Serapio Ittusardjuat was born in a qarmaq (sod house) at Akunniq (between Sanirajak and Igloolik, Nunavut) on February 1, 1945. He went to residential school in Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, and Fort Churchill, Manitoba. He studied art, jewellery making, and metalwork at the Ottawa School of Art and Nunavut Arctic College, and was a certified journeyman mechanic. Serapio came from a long line of walrus hunters. He organized walrus hunts from his summer camp every year. He also went caribou hunting with family and friends.
