Sam Nahaulaituq (1923-1999) was one of the “pioneer” carvers of Taloyoak. His parents were Utkuhikjalingmiut, originally from the Back River area of the Kivalliq region. He was born on Perry Island, near Cambridge Bay, but when he was a young child, his family moved to the Fort Ross area on the north Boothia Peninsula. Nahaulaituq remembered visiting the house of Ittiruttak and seeing a piece of whalebone lying on the floor. Ittiruttak told him that it was possible to turn bone into money. He realized the truth of the older man’s words later on when he sold his first bone carving and received four times what he was receiving for fox pelts. However, he did not begin to work continuously as a carver until 1972, the year he and his family settled into a permanent home in Taloyoak—one of the last families to do so. By 1980, he had developed a distinct sculptural style and a wide range of subject matter. The full impact of his fertile imagi¬nation is best seen in the human and spirit pieces that depict human/animal transformations inspired by old shamanic beliefs. His figures always suggest some physical or mental activity. Above all, the works manifest the expressivity for which Taloyoak sculpture is known. Wide eyes stare and mouths grimace or shout soundlessly.

Nahaulaituq’s sculpture has been included in many group exhibitions since 1977 and solo exhibitions of his sculpture between 1983 and 1991 were held in New York, Mannheim, Germany, Edmonton, Toronto, and Stratford, Ontario.