Susan Aglukark set to release memoir
‘Kihiani: A Memoir of Healing’ to be released on Sept. 2, followed by book tour in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia
Juno Award–winning singer-songwriter Susan Aglukark will release a memoir, “Kihiani: A Memoir of Healing,” on Sept. 2. An upcoming tour to promote the book includes stops in Toronto, Ottawa, Sarnia, Calgary and Vancouver. (File photo)
Juno Award–winning singer-songwriter Susan Aglukark is taking on a different form of art — a book looking back on her life.
Titled Kihiani: A Memoir of Healing, it’s set for release Sept. 2, coinciding with a cross-country book tour.
Born in Fort Churchill, Man., and raised in Arviat, Aglukark says the book is the culmination of years of reflection on both her personal story and the wider history of her community.
“The memoir is a personal memoir,” she said in an interview in February, before her national tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of her third album This Child.
“I’m very close to 60, and I really feel at this point in my life I’m ready to tell that story,” she said.
Kihiani: A Memoir of Healing is being published by HarperCollins Canada and is co-written by CBC Music associate producer and pop culture writer Andrea Warner.
The memoir follows Aglukark’s life from her childhood in Arviat, through her rise as a musical talent and becoming the first Inuk artist to win a Juno Award.
The book also shares her reflections on intergenerational trauma and healing.
“We’re living in environments of crisis, not community,” said Aglukark.
“In the first third of the story, people will read about the beauty of our communities because that is so connected to who we are as Inuit,” she said, adding that the trauma of residential schools and colonization has prevented communities from healing.
The memoir also revisits the moment Aglukark left Rankin Inlet as a young woman, after experiencing abuse.
“Thirty years ago, I had no choice but to leave and start over. I couldn’t live safely in a community where my abuser still resided,” she said.
“Throughout the memoir, I share the tools I had access to that became part of the healing journey and I wanted to share that.”
Aglukark’s national book tour will begin in Ontario on Sept. 2 at Another Story Bookshop in Toronto, before stops in Ottawa on Sept. 4 and Sarnia on Sept. 8. She then plans to head to Calgary on Sept. 22, and Vancouver on Sept. 23.
These events, most of which are free, will include a talk and book-signing. They are presented in partnership with local literary festivals and Indigenous cultural organizations.
Susan is very brave to open up like this.
I hope people take the time to learn about her experience and reflections on being abused, while still being able to become an amazing person who has touched the hearts and lives of so many.
Certainly, this will be on my reading list.
Very disappointed that her publicist did not have the forst opening in Arviat at least.
However, I hope there will be an opportunity to buy the memoir here somewhere.
Caught in a frozen past of an abused child there are many women. The research info on the numbers percentage of the population who’ve been thru the mill is high, it is far more prevalent than we would think. Abuse in a family devestates home life. It remains probably more often than not being taken care of, a loss of living well, mental health. I say that from my experience of having lived with sisters who were abused and into their adult years carry locked in the frozen past. Sad! The memory of abusive relations can be healed, but it means making the hard choice and effort and seeking out professional care.