Inuit Leadership Group

Heather Igloliorte

Dr. Heather Igloliorte (Art History, Museum Studies and Curatorial Practice; Nunatsiavut) an Inuk-Newfoundlander, is the Director of the Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq/ Pijariuqsarniq Project. She began this project because she wanted to see more Inuit in decision-making roles in the arts. 

Heather holds the Tier 1 University Research Chair in Circumpolar Indigenous Arts (2019-) at Concordia University, is an associate professor in the Department of Art History (2012-), and co-directs the Indigenous Futures Research Centre (2020-) with Professor Jason Edward Lewis. 

She has been a curator since 2005 and has worked on more than thirty curatorial projects including nationally and internationally touring exhibitions, permanent collection exhibits, festivals, and public art installations. Her curatorial work was recently recognized by The Hnatyshyn Foundation with the Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art (2021). Most recently, she was the lead guest curator of the inaugural exhibition of the new Inuit art centre, Qaumajuq, alongside three multitalented curators representing all regions of Inuit Nunangat, which opened in March 2021 at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Heather publishes frequently; she has co-edited special issues of journals PUBLIC 54: Indigenous Art: New Media and the Digital (2016) and RACAR: Continuities Between Eras: Indigenous arts (2017), and her essay “Curating Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit: Inuit Knowledge in the Qallunaat Art Museum,” was awarded the 2017 Distinguished Article of the Year from Art Journal. At Concordia, Heather serves as the Special Advisor to the Provost on Advancing Indigenous Knowledges, and in this role contributes to the efforts of the university Indigenous Directions Leadership Council.

Currently the President of the Board of Directors of the Inuit Art Foundation (2019-), Igloliorte has served on numerous advisories, juries and councils. For her service to the arts, she was recently awarded a Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal (2021).

Reneltta Arluk

Reneltta Arluk (Theatre and Performance; Inuvialuit Region) is Inuvialuit, Dene and Cree from the Northwest Territories. She is a graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting program and founder of Akpik Theatre, a professional Indigenous Theatre company in the NWT. Akpik Theatre focuses on establishing an authentic Northern Indigenous voice through theatre and storytelling. Raised by her grandparents on the trap-line until school age, this nomadic environment gave Reneltta the skills to become the multi-disciplined artist she is now. Reneltta has taken part in or initiated the creation of Indigenous Theatre across Canada and overseas. Under Akpik Theatre, Reneltta has written, produced, and performed various works focusing on decolonization and using theatre as a tool for reconciliation. This includes Pawâkan Macbeth, a Plains Cree adaptation of Macbeth written by Arluk on Treaty 6 territory. Pawâkan Macbeth was inspired by working with youth and elders on the Frog Lake reserve. Reneltta is the first Inuk and first Indigenous woman to direct at The Stratford Festival. She was awarded the Tyrone Guthrie - Derek F. Mitchell Artistic Director's Award for her direction of the The Breathing Hole. Reneltta is Director of Indigenous Arts at BANFF Centre for  Arts and Creativity.

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Film and Video; Nunavut) is an Inuit filmmaker from the Canadian arctic where she has been working in film since 2003. Recently she and fellow Inuit producer, Stacey Aglok MacDonald, launched their company Red Marrow Media. Currently they are producers on Nyla Innuksuk’s movie Slash/Back, where a group of teenage Inuit girls fight off an alien invasion in Pangnirtung. 

Alethea directed and produced Angry Inuk, a feature documentary that broadcast on CBC, about Inuit coming up with new and provocative ways to deal with international seal hunting controversies. Angry Inuk premiered at Hot Docs 2016, taking home the Audience Choice Award, was selected as one of the TIFF Canada’s Top Ten for 2016. Angry Inuk has continued to win several other prestigious awards since. In 2016, Alethea was presented with the Meritorious Service Cross by the Governor General of Canada, having been nominated for contributions to the arts and the craft of documentary filmmaking. Also in 2016, Alethea was bestowed the “DOC Vanguard Award” by the DOC Institute, for “a keen artistic sensibility and forward-thinking approach to the craft, with the potential to lead the next generation of doc-makers.”

For a list of Alethea’s other previous work, go to unikkaat.com/projects/

Taqralik Partridge

Taqralik Partridge (Arts Writing and Editing, Performance and Visual Arts; Nunavik) is a performance artist (spoken word poetry and throat singing) as well as a visual artist and writer from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, now residing in Kautokeino, Norway.  Taqralik incorporates throat singing into her live performances; her performance work has been featured on CBC Radio One, and she has toured with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Kent Nagano and with Les productions Troublemakers under the direction of Cinematheque Quebecoise composer Gabriel Thibaudeau. Taqralik is the cofounder of the Tusarniq festival. Partridge's writing focuses on both life in the north and in southern urban centres, as well as the experiences of Inuit. Her short story “Igloolik,” published in Maisonneuve magazine, won first prize in the 2010 Quebec Writing Competition and has been published in Swedish and French; her short story “Fifteen Lakota Visitors,” was short-listed for the 2018 CBC Short Story Prize. As a visual artist, her work is currently included in both the touring exhibition Among All These Tundras, and the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Australia, opening in March 2020.

Fluent in French, English, and Inuktitut, and having lived and worked with artists throughout Nunavik, Taqralik brings decades of experience working across the literary and visual arts world to this role.

Jessica Kotierk

Jessica Kotierk (Museum Leadership and Archival Practices; Nunavut) is the Curator and Manager of the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit, Nunavut.   Jessica is also one of Canada’s very few Inuit archivists, having trained at Fleming College after studying at York University. Originally from Igloolik, Jessica gained valuable skills and knowledge in collections and data management while studying in Toronto and Ottawa, and has experience working at institutions both internationally and within Canada. For example, she has previously worked on the preservation and documentation of the McMichael Art Gallery’s Inuit print collection, consulted on Inuit art in Bern, Switzerland, and researched Inuit archeology at the Avataq Cultural Centre in Montreal. Prior to her current role with Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, she also worked for the Nunavut Film Development Corporation. Jessica contributes a wealth of knowledge to the Inuit Futures projects. She advises, “I think that if anybody takes their interests and what they are good at, then they can do that in their work.”

Jesse Tungilik

Jesse Tungilik (Arts Administration and Collections Management; Nunavut) is an interdisciplinary artist, arts administrator, and Inuit arts advocate, based in Iqaluit, NU. He has worked in many artistic disciplines and in many professional capacities, starting as a ceramic sculptor at the Matchbox Gallery in Kangiqliniq (Rankin Inlet), NU (beginning at just eight years old, and continuing into adulthood) before working in Mathew Nuqingaq’s Aayuraa Studio in Iqaluit as a jewelry artist specializing in baleen, muskox horn, ivory, and silver.

Tungilik also works in mixed-media sculpture, with pieces exhibited at the Nunavut Arts Festival, Great Northern Arts Festival, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, among others; his work can be found in both public and private collections nationally and internationally, such as the Museum Cerny Inuit Collection in Bern, Switzerland. 

Tungilik has served as Manager of Cultural Industries for the Government of Nunavut and as the Executive Director of the Nunavut Arts and Craft Association; he is currently an Inuit Community Liaison for the Inuit Art Foundation and serves as the Chairperson for the Board of Directors for Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit, as well as Chairperson of the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association.