Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border by Alootook Ipellie

Alootook Ipellie was an Inuit poet born in Nuvuqquq on Baffin Island, in what is now known as Nunavut. Throughout his youth, Ipellie moved all around the country to live with family members and in foster homes. Despite his incredible talent, he was discouraged from pursuing artistic studies in high school. He went on to become an internationally known journalist, Inuktitut translator, graphic artist, and cartoonist. Issues of colonialism, spirituality, and the navigation of cultural identity are threaded throughout his work. Ipellie died of a heart attack in 2007.

In the face of competing expectations from parents, friends, teachers, and society as a whole, how do you hold true to your identity?