Alianait festival set to start June 21 in Iqaluit

Performers and spectators enjoy the show outside the Alianait tent on Canada Day last year. (PHOTO BY ED MARUYAMA)

Alianait’s blend of Inuit, other aboriginal Canadian and international music and art will spread beyond Iqaluit this year, with follow-up performances in Greenland and Igloolik once the 10-day festival in Nunavut’s capital is over.

This year’s Artcirq collaboration with Greenlandic dance group, Nuummi Alikkusersuisartut Isiginnaartitsisartullu Peqatigiffiat, will move to Nuuk, Greenland to perform at the Inuit Circumpolar Council’s annual general assembly, which starts June 28.

Meanwhile, many of the other Nunavut and southern performers will head in another direction, to Igloolik’s new Rockin’ Walrus Festival on July 1.

Iqaluit festival-goers will still get their annual dose of music, storytelling, film and athletics between June 21 and July 1, including a reunion of many of Nunavummiut who performed at the Vancouver Olympics.

It’s the sixth Alianait festival in Iqaluit, and this year’s theme is “cultural fusions,” explained Heather Daley, the festival’s organizer and founder.

It will be the first time that Nunavut’s Olympics performers strut their stuff for the public in Nunavut, with two shows lined up for June 26.

Their only other performance in Iqaluit was a private show for the G7 finance ministers and other VIPs this past February.

The Nunavummiut and Greenlanders will have only three days to create a new routine, since the Greenlanders arrive in Iqaluit on June 23.

For the pre-Alianait show on National Aboriginal Day Jun 21, among the acts are three members of the Wenuskewin International Dance Troupe, in town to perform at grand opening of the First Nations Bank.

This year’s musical lineup includes several Juno winners and nominees.

These include The Mighty Popo, whose sound is a fusion of jazz, blues, rock and roll, and the traditions of the African continent that Popo fled as a refugee.

Toronto-based Jaffa Road’s music blends neighbouring cultures of southwestern Asia: Jewish, Arab and Indian, with North American jazz.

Winning awards from both the Junos and Canadian Aboriginal Music Award this year, the band Digging Roots’s music is one part jazz, one part indie rock, one part hip hop, and one part blues.

Daley was particularly excited about the presence of Mike Stevens, who she called one of the best harmonica players in the world.

Throughout the festival, Iqaluit will also showcase local musical talents through Joshua Qaumariaq, Emily Woods, Greg McLaughlin, Celina Kalluk, Jamal Shirley, Jeff Maurice and many others.

Many of the acts are also offering workshops to the public, bringing some new forms to Iqaluit’s aspiring musicians such as Punjabi Folf and Middle Eastern sound, gypsy jazz and Indian dance.

Alianait’s film day will include showings of Seeing Maggie Pootoogook, a documentary film shot in Iqaluit and John Houston’s latest film, The White Archer.

The lead children’s act is the Funky Mommas, a quintet of women from Ontario whose act is interactive, educational and musical.

The Alianait schedule is available online at www.alianait.ca/calendar/.