Hello everyone! For this last blog post, I am going to be talking about the music of the Inuit, who are native to Alaska region and Canada. To start off, and to give some context, let's start with their cultural background!

Firstly, the Inuit live all across the artics- from Siberia to Greenland- although just about half of the population live in Alaska. It is also important to note that the name “Inuit” actually translates to “the people” and that, although not too far from Native peoples of the United States mainland, that are actually more similar to those of East Asia, culturally and linguistically speaking. It is also known that the Inuit do not reside in one place, but they move around following hunting seasons: seal, caribou, and fishing. Additionally, opposed to other Native American traditions we have studied, the Inuit have “bilateral kinship,” meaning that both the mother and father’s sides are equally important, rather than a matrilineal society. When it comes to religion, they also believed that “the forces of nature are essentially malevolent,” due to the harsh climate. However, once the “whale trade” began, the Inuit were terribly impacted. Not only was it difficult with the whale trade essentially taken from them, but when the U.S. had bought Alaska disease was also brought in. This pushed them to have to move away from their inland communities towards the coast. From then till now, conditions have only worsened.

In their culture, music and dance had an important role, as they would have what are called “karigi” (ritual dance houses) where they would dance and recite stories during feast times. As you can probably infer, these poems would be about nature and the soul, and they would sing both secular and religious poems with dance to accompany.

In traditional Inuit music, the drum is pretty much essential; you’ll see it is used for any dancing, storytelling and music. Their common drum is a frame drum, called the qilaut, with a handle and with stretched caribou skin over a wooden frame, traditionally. Nowadays, it is more synthetic. These drums also come in a variety of sizes, up to a meter long, and it is hit with a stick called a qatuk along the wooden edge. Here is a video of what the qilaut looks like and how it is played

 

What is really cool about their music, is what we call throat singing, or “katajjaq” in the native language of inuktitut. Like many other cultures, their music was created to resemble nature, with no types of work songs or love songs. Originally, their music was only used for spiritual purposes and ceremonies, and when the Europeans arrived, so did more secular music like “dancing gig,” along with new instruments, such as the accordion and fiddle.

Now, throat singing is quite competitive, much like a game, and it is classified as overtone singing, where you are able to distort the note that you are singing to create its overtones, while breathing in and out. These competitions will have two women sing the intervals back and forth, with a certain rhythm between strong and weak notes, until it is “indistinguishable.” This technique is used to mimic the sounds of nature, like the caribou. This game will continue until one of the participants can no longer go on or until one messes up, and it was originally used to entertain one another while the men were gone on long trips. Here below is a video of two sisters who talk a little bit more about the history of throat singing and demonstrate how it is done!

And here is another example of throat singing! It is a little bit of a poor video quality, but it gets better as it continues and is a good example.

Another type of traditional Inuit music is pisiit. Pisiit is a type of traditional music that was used to tell the stories of what has happened in the past and singing these types of songs is a “living tradition.” When performing these songs,  the only instrument (other than the voice) is the qilaut. In the video below, there is an example of these songs, along with a brief translation of what she is singing. 

An additional style is drum dancing. This type of music combines a single drummer performer along with an Ayaya singer (ayaya is music about personal stories). For these songs there is no specific dance, but the dancers will follow the drummer’s song and rhythm. This activity is usually performed at a gathering after a successful hunt or to honor someone who died. Typically, when one drummer is done, others will then take the drum and play their own song, and this continues throughout the night. The drum dancing is often seen as a celebration of good times, good fortune and happiness. 

As I was searching around for different kinds of examples of this, I discovered that, naturally, there are some variations in how it is performed (number of drummers, setting, etc.) but they all had the common idea of singing about various stories while someone (or a group) dance and play the drum. Down below is a video that kinda encompases what the styles had shown. 

Lastly, in today’s world you can hear western music influences all throughout the region, including folk, hiphop, and rock. This of course leads to some syncretic music as you could assume! This is a band called “The Jerry Cans,” and they are a mostly indie rock group, except they also have throat singing, accordion and violin. Their music talks about their home communities and about themes of “love, anxiety, desperation and grief.” Below is a song of theirs, I think it sounds really cool!

Bentham, Morgan. “Traditional Inuit Music.” leapintothevoidwithme (blog). April 12, 2016,  https://leapintothevoidwithme.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/traditional-inuit-music/ 

Canadian Geographic. “Performing arts.” Inuit. Accessed February 4, 2021. https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/article/performance-arts/#:~:text=everyone%20to%20enjoy.-,Music,and%20throat%20singing%20in%20English.&text=The%20technical%20characteristics%20of%20Inuit,a%20relatively%20small%20melodic%20range. 

J. Sydney Jones. “Inuit.” World Culture Encyclopedia. Accessed February 4, 2021. https://www.everyculture.com/multi/Ha-La/Inuit.html

The Jerry Cans. “About.” The Jerry Cans. Accessed February 4, 2021. https://www.thejerrycans.com/about 

Travel Nunavut. “Music and Performance.” Travel Nunavut. Accessed February 4, 2021. https://travelnunavut.ca/things-to-see-do/music-performance-art/