With the death of Louis Tapardjuk in April 2026, we deplore—within the space of four months—the loss of our third esteemed Iglulingmiuq, who, along with Alexina Kublu and Jeela Palluq-Cloutier, made remarkable contributions to the advancement of Inuit society, culture, and language in Nunavut. Louis Qingaq Tapardjuk was born in January 1953 on Baffin Island at Aggu, a major Inuit wintering location northwest of Igloolik. His father Simon died when Louis was very young; his mother later married Felix Alaralak. The family moved to Igloolik in the mid-1950s, where a Roman Catholic mission and a Hudson’s Bay Company post had established in the 1930s, and around which the large present-day community would grow. At age five, Louis was sent to residential school in Chesterfield Inlet. Unlike many of his Iglulingmiut classmates, his experience there was mostly positive. Keenly aware what he had lost in terms of a traditional Inuit upbringing, he was nevertheless appreciative of the benefits his schooling had provided: a solid grounding in the English language and, less tangibly, the strengthening of his intrinsic sense of discipline, independence and resilience, qualities that would sustain him throughout his life. During his summers home from school, Louis worked at the Igloolik Co-operative, beginning a close, lifelong association with the cooperative movement across the Canadian Arctic. Initially employed in menial tasks, Louis worked his way up through the ranks to become president of the Canadian Arctic Cooperative Federation. He considered the cooperative movement’s philosophy compatible with Inuit values of community, sharing, sustainability, and decision making. Louis’s remarkable life as a civic leader encompassed politics, advocacy, and activism, all of which have been extensively chronicled. His contributions are evident in official records such as the Nunavut legislature’s Hansard, as well as in numerous media reports, most available online. There is, however, no better account of his life and work than in his own spirited, forthright autobiography, Fighting for Our Rights. Given the breadth and depth of Louis’s public service, it would be redundant to attempt a review of his accomplishments here, far less doing justice to his multifaceted life in public service at the community, regional, territorial, and international levels. Suffice to say that during his long tenure with the Nunavut Legislature from 2004 to 2013, representing the Amittuq riding, Louis’s guiding principles first and foremost revolved around concerns for the well-being of the people in his riding, while more generally, tirelessly advocating for Inuit rights throughout Nunavut. In particular, he insisted Inuktut was the essence of Inuit society, the foundation on which to build Inuit rights, and he determinedly fought for its strengthening and official recognition. As Nunavut’s Minister of Culture, Language, Elders, and Youth, Louis sponsored the Inuit Language Protection Act, designed to protect and revitalize Inuktut across all sectors of Nunavut society, including government services, education, and private businesses serving the public. Taking effect in 2008, the Act also included the establishment an Inuktut language authority—Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtiit—mandated to create and standardize neologisms for use in legal, medical, and technical translation, besides promoting the language at large. It is indicative of Louis’s lifelong commitment to Inuit language rights that, at the time of his death, he was serving as Chair of Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtiit. Less known is Louis’s work as an oral historian and translator, which flourished through his extended involvement with the Igloolik Oral History Project (IOHP). The project, which began in 1985 under the auspices of the Igloolik Inullariit Elders Society, in partnership with the Igloolik Research Centre, continues to this day, in large part thanks to Louis’s stewardship. The primary aim of the project, …
