Tarralik Duffy
Tarralik Duffy (born 1979) is an Inuk multimedia artist from Coral Harbour, Nunavut. She mainly lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, but spends time in both Saskatoon and Coral Harbour. She works with many materials, including sculpture, drawing, photography, textiles, printmaking, digital art, writing, and music.
Her early life shaped her art. She grew up with her parents, Leonie and Ron Duffy, who run Leonie’s Place hotel in Coral Harbour. She began drawing with her older sister and always wanted to become an artist. At first she found it hard to commit, but support from others helped her keep going. Family inspires her most—her sister, her father, and her grandmother. Her father taught her to play with language and not take it too seriously, a trait that shows up as wordplay in her art. She was also inspired by her grandmother’s cooking and clothing, and the time they shared together.
Duffy has also used the names Adina Applebum and Adina Tarralik Duffy. She started a design company called Ugly Fish in homage to her grandmother, whose Inuktitut nickname Kanajuq means “ugly fish.” Much of her art helps her reconnect with her culture, something she says she didn’t fully appreciate when she was younger. Her pieces are often informed by products she saw in childhood at home and in Nunavut’s Quickstop/Northern Store, reflecting Inuit daily life even when the items aren’t Indigenous. She sometimes includes Inuktitut syllabics to keep the language alive in her work. She finds beauty in everyday things, like pop cans, and she draws inspiration from natural sights, such as beluga bones found on beaches for her jewelry.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 20:41 (CET).