Mark Alikaswa (1928-2007) was born in Manitoba near the border of what is now Nunavut. As an adult, he relocated to Arviat, NU, where he began carving in the 1960s. First exhibited in 1971 at the Simon Fraser Gallery in Burnaby, BC, Alikaswa’s work can now be found in public collections at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, QC, as well as the Winnipeg Art Gallery that currently holds 20 of his carvings. In 1997, Alikaswa contributed to the Artists of the Past, Present and Future exhibition at the Inuit Gallery of Vancouver. His sculpture of a mother and child was considered to be the best in show. The theme of motherhood is one at which he excels. His work contributed to what is known as the Kivalliq aesthetic: carvings that emphasize line, form and volume, and have a rough, unpolished finish as a result of the artists responding to the local hard steatite stone.