Helen Konek
Born
Helen Agaaqtuq

May 1932
Near the eastern shore of Henik Lake, Nunavut
Known forAppearing in a 1949 photograph by Richard Harrington

Helen Agaaqtuq Konek is a Inuk elder from Arviat, Nunavut. A 1949 photograph of her went viral in 2019.

Early life

Konek was born as Helen Agaaqtuq in May[1] 1932[2] in a tupiq on the eastern shore of Henik Lake.[3] Helen's father was Piqqanaaq Agaaqtuq[4] and her mother was Paalak Agaaqtuq.[5] She had three brothers: Nanauq, Pukiluk, and Kinaalik.[5][3] As a child she accompanied her brothers and father on caribou hunting trips, including to Ennadai Lake in the Ahiarmiut's territory.[3]

Helen was photographed in 1949, aged 17, by Richard Harrington as part of a series taken while he was travelling around the Arctic.[1] The photograph was taken in ᑭᖓᕐᔪᐊᓕᒃ (English: of big hill).[6]

Adult life

By 1952, the Agaaqtuq family were living close to the Padlei trading post.[3] In 1953, Helen started living as a couple with James Konek, the son of a storekeeper in Arviat.[3] They both lived in Arviat in winter and in Barren Lands area in the summer.[3] The 1950 Caribou Inuit famine caused Helen's mother Paalak to die in 1957, the rest of the family survived on fish, rabbit, and ptarmigan.[3] The Royal Canadian Mounted Police forcibly displaced the Konek family in 1960 from Padlei to Arviat.[3]

One of Harrington's photographs of Konek entering her igloo was widely shared online in 2019 after her journalist grandson Jordan Konek tweeted it.[1] Konek is an elder,[7][1] and lives in Arviat, Nunavut.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Brockman, Alex (6 May 2019). "'It's amazing to me': Meet the Inuk elder in this photo shared around the world". CBC.
  2. ↑ Helen Konek, National Gallery of Canada
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Gerald Kuehl, Portraits of the Far North (volume 2), ISBN 9781989282328, 2022
  4. ↑ Atiqput: Inuit Oral History and Project Naming. (2022). United Kingdom: McGill-Queen's University Press. p59
  5. 1 2 Payne, Carol. (2013). The Official Picture: The National Film Board of Canada's Still Photography Division and the Image of Canada, 1941-1971. Canada: McGill-Queen's University Press. p183
  6. ↑ Jordan Konek, Tweet of 27 Oct 2019.
  7. ↑ Laugrand, F. B., Oosten, J. G. (2014). Inuit Shamanism and Christianity: Transitions and Transformations in the Twentieth Century. United States: McGill-Queen's University Press.
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