Community: Kugluktuk
Media: sewing with material, sealskin and other furs
Agent/represented by:
Qilaut Originals
email: qilaut@polarnet.ca
ph.: 867-982-4653
fax: 867-982-3318

Bessie was born in Stapleton Bay near Kugluktuk in 1948. She was born on the land and grew up around the outpost camps until she went to school.

During her twenties, Bessie joined her mother as a carver. She also sewed with other ladies, and decided she liked sewing better. Now she makes mittens, kamiks, vests, slippers, parkas, flowered kamiks, and wallhangings.

Bessie makes tools as well: ulus and skin scrapers. For a while she made replicas of traditional tools such as harpoons and shovels.

Bessie is becoming well known for her sealskin mittens and vests. She has taken a fur sewing workshop in Kugluktuk, and did work experience with fur in Newfoundland. She participated with the Iqaluit designers for the Montreal Fur Show in 2001. She is also on the board of the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association to represent her region of Kitikmeot.