Helen Konek

Konek was born as Helen Agaaqtuq in May[1] 1932[2] in a tupiq on the eastern shore of Henik Lake.[3] Helen's father was Piqqanaaq Agaaqtuq[4] and her mother was Paalak Agaaqtuq.[5] She had three brothers: Nanauq, Pukiluk, and Kinaalik.[5][3] As a child she accompanied her brothers and father on caribou hunting trips, including to Ennadai Lake in the Ahiarmiut's territory.[3]

Helen was photographed in 1949, aged 17, by Richard Harrington as part of a series taken while he was travelling around the Arctic.[1] The photograph was taken in ᑭᖓᕐᔪᐊᓕᒃ (English: of big hill).[6]

By 1952, the Agaaqtuq family were living close to the Padlei trading post.[3] In 1953, Helen started living as a couple with James Konek, the son of a storekeeper in Arviat.[3] They both lived in Arviat in winter and in Barren Lands area in the summer.[3] The Canadian caribou famine caused Helen's mother Paalak to die in 1957, the rest of the family survived on fish, rabbit, and ptarmigan.[3] The Royal Canadian Mounted Police forcibly displaced the Konek family in 1960 from Padlei to Arviat.[3]

One of Harrington's photographs of Konek entering her igloo was widely shared online in 2019 after her journalist grandson Jordan Konek tweeted it.[1] Konek is an elder,[7][1] and lives in Arviat, Nunavut.[1]