Nunavik rocks Norway

Nunavik performers had enthusiastic audiences at last week’s Riddu Riddu festival in Arctic Norway, where attendance at the circumpolar arts, music and culture bash broke all previous records.

Over four days and nights, Riddu Riddu, which means stormy wind off the water in the Sámi language, featured the best of Nunavik’s performing arts at its outdoor stage, located in the shadow of the surrounding mountains.

About 20 Nunavimmiut, including Adamie Alaku, vice-president of Makivik Corporation, and Rhoda Kokiapik, executive director of Avataq Cultural Institute, travelled to Manndalen, located north of the city of Tromsø in northern Norway.

Riddu Riddu 2004 included a line-up of well-known Nunavik musicians, including Taima, with Elisapie Isaac and Alain Auger, Edward Snowball and his band Sinuupa, Maaki Putulik and Laina Grey with their throatsinging duo Puppuq as well as throatsingers Akinisie Sivuaraapik and Evie Mark.

“They gave excellent concerts and they charmed people,” Riddu Riddu president Henrik Olsen said after the festival had wrapped up.

To Riddu Riddu from Nunavut came Tanya Tagaq Gillis. Gillis, who has recorded with the popular Icelandic rocker Björk, performed with Origami Arktika, a band from Oslo that played acoustic rock, with improvised segments and throatsinging.

“Tanya also did a very exciting show,” Olsen said.

Other events included a Nunavik Day, with a traditional food tasting and fashion show, featuring designs by Vickie Okpik of Nunavik Creations as well as workshops with Puvirnituq carver Joshua Sivuaraapik, dollmaker Elisapee Inukpuk from Inukjuak and Kuujjuaq printmaker Victoria Grey.

At the Riddu Riddu film festival, several films from and about Nunavik were also screened.

Every year, Riddu Riddu reaches out to other circumpolar regions and indigenous peoples to spotlight the music, art and culture from one particular northern, indigenous people. Thanks to interest generated from Puppuq’s performance last summer, Nunavik Inuit were invited as the festival’s featured indigenous people of 2004.

Riddu Riddu worked closely with Makivik and Avataq to organize the performances and apply for funding to pay for the trip. The Canada Council, Quebec arts council, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Quebec’s department for culture and communications, the Canadian embassy in Oslo, the federal department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, First Air and Air Inuit all gave money, so that Nunavik could be showcased at Riddu Riddu.

“It went very well. I think we have made very good relations between Sámi and Nunavik for the future. Some of the performers will come back. There are exciting things we will follow up on for sure,” Olsen said.

Sámi activists started the Riddu Riddu festival 13 years ago as a way of preserving their own endangered culture in Arctic Europe. Sámi, who number 100,000, continue to struggle for political and cultural recognition in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia.

Some Sámi now consider Riddu Riddu to have more political importance than Norway’s Sámi Parliament or the Nordic Sámi Council. This year Sámi political leaders, including Sven Roald-Nystø, president of the Norwegian Sámi Parliament, and Ole-Henrik Magga, who heads the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, were both on hand to underline the festival’s importance to the North.