Tiny Annie Jacques Aculiak (the only Nunavik Inuit acknowledged to be a permanent resident of BC) stands next to her equally tiny Sangstercraft live-aboard on the Porpoise Bay government wharf. It’s been a long life-journey for this tapestry artist, who now happily calls Sechelt home.

It was a cold and rainy night in May, 1958 when Annie and her twin brother were born in an igloo built by her father near Port Harrison (now called Inukjuak). Her mother, Lucy, recalled that the igloo was melting fast when Annie put in her appearance (sadly, her brother did not survive.) She was less than four years old when Lucy began teaching her the basics of sewing: how to make needles from caribou bone, and how to craft clothing from seal skin, wolf, fox, caribou and bear hides. When her father brought home tent fabric and a Singer treadle sewing machine, Lucy built the family shelter that would replace their igloo – a large room heated with a woodstove that housed the 11 children and parents. “We would eat on the floor, sitting on cardboard boxes that came from the Co-op,” she recalls.

As the youngest of a large (and soon to be legendary) family of carvers, Annie spent her days hunting and fishing with her father, Josephee. “That is the way it was and had to be in order to survive,” she says. “My father saved our lives with his carvings and sealskins and polar bear skins, all of which were sold at the Co-op.” Meanwhile, her mother was creating Inuit dolls to sell to the Hudson’s Bay store.

During the long arctic nights, Josephee taught each of his children traditional carving techniques. But while her sisters and brothers became skilled in this art (Brother Johnny Aculiak, President of the Inuit Art Foundation of Canada, is one of the country’s most notable sculptors) Annie preferred telling traditional stories and legends. At the age of 9, she began creating her signature tapestries to illustrate these tales. “I would draw my stories and colour them, then cut out my characters for patterns and make my stories on felt blankets.” As with much native art, the tapestries began as utilitarian items, created to provide warmth and colour for her nine children.

In 1998, she came to Vancouver on a visit, where she met retired hotel administrator Pierre Jacques. When they married, Jacques took Aculiak’s name. “The North was too hard on me, due to my health problems,” Annie said, and so she and Pierre settled on the Sunshine Coast in a 1950’s 16’ vintage Sangster cabin cruiser which they rebuilt and restored. Never formally schooled, she began using a computer to teach herself to speak and write English.

Since the dense, heavy Arctic soapstone traditionally used in Inuit carvings is virtually unobtainable here, Annie poured her creativity into her stories, illustrated on felt tapestries.

Her charming primitives of animals, traditional arctic life and illustrations of stories now hang in royal palaces in England and Holland, at Rideau Hall and in notable private collections worldwide.

Her work is available exclusively through Tradewinds on Cowrie in Sechelt.