Pitaloosie was born in Cape Dorset in 1942. She spent her childhood years in various hospitals in Quebec and Ontario for treatment of tuberculosis during which time she learned English and recalls the difficulty she experienced in relearning her native language upon her return to Baffin Island in 1957. 

Pitaloosie began drawing in the early 1960's, and consistently maintained her own individual style. Her work has been included in annual Cape Dorset collections since 1968. Her wide choice of subjects include people, animals, birds, traditional events and mythic beings.

Since the late 1960's, Pitaloosie made frequent trips to southern Canada to attend exhibitions and conferences. In 1967, she spent several weeks in Toronto while her husband, sculptor Pauta, participated in an International Sculpture Symposium. Subsequently, she visited Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, Kansas City and Vermont. 

Her work has been featured in solo drawing exhibitions; the most recent held at the Inuit Galerie in Mannheim, Germany. 
Pitaloosie was one of nine featured artists in the acclaimed exhibition Isumavut: The Artistic Expression of Nine Cape Dorset Women, which opened at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in the fall of 1994. 

Exhibitions

• 1987 Eskimo Art, Franz Bader Gallery
• Arctic Mirror, Canadian Museum of Civilization
• Arctic Spirit 35 Years of Canadian Inuit Art, Frye Art Museum
• Arctic Vision: Art of the Canadian Inuit, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Canadian Arctic Producers
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie Akenaton
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie Maite Aubert
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie Montador
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Chapelle de la Visitation
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie Ombre et Lumiere
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie La Tour des Cardinaux
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie Humbert
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at La Halle aux Bles
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Palais de l'Europe
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Le Theatre
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Palais de l'Europe
• Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Thonon les Bains
• Art Inuit, l'Art des Esquimaux du Canada, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Maison Falleur, Cambrai
• Art Inuit, la Sculpture des Esquimaux du Canada, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Chapelle de la Visitation, Thonon
• Art Inuit, la Sculpture des Esquimaux du Canada, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Centre d'Action Culturelle du Bassin Houllier, Lorrain, Saint Avold
• Art Inuit: Autour de la Collection de Cape Dorset 1990, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Centre Culturel Canadien
• Art Inuit: Autour de la Collection de Cape Dorset 1991, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Le Colombier
• Break-up and Freeze-up, The Arctic Circle
• Canadian Eskimo Arts Festival, Alaska Methodist University Galleries
• Canadian Eskimo Lithographs: Third Collection, Presented under the auspices of the Cultural Affairs Division of the Department of External Affairs Canada
• Cape Dorset Engravings, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, circulated by the Art Gallery of Ontario
• Cape Dorset Graphics *68, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *69, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *70, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *71, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *72, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *73, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *74, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *75, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *76, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *77, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *78, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *80, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *81, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *84, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *85, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *86, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *87, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *88, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *90, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *91, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *92, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Graphics *94, (annual collection)
• Cape Dorset Lithographs 1978, The Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art
• Cape Dorset Prints and Sculpture, McMaster Art Gallery
• Cape Dorset Revisited, McMichael Canadian Art Collection
• Cape Dorset Revisited - a collection of previously unreleased prints, exhibited at selected commercial galleries, organized by, West Baffin Eskimo Co-op
• Cape Dorset Women Artists Kenojuak, Pitaloosie and Lucy, Gallery Indigena
• Contemporary Canadian Eskimo Art, Gimpel Fils
• Contemporary Inuit Drawings, Muscarelle Museum of Art College of William and Mary
• Drawings by Pitaloosie Saila, Cape Dorset, Albers Gallery of Inuit Art
• Eskimo Art, Robertson Galleries
• Eskimo Art, Queens Museum
• Estampes Inuit: Trois Graveurs de Cape Dorset, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie Musepict
• Flights of Fancy - Kenojuak Ashevak, Lucy Qinnuayuak, Pitaloosie Saila, Art Gallery of Ontario
• Glaciopolis: Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Maison de Pesey
