JULY 10, 1997

INUIT ACTIVIST AUKTALIK (ABRAHAM “ABE” OKPIK) DIED

Born January 12, 1928, in the Mackenzie Delta area, Northwest Territories (NWT), Okpik, whose name meant “Man with a Mole,” was raised traditionally. An avid reader, he skipped grades 2, 4 and 5. Starting in 1957, Abe worked as a government translator. Learning the writing system used in the Eastern Arctic, Okpik started translating publications into the Inuit language. In 1965, he became the first Inuk to sit on the NWT Council (NTC) where he led NTC’s Project Surname—an effort to register Canadian Inuit under last names. In 1971, moving to the Eastern Arctic, Abe was a school administrator, taught Inuktitut, and helped create the simplified Inuktitut writing system adopted in 1974. In mid-1970s, Okpik was an official interpreter and CBC linguistic reporter during the Berger Commission into the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. He was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1976 for his work with the Berger Commission and Project Surname.

Source: Michelle Filice, “Abraham Okpik,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2/16/2016.  Retrieved 7/5/2019, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/abraham-okpik

Photo: Charles Gimpel (1913-1973), 4/1964.  Permissive Use.