Fashion Design

Taalrumiq is not only the name of her label, business and social media channels, but her traditional Inuit name, used in her professional work.

As a contemporary Canadian Indigenous Fashion Designer, Taalrumiq, (english name Christina Gruben King), shares Inuvialuit culture with the world through creating meaningful couture pieces, garments and accessories, incorporating traditional designs with a contemporary vision, each piece with a story to tell. Using the same skills, talent and passion inherited from her long matrilineal line of expert Inuit Seamstresses and Gwich'in Jijuu, what was once necessary for survival is now not solely for survival but cultural preservation, reclaiming and taking pride in Indigenous identity, storytelling and creative expression. Inuvialuit culture and history from an Inuvialuit perspective.

2022 Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity Indigenous Haute Couture fashion residency 

2022 1 of 10 Inuit Sealskin Designers to watch, Inuit Art Foundation

2022 Indigenous Fashion Arts Marketplace

2023 APTN 7TH GEN, season 2, episode 4

2024 Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity Indigenous Haute Couture fashion residency: Digital embellishments

2024 Indigenous Fashion Arts runway

2024 1 of 10 Inuvialuit Performers and Designers to know, Inuit Art Foundation

2022 - 2024 arts events and fashion shows across Canada

Fine Art

Using the same ancient traditional materials that her mother, grandmothers and ancestors used, Taalrumiq creates original Inuit fine art that reference Inuvialuit history, their contemporary existence and experience in today's world. She sources traditional materials from the Inuvialuit Settlement Region with help from family and friends.

Taalrumiq fine art pieces were featured in exhibits across Canada including ‘Breathe.’ and ‘Breathe. II,’ 'Unmasking the Pandemic, from personal protection to personal expression' at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, ON and a mural art collaboration featured on the Home Base Youth Centre in Yellowknife, NT. 

2023 Inuit identity medallion art piece, Slice.ca and History

Inuvialuit-izing digital spaces

Taalrumiq’s social media channels feature compelling, educational short format videos about Inuvialuit culture, art, clothing, traditional cuisine, lifestyle, as well as original skits and humour. She is Inuvialuit-izing popular trends, ensuring authentic representation and visibility on popular social media platforms.

2021 Indigenous Creator Circle, TikTok Canada

2021 TikTok Accelerator for Indigenous Creators, presented by the National Screen Institute of Canada

2022 TikTok North America Community managed creator

2023 Food Network Canada digital content creator

2023 TikTok University - content creation professional development

2024 TikTok Canada Visionary Voices 2024

Cultural Educator

Background

Taalrumiq hails from Tuktuuyaqtuuq (Tuktoyaktuk), Northwest Territories. She was raised with her Inuvialuit family and community in Tuktuuyaqtuuq, Inuvialuit Settlement Region on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, immersed in Sallirmiut Inuvialuit culture. Inuvialuit are the Inuit of Canada’s western arctic.

Born in a segregated Indian Hospital in Amiskwaciwâskahikan, treaty 6 territory (Edmonton, AB) to an Inuvialuk Mother and Gwich'in Father, both residential school survivors.

Gifted an ancestral name at birth, Taalrumiq was named after her great grandmother, Taalrumiq (Mary Gruben), by local Elders in the customary Inuvialuit way. It wasn’t until adulthood she felt pride and courage to reclaim and actively use her traditional name.

Sewing alongside her mother from a young age, learning and living Inuvialuit ways of being, her cultural identity is Inuvialuit, though she is proud of her Gwich’in background, enjoying every opportunity to learn more.

Taalrumiq descends from a long matrilineal line of expert Inuit seamstresses and beadwork artists from her patrilineal Gwich’in line.

Taalrumiq is a married mother of 5, currently an urban Inuvialuk residing in northern BC, on unceded, traditional lands of the Tsimshian.

 

Formal Education

Land based program on Indigenous self determination, hide camp and Inuvialuit way of being

Bachelor of Science in Human Ecology, Career & Technology Studies: Home Economics major, art minor

Bachelor of Education in Secondary Education

Journeyman Red Seal, Hairstylist

 

Workshops

Sealskin Solidarity Heart Pin sewing workshop to bring awareness and facilitate conversation about the Residential School System and healing through sewing with an ancient Inuit material

Sealskin rainbow pins & necklaces

Sealskin & fox fur beaded earrings

Public Speaking 

Cultural presentations, panelist, motivational speaking

Social Media Training 

Sharing what I have learned to facilitate learning for creating, growing and maintaining a social media presence