Akeeaktashuk was one of the first Inuit carvers James Houston introduced to the world in the early 1950s and 1960s.  Born at Hudson Bay, near the Inukjuak River in Quebec, in 1898, he lived in Craig Harbour on Ellesmere Island in 1951 and later moved to Grise Ford. He died in 1954 at Craig Harbour while hunting walrus on moving ice. 

The artist was remembered by James Houston as a hunter, storyteller as well as a sculptor. Houston thought of him as a "jolly," "robust and outgoing" man. Houston also noted the sculptor's ability for observation expressed in his stone and ivory sculptures of human and animals.³

Akeektashuk's work gained worldwide recognition. 

Exhibitions

• Arctic Mirror, Canadian Museum of Civilization
• Arctic Wildlife: The Art of the Inuit, Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal
• ART ESKIMO, Galerie de France
• By the Light of the Qulliq: Eskimo Life in the Canadian Arctic, Smithsonian Institution, A travelling exhibition of Inuit art from the Feheley Collection
• Canadian Eskimo Art, Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources
• Contemporary Canadian Eskimo Art, Gimpel Fils
• Eskimo Art, National Gallery of Canada
• Eskimo Art of the Canadian Eastern Arctic, circulated by the Smithsonian Travelling Exhibition Service, organized by Eskimo Art,Inc.
• Eskimo Carvings: Coronation Exhibition, Gimpel Fils
• Eskimo Sculpture, arranged by the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources, and the National Gallery of Canada
• Eskimo Sculpture, Winnipeg Art Gallery presented at the Manitoba Legislative Building
• Inuit Sculpture from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene B. Power, University of Michigan Museum of Art
• Port Harrison/Inoucdjouac, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Sculpture/Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic, Canadian Eskimo Arts Council
• Selections from the John and Mary Robertson Collection of Inuit Art, Agnes Etherington Art Centre Queen's University
• Stories in Stone: Soapstone Sculptures From Northern Quebec and Kenya, La Federation des Cooperatives du Nouveau-Quebec
• The Eskimo Art Collection of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, Toronto-Dominion Bank
• The First Passionate Collector: The Ian Lindsay Collection of Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Inuit Amautik: I Like My Hood To Be Full, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Spirit of the Land, The Koffler Gallery

Collections

• Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec, Montreal
• Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
• Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal, Montreal
• Sarick Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Toronto-Dominion Bank Collection, Toronto
• Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg