Valkeapää was born on March 24, 1943, in Enontekiö in Finnish Sápmi to a family of nomadic Sámi reindeer herders.

[2] Valkeapää's music was somewhat controversial in Finland, both for his unorthodoxic inclusion of jazz elements and because Laestadian Sámi often viewed joik as immoral.

[1][6] Valkeapää continued to perform jazz-joik and resisted efforts to "preserve" the traditional form, stating in his book Terveisiä Lapista: "When I hear talk of conserving the culture, I see an investigator of folklore in my mind’s eye, and interpret their activities quite literally: cataloguing a dead culture.

His song Goase Dušše (The Bird Symphony), composed of nature sounds from the Sápmi region, received the jury’s special prize at the Prix Italia radio competition in 1993.

[9] Valkeapää received further international recognition as a musician when he performed at the opening ceremony of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

[1] Valkeapää's first book, Terveisiä Lapista (Greetings from Lapland), was published in 1971 and acted as a political treatise on the issues impacting Sámi people, including condemnations of boarding schools designed for assimilation and land acquisition policies.

[1][10] Valkeapää's debut book of poetry, Giđa ijat čuovgadat (Spring Nights So Bright), was published in 1974.

Many of his paintings were based on Sámi mythological beings, while his pencil drawings often featured birds, people and reindeer.

In 1975, he attended the founding meeting of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP) in Port Alberni, Canada as a Sámi representative of Finland.

[4] He built his house in the traditional lásságámmi style on land he received as a gift from the Storfjord Municipality for his 50th birthday.

[2][7] Valkeapää is recognised and remembered as a vital figure in the revitalization of joik and the Sámi rights movement.

[2] In 2004, the Lásságámmi Foundation was established by the Sámi Parliament of Norway, Storfjord municipality, Troms county, and the University of Tromsø to preserve Valkeapää's legacy and utilise his residence in Skibotn as a space for researchers and artists.