Manasie Paneloo Akpaliapik, was born in Arctic Bay, Northwest Territories, on August 23, 1955. One of Canada's most eminent Inuit sculptors, Akpaliapik began his life as a nomad. His family travelled three times per year as the arctic seasons changed, living the traditional way of their ancestors. 

Akpaliapik was raised in a family of artists. His father and mother, Lazaroosee and Nakyuraq Akpaliapik are both sculptors in the community of Arctic Bay. His adopted grandparents, artists Peter and Elisapee Kanangnaq Ahlooloo, and his maternal great aunt Paniluk Qamanirq taught him to carve when he was about ten years old. He learned by watching them, and as they carved the elders entertained Akpaliapik with Inuit legends and stories.

Akpaliapik went to school in Iqualuit, Winnipeg, and Greenland. He moved to Montreal in 1979 and began carving professionally, to return to Arctic Bay in 1985 to learn drum dancing and kayak making in preparation for EXPO 86 in Vancouver, where he demonstrated these skills at the N.W.T. Pavilion. He was one of three artists commissioned to carve a coat of arms for the new Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec; performed the drum dances at an International Cultural Festival, Shiraoi, Japan, 1989; returned to the Northwest Territories in 1989 to learn and record stories and songs from elders in Arctic Bay, Igloolik, and Pond Inlet, sponsored by a Canada Council Grant.

Akpaliapik is interested in taking the stories and legends he heard as a child while he watched his grandparents carve, and depicting them in his carvings. It is his way of ensuring that these important stories live on to inspire subsequent generations who will be pushed even further from their ancestral way of life. In addition to recounting these stories, Akpaliapik's pieces also probe into the social issues affecting aboriginal people. His own substance abuse problems and the alarming frequency of suicide in many native communities have both been explored in Akpaliapik's carvings.

His works have been collected by museums, they have been included in many books including Sculpture of the Eskimo and The Inuit Imagination and his work has been featured in solo exhibitions by several museums. 

Exhibitions

• Arctic Forms - Inuit Sculpture, Arctic Inuit Art Gallery
• Arctic Mirror, Canadian Museum of Civilization
• Borealis: Inuit Images of Man and Animals, Freeport Art Museum and Cultural Centre
• Building on Strengths: New Inuit Art from the Collection, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Immaginario Inuit Arte e cultura degli esquimesi canadesi, Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea
• Inspiration Four Decades of Sculpture, Marion Scott Gallery
• Inuit Art from the Canadian Arctic, Bayly Art Museum University of Virginia
• Inuit Art on the Mezzanine: New Acquisitions, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Inuit Art: Drawings and Recent Sculpture, National Gallery of Canada
• Inuit Sculpture, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Ivory Carvings by Manasie Akpaliapik, Images Art Gallery
• Jawbone Sculpture, The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• Keeping Our Stories Alive: An Exhibition of the Art and Crafts from Dene and Inuit of Canada, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum
• Manasie: The Art of Manasie Akpaliapik, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Multiple Realities: Inuit Images of Shamanic Transformation, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Nouveau Territoires... 350/500 Ans Apres, Presented at les maisons de la culture Cote-des-Neiges, Notre-Dame- de-Grace, and Rosemont-Petite Patrie, Montreal Recreation and Community Development Service and les Ateliers Visions Planetaire
• Salon International Europ'art '92, presented by Galerie Saint Merri
• Sculpture Inuit et Retrospective Pudlo Pudlat, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
• Share the Vision Philadelphians Collect Inuit Art, Art Space Gallery
• The Hand: Images in Inuit Sculpture, The Isaacs/Innuit Gallery
• The Inuit Imagination, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery

Collections

• Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax
• Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
• Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife
• Sarick Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg