Looty Pijamini was born November 14, 1953, in Clyde River. His father was a member of the RCMP and moved the Pijamini family to Grise Fiord when he was a boy. Looty has lived there since then with his wife, five children and three grandchildren.

At the age of fifteen, Looty began carving. He explored a wide range of media such as stone, metal, ivory, caribou, antler, muskox horn and narwhal tusk. His interest in precious metals led him to complete a two-year diploma program in Jewellery and Metalwork at Nunavut Arctic College.

Looty has been commissioned to make art by private collectors throughout the world. His works are on display in the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, NWT and internationally, in Greece, Mexico, and the US. In March 2003, a solo exhibition of his sculptural work was displayed at the INAC office in Hull, Quebec. Iqaluit residents will recognize his Sedna sculpture at the Legislative Assembly.

Among Looty’s awards in the arts are three NAC graduate awards and the Grand Award at the Eastern Arctic Fine Arts and Crafts Competition in 1994 for his sterling silver hollow-ware sculpture of a swan. Looty took first prize in the following year’s competition and first place at the Great Northern Arts Festival in 1996.

A BBC film crew captured Looty carving a 8.5 foot tusk with 42 individual carved images. His work has also been showcased on the cover of the Northwestel phonebook.

These days Looty is spending much of his time constructing fiberglass kamotiks - the first of its kind - and printmaking.

Simeonie Amagoalik is my name; my grandfather was Amagoalik and my father was his namesake. I was born May 1, 1933 in Inujjuak, northern Quèbec, 25 miles outside of a place called Upirnngiviaruq.

I was 14 years old when I first started carving. There was an American fellow who started us on carving soapstone and tusks. He was with the Hudson’s Bay Company and his Inuktitut name was Saumik (left-handed). By the 50’s, carving had become a currency so everyone was doing it.

The only other currency that was available to us was trading fox pelts. But by that time, the price of the white fox pelts had plummeted.  The trading prices had always fluctuated, from $20 a pelt, to $18, to $7, but at that time it was as low as $3.50 a pelt. The brown fox pelt was traded as low as 50 cents a pelt.

We were relocated in 1953 to Resolute Bay by the Canadian Government. Government officials told us that we must stay at least two years and after that time, we would be free to return to Inujuak, if we chose to do so. We were told that would give us an opportunity to see if the hunting was more promising than it had been in Inujjuak at that time.

We were told that we would be equipped with everything we needed in Resolute Bay. We were told we would be provided with radio communications so we could stay in touch with Inujjuak. While we were sailing up by ship, we were told that we would be provided with housing once we got there. When we got there, there were none of those things. We were not provided housing and didn’t have any means to hunt, as we had left our boat behind.

Since that time, I have been carving soapstone, bones, tusks and antlers. These days people are sculpting granite and I have worked with granite on a few small sculptures. It is challenging, but it appears to be marketable.