Isa Oqutaq (or Oqutaqu) is a well-known Cape Dorset carver, born in Tikiraq, near Cape Dorset, Baffin Island. Tikiraq in Inuktitut language means “small point”. Oqutaq grew-up in the traditional way and recalls fondly of Tikiraq being plentiful of seals and marine life as a place full of memories of hunting and fishing. This first-hand experience of witnessing the many animals of the Arctic Tundra – including Polar Bears, helped influence his inspiration when he began carving. At the age of three his family moved to Iqaluit; Nunavut’s capitol, where a lot of other families from South Baffin moved to work at the US airbase. Oqutaqu’s family lived on-an-off between Tikiraq and Iqaluit.

His father, Enookie Oqutaq, was a carver and was well known for scrimshaw carvings in ivory and caribou antler. The Oqutaq family were known for carving, but Oqutaq learned carving from his father, and began carving in 1974 at age 17, using materials that were most available - marble and mostly soapstone, which in his early career was mined and sourced from his uncle, Quvianatuliak Tapaungai. He would help mine the soapstone as his uncle was an elder and had the equipment and access to the mine by boat.

Oqutaqu makes his living primarily from his carvings - using hand tools and does the polishing and finishing himself. He is particularly known for inukshuk’s and marine subjects such as whales – capturing schools or families of whales in pods using wooden or bone pegs on a caribou antler base.