Markoosie Patsauq

Markoosie Patsauq (ᒫᑯᓯ ᐸᑦᓴᐅᖅ, 1941/42 - 2020) was a Canadian Inuk writer.[1] He is best known for Harpoon of the Hunter (ᐊᖑᓇᓱᑦᑎᐅᑉ ᓇᐅᒃᑯᑎᖓ), the first published Inuktitut language novel; the novel was written later, but published earlier (1970), than Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk's Sanaaq.[2]

Born near Inukjuak, Quebec,[3] his was one of the families forcibly relocated to Resolute, Northwest Territories in the High Arctic relocation in 1953.[4] He later attended high school in Yellowknife.[5]

Patsauq wrote the coming of age story Harpoon of the Hunter in 1969 when he worked as a pilot (the first Inuk pilot in Canada), using material he had heard from family members.[6] It was serialized in the Inuit periodical Inuttituut before being published in an English translation in 1970.[5] In Ukrainian, the story was first published in 1974 by the publishing house Veselka (Rainbow). A French translation was published in 2013, and translations into Hindi and Marathi followed in 2014.[7] He also wrote short stories and non-fiction, although none of his other work became as known as Harpoon of the Hunter.[3]

In 2016, scholar Valerie Henitiuk, was studying how the meaning of the original story written in Inuktitut may have changed when it was translated into English; subsequent translations were based on that English translation.[8]

He died in March 2020 at his home in Inukjuak.[3]