Tribute: Bp Paul Idlout 1935-2025

RT. REV. PAUL Idlout, the first Inuit bishop in the world, died on New Year's Eve at the age of 90.

Posted Date : 2026-01-11 18:05:00

Photo: Joey Royal

Description: A teenaged Paul Idlout with his father and four other traditional Inuit hunters, were famously featured on the Canadian two-dollar bill in the 1970s, in a print made from a 1951 photograph taken on Baffin Island. Paul is the hunter crouching in the middle of the group.

By Sue Careless

RT. REV. PAUL Idlout, the first Inuit bishop in the world, died on New Year's Eve at the age of 90.

A teenaged Idlout, with his father and four other traditional Inuit hunters, was famously featured on the Canadian two-dollar bill in the 1970s, in a print made from a 1951 photograph taken near Aulatsiivik in northern Baffin Island. The image captured an era that was rapidly giving way to social change—frequently imposed by government policies.

His diocesan bishop, the Rt. Rev. Chris Willliams, remembers Idlout as “a very loving person and perhaps one of the few remaining Inuit to grow up on the land.  I found him to be a tremendous support to me and a wonderful colleague.”

“Bishop Paul was a real servant, a gentle and kind man with a good sense of humour,” said Joey Royal, himself once a suffragan bishop in the Arctic and former director of the Arthur Turner Training School in Iqaluit. “Paul and his wife Abigail were wise elders and mentors to the Inuit theological students in Iqaluit. Although he was accomplished in so many ways, he wore it all with winsome humility and joy.”

Paul Ullatitaq Idlout was born on April 21, 1935 in Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) in the Northwest Territories (NWT), the oldest of nine children. His paternal grandfather had been a successful hunter and Anglican lay minister while his father, Joseph Idlout, was a well-respected Inuit hunter and leader, as well as a skilled photographer. In 1952 Joseph Idlout starred in the 1952 National Film Board production, Land of the Long Day.

One of the still images from the film was of Joseph and Paul and some other hunters preparing for a hunt. It circulated widely as the featured image on the Canadian $2 bill.

The film’s director Doug Wilkinson gave Joseph Idlout a Kodak Duaflex camera. The Nunavut Archives has about 300 images credited to him.

In 1955, Joseph Idlout, his wife Rebecca Qillaq and three of their children—Paul, Moses and Leah—were relocated along with other members of their community by the federal government from their home in Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) to Qausuittuq (Resolute Bay) in the High Arctic. Paul would have been about twenty. Another group was relocated from northern Quebec.

It is thought that the government ordered these relocations to establish Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic during the Cold War. The Inuit were promised plentiful wildlife and improved living conditions, but soon discovered that they had been misled, and endured terrible hardships. The effects have lingered for generations. The Inuit High Arctic relocations are often referred to as a dark chapter in Canadian history.

In 2013, Bp Idlout recalled that traumatic time: “…there were no houses and it was fall and very cold. We lived in a tent and the tent was very cold. We did not go to a warm place for a long time.

“Those of us who were relocated, it could not be helped, we were not from the same community—the Quebec people and us—and there was an obstruction as we did not speak the same dialect and our lifestyles were different and we had to get used to each other.

“These were hardships we faced, not having nurses and trying to get accustomed to something we weren’t used to.”

The family eventually returned to their original community.

Paul Idlout served as an RCMP Special Constable and translator before entering the Arthur Turner Training School in 1986. At that time the Anglican theological college was located in Pangnirtung. Today it is based in Iqaluit.

Idlout was ordained in 1990 and served in several communities across Baffin Island.

In 1996 the Diocese of the Arctic elected 62-year-old Idlout, then living in Cape Dorset, NWT, as their suffragan bishop. He was the first Inuk bishop in any church in the world, and at that time, only the third Indigenous bishop to serve in the Anglican Church of Canada.

The election itself was a lengthy one that required 29 ballots. The 31 members of the clergy voted consistently for Idlout while the 43 lay members voted for Rev. Benjamin Arreak, from Kuujjuaq, N.W.T. Both Inuit men were originally from Pond Inlet.

By the evening of the second voting day, Idlout was elected and Arreak went on to distinguish himself on the Inuit team translating the Bible into modern Inuktitut.

Idlout was consecrated at St. Jude's Cathedral in Iqaluit on June 2, 1996. The Book of Common Prayer service was fully bilingual—Inuktitut and English, with some Gwitchin and Cree spoken.

"I felt this should have happened three or four years ago, when at that time I felt that the Inuit were ready then," Idlout said. "We can be involved with the servicing of a huge territory by Inuit people."

"[The consecration ceremony] was a great thing," Idlout said. "It was wonderful. It was really nice with all the people there. I think that it was the first time the people had seen themselves [in a place of authority] in their own land."

Since it made more sense for Idlout to live in Iqaluit, his diocesan bishop, Chris Williams, returned to his home and the diocesan offices in Yellowknife. The vast diocese of the Arctic—the largest in the world—has its offices in Yellowknife on Great Slave Lake and its cathedral thousands of kilometres northeast on Baffin Island. 

Idlout served as Suffragan Bishop for eight years, from 1996 until 2004.

In retirement, he remained active as a hunter and teacher of traditional skills for many years. He helped out at the cathedral but also provided pastoral care and Sunday services to the people of nearby Apex on Baffin Isand.

On Epiphany Idlout’s funeral service was held at the place of his consecration, St. Jude’s Cathedral in Iqaluit.

Just before the service began, Bishop Ann Martha Keenainak read a statement from Canadian Governor General Mary Simon, who expressed her condolences and regret that she could not be there in person.

Simon, herself an Inuk, called Idlout “a remarkable spirit” and a “prominent elder who championed peace, reconciliation and love.”

“Despite a youth marked by hardship—the relocation of his family to Resolute in the 1950s—he chose collaboration over anger, love over isolation,” she wrote.

“As the first Inuk bishop in the world, he strengthened reconciliation and created lasting bonds between the Anglican Church and the Arctic.”

In his sermon, Diocesan Bishop Alexander Pryor said Idlout “paved the way” for many Inuit faith leaders, and that he was committed to his family and culture. “He was a humble, honest and faithful man who stayed close to God and produced much good fruit.”

Mourners included politicians, RCMP officers and members of the Anglican community. During the service Idlout’s coffin was draped in a Canadian flag. Afterwards, RCMP officers folded it and Nunavut commanding officer Chief Supt. Kent Pike presented it to Idlout’s family.

Bp Idlout is survived by his wife Abigail and their children and grandchildren.“He’s going to be missed,” his son Joshua Idlout said after the funeral. ““He made a lot of friends from all of Nunavut, all of Canada. Looks like all over the world because they remembered him. I’m thankful they were given the opportunity to meet him—the father we had.” - With files from Jeff Pelletier of Nunatsiaq News. 

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