Joshim Kakegamic grew up on the Sandy Lake Reserve in northern Ontario alongside his artist brother Goyce Kakegamic and his brother-in-law artist Norval Morrisseau. This self-taught Modernist Cree artist exploded onto the contemporary art scene, impacting it, and the Woodlands School of Art, with great fervor.

In 1993, while on a rescue mission to save someone trapped on the ice, Joshim drowned in Sandy Lake in Northwestern Ontario. This was a great loss to the artistic community and to the Sandy Lake Reserve.

His work is in private and public collections in Canada and abroad including the McMichael Canadian Collection, The Royal Ontario Museum, and others