Named after a berry with her Inuk name, she built an Indigenous theatre company that’s just as unique as its namesake’s flavour. Reneltta Arluk was born and raised in the Northwest Territories. Her mother is Dënesųłıné and Cree from the Wood Buffalo Region in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, while her dad is Inuvialuit and Gwich'in from Inuvik.

Raised on the trapline by her grandmother and her partner, a Metis trapper, because her parents were just 17 when they had her and her mom wanted to go back to school and get her GED, Arluk has early memories of living in a cabin and having many visitors coming to hear stories and music on the guitar. “Living on the land in that very humble way really carved out who I am now as an artist,” she recalls.

Arluk grew up independent, working a job since she was 17 and having travelled some, she says, “I started seeing that our stories were really something quite unique and quite powerful.” As she watched people reclaiming their practices, their languages, she struggled to see how she would contribute to her culture in the future? She realized it would be through story. She applied to theatre school in Toronto at Center for Indigenous Theatre, an all Indigenous theatre program when she was nearly 20, intending to take their one-year program. She figured if she didn’t like it, it was just one year and if she did, then she would have finished it. The program changed her life and she never looked back.

She moved to Whitehorse and started working in a play called Heart of a Distant Tribe. There was an all Indigenous cast, mostly all from the Yukon. They created a collective called Raven’s Tale Theatre and they created their own work, performing for tourists and community members during the summer at the Klondike Inn. The space was free and it was Indigenous-led. From there, Arluk went on to apply to the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting Program, a three-year program that taught ballet, modern jazz, singing and more. She got in through the Aboriginal transition year program and was admitted after her first audition, something of a rarity.

Her advice for students leaving their home communities to pursue their education would be to work hard to save money to be prepared for the cost of living in the city. Arluk also recommends, “Create your own work, tell your own stories. Really be collaborative.” She suggests getting feedback and working on it. As the first Indigenous woman in the program, she faced challenges but she found solace in the house set aside for the Aboriginal Transition Year Program where she didn’t feel alone.

Now the artistic director and founder of Akpik Theatre, the longest running and only professional Indigenous theatre company in the Northwest Territories, Arluk chose to name it after her Inuk name, given to her by her great grandmother. They work with the equity and the unions to ensure artists are well paid when they work with Akpik. “One of the best pieces of advice that I got starting out was,’don't wait for the phone to ring…you always have to be willing to try different ways to keep your art alive,’”she recalls. She started with a one woman show, then built Akpik as an umbrella company to bring other people in. The second play was a radio play adapted from a Richard Van Camp story. 18 years later, they do one or two projects a year. Their latest project is a circumpolar collaboration including artists from Greenland, Norway, Alaska and the North.

When it comes to obstacles, one of the challenges Arluk faces is in bringing productions into spaces that don’t know how to receive Indigenous ways of knowing. Coming into colonial structures, there can be challenges around how much safety she can create and how much agency she has when productions are touring. While some venues are very accommodating with allowing smudging at any time, access to the venue as much as is needed, not all spaces are as barrier free. If she could speak to her younger self, she would tell herself to dig deep into her language. Given how much she works with language now, she would be further ahead. Beyond that, she has few regrets, sharing, “I think every choice I made has led me to the path where I am now.”

As far as inspiration goes, she points to the time she spent with her grandparents as an only child. She believes her creativity and imagination came from that time and the presence of music, laughter and her grandfather’s stories. “I walk away with such a positive feeling towards our own stories and lived experience,” she shares. Travelling a lot, Arluk walks into spaces with curiosity and eagerness to learn. She thinks of the humour that can come from culture clashes and all the learning that helps build stories. She's planning on commissioning a soundscape to play under her grandfather’s recorded stories she was gifted when he passed away and sharing them with the world for free.

To balance her mental health, Arluk loves to take baths with bath bombs and go to the Nordic spas with her friends. She also likes to spend time with her eight year old son to enjoy his sense of humour, run errands, enjoy a book or crossword puzzle and not spend any time working. Spending time being present as a parent and a partner, having a low stress day makes her happy.

The founder of Akpik Theatre, Reneltta Arluk, first got her feet wet with a one-year Indigenous theatre program and never looked back. ‘Don’t wait for the phone to ring’ was advice she followed in deciding to produce her own one woman show and then starting her own theatre company, finding ways to keep her art alive. Inspired by her childhood with her grandparents and the stories she was raised with, she found a way to share more stories with audiences far and wide.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.