Charlie Sivuarapik was born in approximately 1911 in
northern Quebec, Canada. When he was about 40, he moved to a village that was being newly settled by the
Hudson's Bay Company named
Puvirnituq (population: 1,692 as of the 2011 census). Sivuarapik was ill with
tuberculosis for much of his life, which prevented him from participating in the traditional male role of hunting in his community. In efforts to support his family economically, he turned to
stone carving. Charlie's career was first influenced by
James Houston who visited
Puvirnituq in 1948 and 1950 to encourage many in the area to begin carving as a means of livelihood. Peter Murdoch, the founder of the Federation des cooperatives du Nouveau-Quebec and the co-manager of the
Hudson's Bay Company, and Father André Steinmann, patron of the Puvirnituq Sculptors Society, were also early mentors of Sivuarapik's. Sivuarapik studied his own anatomy to obtain a more precise understanding of proportion and shape. The pair also travelled to Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and Pittsburgh. This trip allowed the revenue for the Povirnituq Cooperative Society to increase from 1968 ($250,000) to 1969 (over $500,000). His work is held in a variety of museums, including the
National Gallery of Canada, the
Winnipeg Art Gallery, the
Flint Institute of Arts, the
Museum of Anthropology at UBC, the
University of Michigan Museum of Art, the
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the
Hood Museum of Art, and the
Canadian Museum of History. == Works ==