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Kiakshuk (1886–1966), also known as Keeakshook, was born on the south coast of Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin Island), Nunavut, and moved his family to Kinngait (Cape Dorset) in the early 1900s. While both a sculptor and a graphic artist, Kiakshuk is most well-known for his prints and drawings. With encouragement from James Houston, Kiakshuk began printmaking in his seventies and was an early participant at the West Baffin Eskimo Print Co-operative (now known as Kinngait Studios). Between 1960 and his death in 1966, Kiakshuk produced over 650 drawings, 52 of which were developed into prints.

Before becoming an artist, Kiakshuk was a hunter living off the land, an established community storyteller, and a singer of traditional songs. He drew on this knowledge and life experience in his artwork to render scenes of hunting, camp life, animals, family life, spirit creatures, and shamans. In this way, his work was another form of storytelling, capturing moments of Inuit history and mythology, as well as moments of contemporary Inuit realities. As a printmaker, Kiakshuk was drawn to the direct qualities of engraving, a process whereby lines are cut out of a hard surface using a sharp tool, ink is spread into the grooves, and a page is laid over the surface. The plate is then rolled through a press, forcing the ink onto the paper to create the desired image.  

From a family of artists, Kiakshuk was a cousin of Pisteolak Ashoona. His son Lukta Qiatsuk was a sculptor who often interpreted his father’s drawings into stonecuts and stencils. His daughters Pauinchea and Ishuhungitok Pootoogook are also graphic artists, along with Kiakshuk’s grandson Pootoogook Qiatsuk.

Despite his short time as a printmaker, Kiakshuk’s prints appeared in the Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection between 1960 and 1967. His work has been extensively exhibited in Canada and internationally, and it can be found in a number of permanent collections, including at the British Museum, London, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C., among many others. Further, in 1963 he created an inukshuk that was to be installed at Toronto Pearson Airport (incorrectly installed as three separate inukshuit by the airport authority). In 1974, his illustrations, along with those of Pudlo Puldat, were used to illustrate the book Eskimo Songs and Stories, and in 1979, his work was featured on a Canadian postage stamp.