Siku Allooloo

Born and raised in Yellowknife, NT, Inuk and Haitian Taino writer, artist and poet Siku Allooloo now resides in Whitehorse, YT. An active community builder, Allooloo also focuses on advocacy and land-based education, centring themes of Indigenous resurgence in her literary and artistic practice. 

Her 2016 essay Living Death, which deals with themes of perceived cultural “death”, resurgence and continuity through the lens of Haitian zombie stories received the Writing in the Margins Creative Non-Fiction prize through Briarpatch Magazine that year. In 2019 she carved her poem Akia out of sealskin in creation of a wall hanging for the Hexsa’a̱m: To Be Here Always exhibition at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in Vancouver, BC. Shortly afterward, text of Akia (2019) was published in Canadian Art Magazine in the spring 2019 issue SPACETIME. Although she holds a BA in Anthropology and Indigenous studies from the University of Victoria, Allooloo is a self-taught artist and credits much of her artistic training to the mentorship and support of other Indigenous artists she has formed close relationships with.

Looking toward the future, Allooloo plans to compile and publish an anthology of her poetic works and is also expanding her practice into sound installation and film. Recently, she collaborated with the Graphic History Collective to produce an essay titled We are Inuit – Not your Flag Poles (2020) in which she details the relocation of her own family to the High Arctic in 1922 as part of claims to arctic sovereignty made by the Canadian government.