, he taught himself to read and write in Inuktitut syllabics and in English. In 1953, one year after returning to the Arctic, he was sent to Sir Joseph Bernier Federal Day School in Chesterfield Inlet, in the Kivalliq region. In 1960, he settled in Eskimo Point (now Arviat; Nunavut), where he started a family with his wife Mary. In this hamlet, Mark Kalluak built a career at the local, community, and federal levels. Beginning in the 1960s, he served on the boards of various local organizations, such as the Eskimo Point Residents’ Association and the Eskimo Point Community Council. He also worked as an administrator for Canada’s Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in the late 1960s. Mark Kalluak served as mayor of his hamlet for several terms in the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1966, Mark Kalluak founded the Eskimo Point Community Council’s bi-monthly, bilingual (English, Inuktitut) newspaper, Tusautit: Eskimo Community Newspaper, which was published until 1970; after 1968, it was published under the title Messenger. Mark Kalluak also worked for the Keewatin Echo, a monthly, bilingual (English, Inuktitut) educational newspaper for adults published in Churchill, Manitoba, from 1968 to 1975, and for Arviap Nipinga, Eskimo Point’s monthly community newspaper, published primarily in Inuktitut, from 1971 to 1976. As mayor of Eskimo Point, he also played a key role in the creation of the local radio station, Arviaqpaluk. Mark Kalluak's career as a journalist during this time foreshadowed his later goals and ambitions: the defense and transmission of Inuit culture, language ,and stories, as well as a commitment to education.
Mark Kalluak’s first books are a reflection of these aspirations. In the mid 1970s, he published three books with the Information and Education Department of the Government of the Northwest Territories: How Kabloonat Became, and Other Inuit Legends (1974), Inuit Unipkatuangi (1974), and Unipkaaqtuat nunaup asianit (1975). The first two titles are the English and Inuktitut versions of a collection of Inuit legends. Both are illustrated with photographs by David Webster and ink drawings by Mark Kalluak himself, and feature various Inuit creation stories collected from five Eskimo Point storytellers. This collection was the result of meetings held for Elders each Friday at Eskimo Point’s Adult Education Centre, where Mark Kalluak had been teaching Inuktitut and literacy since 1969. Marcel Akadlaka’s 34 tales, some of which had previously appeared in the Keewatin Echo, are also included in these volumes. Unipkaaqtuat nunaup asianit, published in Inuktitut and illustrated by Germaine Arnaktauyok, is a collection of traditional legends from other countries, geared towards schoolchildren in the Northwest Territories. Mark Kalluak’s notable publications also include a translation of the New Testament into Inuktitut.
Mark Kalluak also found it important to raise awareness about Inuit culture among non-Inuit. From 1974 to 1990, he worked as a communications specialist and interpreter for the Inuit Cultural Institute (ICI) in Eskimo Point. The ICI was founded in the early 1970s with the mandate of promoting Inuktitut and Inuit cultural heritage in the Northwest Territories. Mark Kalluak edited the ICI’s magazine, Isumasi, and organized various workshops focused on the creation of bilingual glossaries (Inuktitut, English). These workshops attest to the linguistic knowledge and consciousness that led him, in the 1970s, to take a side in the debate on the standardization of Inuktitut and to defend the use of syllabics. In the mid-1980s, Mark Kalluak's involvement with the ICI caught the attention of Ingo Hessel, a Canadian expert in Inuit art. Alongside David Webster, Ingo Hessel and Mark Kalluak hatched a project to interview major artists from Arviat. The project resulted in a bilingual publication (English, Inuktitut), Pelts to Stone: A History of Arts and Crafts Production in Arviat (1993). The interviews in this collection, conducted between 1990 and 1991, outline the history of Inuit art in Arviat. Ingo Hessel has deemed the book foundational, and its publication was praised by Inuit Art Quarterly.
For his various contributions, Mark Kalluak was awarded the Order of Canada in 1991. In addition to being an educator, an expert in Inuktitut, and an influential man in his community, he also became a respected Elder. In 1999, the newly formed Government of Nunavut placed him in charge of Inuit cultural heritage issues within the Department of Education. In this role, he had a decisive influence on the development of Nunavut’s school curricula. Museums and government agencies saw him as a guiding figure, and academics—students and researchers alike—turned to him for their field studies. The practice of archeology in the Arctic was a frequent subject of reflection for Mark Kalluak, as evidenced by the CD and website Arctic peoples and archeology (2006). In the early 2000s, the Arviat Recreation Centre was renamed “Mark Kalluak Community Hall” in his honour. During this time, Mark Kalluak continued to pursue his early passion for Inuit legends, publishing a two-volume, bilingual (Inuktitut, English) collection in 2009 and 2010 under the title Unipkaaqtuat Arvianit. Traditional Stories from Arviat.
Mark Kalluak passed away in 2011 in Arviat, leaving behind eight children (Nancy, Sheila, Jenny, Jessie, Barney, Connie, Kevin, and Travis) as well as some thirty grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Ingo Hessel, who was working on a high school Inuit art history textbook with Mark Kalluak, wrote a eulogy for him, entitled “Mark Kalluak (1942-2011),” which was published in Inuit Art Quarterly. The young territory of Nunavut, for which Mark Kalluak had advocated so strongly, posthumously awarded him the Order of Nunavut in 2011.
Thanks to Dana Kalluak who helped correct this biography.