Nunavut-wide tour aims to teach ancient Inuit songs to youth
Workshops also aim to talk about mental health
The artists with Arctic Song are touring Nunavut from March 10 until April 12. (Photo courtesy of Helena Vallès photography/Apathy is Boring)
Arctic Song has embarked on a month-long tour of Nunavut.
The music ensemble, which is part of Qaggiavuut, combines ancient Inuit drum songs, or pisiit, with contemporary choreography. The group will host youth workshops to share those traditional songs, as well as help youth develop performance skills.
The group also hopes to put to use some lessons they’ve learned during a recent tour of southern Canada, with the aim of having conversations with youth “about some of the harder things” involving mental health, said Kathleen Merritt, one of the program managers for Arctic Song.
Such conversations often occur naturally when you create a space for art and learning, said Merritt. “We know this from experience,” she said.
To prepare for these workshops, Arctic Song’s members underwent training that brought them through Canada’s North and south.
It began in 2018, when artists from across Canada’s Arctic came together to work with elders and choreographers, preparing for a November show in Iqaluit.
After their show, Arctic Song travelled to Montreal, where they learned from renowned Indigenous choreographer Carlos Rivera.
Their training paid off: Arctic Song’s Montreal performance at the Folk Alliance International Conference stunned audiences. Their performance at Ottawa’s Winterlude, where Qaggiavuut also had a video installation, was successful as well.
After the conference, Arctic Song spent another two weeks at Montreal’s National Theatre School.
Before coming back, the group made another stop: Toronto’s Apathy is Boring retreat, held by a non-profit organization that encourages youth to contribute to Canadian democracy. At the retreat, Arctic Song connected “with other youth who are engaging in their communities,” said Merritt.
Now the artists have come back and put what they’ve learned into use.
Part of that involves recognizing how, by creating the opportunity for difficult conversations, Arctic Song and Qaggiavuut are also putting people in a position to be vulnerable.
That’s why they want to focus on safety and support. “There’s a whole lot more to that than just putting on a show,” said Merritt.
They’re also bringing mental wellness support workers to help the artists.
After their workshop, Arctic Song will also leave a tablet computer in each community, which has a digital app that features recordings of elders teaching the artists. The app will allow youth to continue learning the songs after Arctic Song leaves.
Arctic Song started their tour on March 10 in Gjoa Haven and will end the tour on April 12 in Cambridge Bay. Other communities on their tour include Coral Harbour, Taloyoak, Arviat, Rankin Inlet, Iqaluit and Igloolik.
I wonder how ancient the songs are. These days ayaya songs are just borrowed from recent songs… maybe mid to late 1900s. Ancient songs have lyrics that are not used anymore and are quite difficult to understand what they mean. If we can understand the words in their songs then I’d think that they’re not really ancient.
Rather than teaching borrowed traditional songs, why not teach youth how to make their own ayaya songs?
Perhaps the use of a term like ‘ancient’ is more optic, performative and theatrical than realistic.
Hi there! Thanks for the query about ancient–these young artists have trained with elders and knowledge keepers from each region of Nunavut beginning in August, 2018 when we held the first Pisiit course. The songs are truly ancient–they required the elder to spend over one hour explaining the meaning of the song and fielding questions as well as many questions about terminology and meaning. In 10 days, the group of 32 artists and educators were unable to learn even one song! These artists have learned a great appreciation for the complexity of pisiit, they have learned some by heart and continue to learn more. It will be a long process, one of our elder-facilitators told us it took her two years to learn one song.
Wonderful! Another great example of a broader cultural renaissance that’s happening among young Inuit today. As Louis Riel declared before he was hanged in 1885: “My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.” And so it is today in the North.