Pauktuutit's Woman of the Year

"Pauktuutit also chose Kuujjuaq-based throat-singer, drum dancer and performance artist Sylvia Cloutier as its Woman of the Year, recognizing her contributions to Inuit society through her art. Cloutier, the daughter of climate change activist Sylvia Watt-Cloutier, accepted the award by phone from Kuujjuaq. She told the board she had started her work as an artist with Pauktuutit's support in 1995." -Nunatsiaq News, 4/3/09

For full article click here: http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/90403_2031.html

Aqsarniit is an Inuit performing group whose members first came together several years ago to explore their own history and culture, as well as create new music and dances inspired by the northern aboriginal traditions of throat singing and drum dancing.  The performers are from across Canada's Arctic: Nunavut and Nunavik.  There they grew up learning the basics of traditional Inuit music, song and dance.  This art has always reflected the Inuit way of life - living out on the tundra, hunting, camping and celebrating life.

Having spent time training artistically in the south, members of Aqsarniit have continued the Inuit traditions of their heritage, as well as incorporating new elements into their art - aspects they have developed through this modern dance and performance training.   They have also instructed Inuit youth from all over the north in drum dancing, throat singing and ajaaja songs, often recruiting from their trainees to present larger ensemble performances.

Aqsarniit’s performances, while imbued with the richness of a professional stage performance, are not unlike the traditional Inuit performing arts that spawned them.  Their songs are still expressions of individual personal experiences, their dances are still shared in celebration, and throat singing still imitates the same sounds generations have heard growing up - the sounds of nature.  What makes them different today is more polished presentation, and the fact that they perform not only in their own communities, but also in the south and abroad, using the opportunity to bring the world awareness of their Inuit culture and history through music and dance.

THROATSINGING

With its unique rhythm and breathing technique, throat singing has been practiced by the women of the North for centuries.  While the men were out hunting, women stayed home to maintain their homes and raise the children. In the Iglu and Qamak (summer houses made from animal skins), mothers sang to their children, girls followed the women, and they would all sing to their friends for entertainment.  They would generally imitate the sounds of nature.

PHOTO BY: Sebastian "Suki" Belaustegui

Women sang together in friendly competition imitating sounds of animals such as geese, seagulls, dogs … and other creative sounds such as the saw, qamutik (sled) runners, the wind, boiling seal meat, small waves… anything around them.  Their imagination runs free as they create sounds that reflect their Inuit way of life - the sounds of the land.

Just as most women sing songs for their children, Inuit women created melodies of throat singing as a way of loving them. Throat singing is also commonly used to help babies fall asleep while women carry them on their backs in a traditional coat called the Amautik, mother and child bouncing lightly to the beat of the music.

SONG

An “Ajaaja” song is the music that accompanies a drum dance. These songs are sung by families - based on an individual's expression of his or her personal experiences.  A song can be about what one saw or experienced being out on the land, hunting, fishing, an encounter with starvation, sadness, happiness, celebration, weather, the seasons changing, practically any observation unusual or commonplace. They might also be about relationships between people - a mother’s song to a child, a song about family members, friends, etc. It might be a song to warn people of a person or thing to watch out for. The Ajaaja song was as significant and valuable to Inuit society as our newspapers and other media are today.

PHOTO BY: Ed Maruyama

DRUMDANCING

Drum Dancing is as much a dance as it is the playing of an instrument. The performer carries this large round drum in one hand swaying his body rhythmically as he strikes the rim on each side of the handle. Traditionally, eastern arctic Inuit drums were made of driftwood and caribou hide, with thick seal or walrus skin around the hand held stick, giving the drum a deep sound. It used to take four men to make a perfectly tightened drum. Today, some drum dancers use nylon fabric and light lumber to come very close to the traditional sound.  This means less maintenance and a lighter-weight drum, allowing the performer to drum dance longer.

PHOTO BY: Ed Maruyama

There are many occasions when one would drum dance. Traditionally in some regions, two men who were in dispute would resolve it through a drum dance challenge. Their families would get involved by creating a song for them. They would then sing and each man trying to last as long as they could.  The will of the better man would prevail, supposedly proving him right in the dispute.

The drum was in some circles considered a Shaman's instrument- a "Qilauti" Instrument from the Heavens. It would be used in shamanistic and ceremonial, spiritual practices connecting Earth with the spirit world. 

Aside from this, drum dancing was common in community celebrations, especially when the sun returned after a long, dark winter.  The Inuit are a strong and skilled nation who has survived the harshest climate in the world year after year.  At the coming of the sun they celebrate life, extinguishing the "qulliq" - a traditional lamp made of stone used with seal oil and moss, and reveling in the coming of the sun as a renewal of life.

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