Who is Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk? The Inuit author featured in today's ...

For National Indigenous Peoples Day, Google is honouring Inuit author with a Google Doodle.

Doodles change up the Google logo on the website’s homepage to mark anniversaries and holidays and celebrate famous figures.

The illustration is by Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, an Ottawa-based Inuit artist.

“I know millions of Canadians will see the Doodle, and I’d like to think that ‘Canada’ can go through a rebranding as an Indigenous nation,” said Kabloona in a statement. “But I don’t create for people who need to learn; I create for my own community. I’m thrilled that younger generations of Inuit will be able to see themselves represented in their own country.”

Norma Dunning, a professor at the University of Alberta, said “it’s just incredible” what talent Nappaaluk had as a writer.

Nappaaluk, who died in 2007, lived in Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik, a small town on the Hudson Strait. She’s best known as the writer of one of the very first Inuktitut novels, Saanaq, which was published in 1984.

“It’s an amazing glimpse into our way of life before colonization: full of humour, family and adventure. I loved reading it and learned many new Inuktitut words,” said Kabloona.

It was first translated into French, and later translated into English and published in 2014.

“Because of that incredible timestamp that she was writing within, it covers so many changes that occurred in Canada’s north and you know — they had colonization that occurred so much later, and so much faster to Inuit Canadians in comparison to First Nations or Métis,” said Dunning. “That’s one of the beautiful things about her book. You see the rapidity and change that just occurred, how quick it was. How suddenly Inuit are working outside of their communities.”

Nappaaluk was raised with traditional Inuit practices, and learned to write in Inuktitut syllabics while teaching missionaries how to speak the language. The novel was initially written in Inuktitut syllabics.

By the time she won the Indspire Award in 1999, Nappaaluk had written 22 books, many of them about hunting and fishing, the Inuktitut language, and landscapes of her homeland, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia. She also was involved with the Kativik School Board, contributing to Inuktitut language curricula and cultural awareness.

She was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2004 and received an honourary doctorate of law from McGill University in 2000.

“I think she would love this because she loved people, she loved her community,” said Dunning.