Normee Ekoomiak was a prolific painter, illustrator and textile artist who was born in Cape Jones, QC, grew up in Fort George, QC, and was based in Ottawa, ON, towards the end of his career. His mother and grandfather taught him how to embroider as a child, [1] and his grandfather’s stories inspired some of his artworks, such as his depictions of a woolly mammoth, including The Last Woolly Mammoth (n.d). As a child, he also taught himself how to carve steatite. [2]
Throughout his career, Ekoomiak created thousands of works, largely from the 1970s to 1990s. He made numerous colourful akinnamiutait, or “wallhangings” in Nunavik dialects of Inuktitut, embroidering from duffle and felt. His akinnamiutait often featured depictions of Inuit on the land, and recurring figures included ookpiit, like Ookpik Spirit Owl (2002) and Nuliajuk, like Untitled (n.d). He was also inspired by the spirits of animals, which he felt strongly connected to. “I knew all of the spirits of the land animals and the birds and the fish and the sea animals. I knew their names and I could understand them and I could speak to them. I have heard the owl and I have heard the bear and I have heard the Sedna singing,” Ekoomiak said. [3]
Ekoomiak moved to Toronto in 1972 and attended George Brown College to study art. The following year he worked at the Ontario Science Centre on the Inuit Cultural Exposition. Then, at CBC Television's request, he designed costumes for Farley Mowat's “The Executioners,” an episode of the television drama series The Play’s the Thing (1974). [4] In the 1980s, he wrote and illustrated two books, An Arctic Childhood (1980) and Arctic Memories (1988), which were both published in English and Inuktitut. Arctic Memories was also published in French, Italian, Faroese, Japanese and German. It was also recognized during the 1991 Orbis Pictus Award and was recommended to young readers by CCBC Choices 1990. These books featured original illustrations as well as reproductions of his tapestries and acrylic paintings, with text to explain the imagery.
In 1986 Ekoomiak donated the tapestry The Spirit of Liberty (1986) to the the Museum of the American Indian, in New York, New York, for the Statue of Liberty’s centennial, and was awarded the “Official Native American Artist of the New York Statue of Liberty Foundation.” [5] By the time Ekoomiak published Arctic Memories in 1988, his work had been shown in exhibitions in various Ontario cities, including Barrie, Kapuskasing, London, Oshawa, Ottawa and Toronto. [6] He received an honorary diploma from the Ottawa School of Art in the late 2000s.
When Ekoomiak passed away in 2009, he donated his art materials to children’s programs at Wabano Centre in Ottawa. [7] In 2025 an eponymous solo exhibition of his work is being held at the Ottawa Art Gallery. Today Ekoomiak’s art is held in major collections nationally and internationally, including the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, QC; the National Gallery of Canada, in Ottawa, ON; Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq in Manitoba.