More artists with work represented in the IRC Craft Shop

Nellie Sanikpiaq Arey

Nellie Sanikpiaq Arey grew up on the coast, seeing the delta mostly in springtime until finally moving to Aklavik in 1959. She started sewing on the land when she was eight years old with her mom, the constant guidance of her granddad (tataak) Paul Kayutak (wife Mae) and with her aunties Deva and Annie. “My tataak used to tell me, ‘You gonna sew lots in your life, when you start young and you know what to do.’ That’s how I learned. That’s what I do.” 

Nellie learned to make parkies for winter clothing out of sealskin and caribou skins and waterproof shoes with sealskin. She also learned to tan wolverine and other furs: “We tan everything, anything, that’s what we do. Well that’s how I was taught. You can't leave anything anywhere.  You can’t waste anything.  You have to, you have to do it. For mattresses, we even tan them, tuktuvak.” 

Nellie remembers the products of the work fondly, “So neat, I just think they were neat! My tataak, for me and my brother Jimmy, with moose legs without cutting it in the back, he skinned it, fill[ed] it up with something dry … he made us rubber boots like that to walk on mud. That was cool. From the moose legs! Mine was way up. Used to be good! We just used them for walking in the water.” 

Thinking of her childhood spent living along the coast, Nellie says, “that’s how I learned to do things all the time. I sure enjoyed my life with them! .. cause I know what to do, I know what to do when I’m down there winter, summer, fall…” 

“My tataak tell me how to do things all the time. It’s good, I enjoy it.” She recalls camping, travelling on foot and trips taking the family up Firth River, “not rushing and enjoy our lives, I used to just enjoy my life.”