• Grasp Tight the Old Ways: Selections from the Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art, Art Gallery of Ontario
• Im Schatten der Sonne: Zeitgenossische Kunst der Indianer und Eskimos in Kanada/In the Shadow of the Sun: Contemporary Indian and Inuit Art in Canada, Canadian Museum of Civilization
• Imaak Takujavut: The way we see it Paintings from Cape Dorset, McMichael Canadian Art Collection
• Images of the Far North, Arctic Artistry (held at the Erie County Fairgrounds)
• Images of the Far North, Studio Art Gallery, State University of New York
• Images of the Inuit: from the Simon Fraser Collection, Simon Fraser Gallery, Simon Fraser University
• Immaginario Inuit Arte e cultura degli esquimesi canadesi, Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea
• In Cape Dorset We Do It This Way: Three Decades of Inuit Printmaking, McMichael Canadian Art Collection
• Inuit Games/Inuit Pinguangit/Jeux des inuit, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
• Inuit Graphic Art from Indian & Northern Affairs Canada, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Inuit Graphics and Drawings from 1959-1990, Arctic Artistry
• Inuit Graphics from the Past, Arctic Artistry
• Inuit Graphics Through the Year: Rare Prints from the Arctic, Arctic Artistry
• Inuit Traditions in Graphics: 1961-1987, Arctic Artistry
• Inuit Woman: Life and Legend in Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Inuk, Inuit: Art et tradition chez les esquimaux d'hier et d'aujourd'hui, presented by L'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai, at Musee des Beaux-arts d'Arras
• Isumavut:The Artistic Expression of Nine Cape Dorset Women, Canadian Museum of Civilization
• Kunst van de Inuit Eskimo's, Gemeentelijk Kunstcentrum Huis Hellemans
• Mother and Child: Sculpture and Prints, Albers Gallery
• Mother and Child: Selections from the Inuit Collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Gallery of Ontario
• Northern Exposure: Inuit Images of Travel, Burnaby Art Gallery
• On the Land, The Arctic Circle
• Patiently I Sing Selections from the Tyler/Brooks Collection, Carleton University Art Gallery
• Pitaloosie and Pauta, McMichael Canadian Art Collection
• Pitaloosie Saila, Inukshuk Gallery
• Pitaloosie Saila Drawings, Gallery One
• Pitaloosie Saila Graphics, Arctic Artistry
• Pitaloosie Saila: Original Drawings, Albers Gallery
• Polar Vision: Canadian Eskimo Graphics, Jerusalem Artists' House Museum
• Retrospective Prints and Recent Drawings by Pitaloosie, Beckett Gallery
• Return of the Birds, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver
• Sedna: Spirit of the Sea, Feheley Fine Arts
• The Ancestors/Links Between Worlds, Minnesota Museum of Art
• The Art of the Eskimo, Simon Fraser Gallery, Simon Fraser University
• The Cape Dorset Print, Presented at Rideau Hall by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada
• The Inuit Print/L'estampe inuit, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the National Museum of Man
• The Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art from the Art Gallery of Ontario, University of Guelph
• The Last and First Eskimos, Museum of Science and History
• The Lindsay and Swartz Collections: New Acquisitions, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• The Way We Were - Traditional Eskimo Life, Snow Goose Associates
• Transformation, The Arctic Circle
• We Lived by Animals/Nous Vivions des Animaux, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in cooperation with the Department of External Affairs
• Women of the North: An Exhibition of art by Inuit Women of the Canadian Arctic, Marion Scott Gallery
• Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection of Inuit Art, Canadian Guild of Craft Quebec

Collections

• Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston
• Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth
• Amway Environmental Foundation Collection, Ada
• Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria
• Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton
• Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa
• Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec, Montreal
• Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull
• CIBC Collection, Toronto
• Confederation Centre of the Arts, Charlottetown
• Dennos Museum Center, Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City
• Department of Foreign Affairs, Ottawa
• Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton
• Glenbow Museum, Calgary
• Inuit Cultural Institute, Rankin Inlet
• Klamer Family Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
• London Regional Art Gallery, London
• Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph
• McMaster University Art Gallery, Hamilton
• McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg
• Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon
• Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal, Montreal
• Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
• Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, Calgary
• Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife
• Simon Fraser Gallery, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby
• Teleglobe Canada, Montreal
• University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge
• Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg

Accomplishments

• In 1977, Canada Post issued a stamp depicting her print Fisherman's Dream.
• Her lithograph In the Hills represented the Northwest Territories in the centennial celebration of the National Parks of Canada, 1985.
• Amnesty International, the international human rights organization, selected a drawing by Pitaloosie entitled Mother and Child to use for their 1990 Christmas card.