Bill Nasogaluak is an accomplished artist originally from Tuktuuyaqtuuq (Tuktoyaktuk), Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT, and now based in northern Ontario. In addition to working as a multidisciplinary artist, Nasogaluak is also a talented educator and trained electronics technician. Thematically, his artworks illustrate Inuvialuit culture and offer political commentary about the social, economic and cultural dimensions of contemporary Inuit life.
In 1999, Nasogaluak was a contributing artist and team leader for the new Ceremonial Mace for the Northwest Territories Legislature. Nasogaluak worked alongside artists Dolphus Cadieux and Allyson M. Simmie to create a piece that represented the people and the land. The final design is made almost entirely of bronze and silver and also includes marble harvested from the Precambrian Shield near Yellowknife, NT, a stylized narwhale tusk and pebbles collected from 33 communities in the region [1]. The mace also includes an inscription in ten languages that each read “One land, many voices.”
One of Nasogaluak's notable works Sedna on Cross (2006), also known as The Death of My Culture, was featured in the Summer 2017 issue of the Inuit Art Quarterly. The sculpture depicts Sedna, the mother of the sea and source of life, nailed to and suffering on a cross. Created out of stone and metal, Sedna on Cross makes a powerful statement about the effects of colonization on Inuit communities.
Nasogaluak has completed several major commissions of Inuksuit on behalf of the Government of Canada in Guatemala City, Guatemala and Monterrey, Mexico, Saltillo, Mexico, New Delhi, India, and Lima, Peru, as well as an independent commission for an Inukshuk in Osaka, Japan. Previously, one of Nasogaluak’s sculptures was also gifted to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien by the Government of the Northwest Territories in 1994 [2]. Nasogaluak has exhibited works across Canada and internationally. His work is held in public collections such as the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, NT, among others.