Unipkaaqtuat II in Kugluktuk: A Field Dispatch from James Raffan
In late January, community members in Kugluktuk gathered for a special community concert and film premiere that celebrated Inuit musical storytelling, drum dancing, and the deep cultural significance of Inuuhiqaqtut Naunaitkutait. Held alongside Artscan Circle’s three-day music and songwriting workshop, the event brought together local cultural leaders, youth, and visiting mentors for an evening of shared stories, song, and celebration.
Featuring a film by Trevor J. Wallace and James Raffan, and performances by community members and artists including Susie Qihuulik, Joe Allen Evyagotailak, Ken Taptuna, Lynn Moorman, Barney and Dustin Bentall, the gathering reflected the heart of Inipkaaqtuat II: creating space for music, culture, and community connection to come together on Inuit land.
What follows is James Raffan’s field dispatch from Kugluktuk — a firsthand reflection on the relationships, learning, and powerful moments that shaped this week of music-making, mentorship, and storytelling.
Four of us—Barney, Dustin, Lynn and I—arrived in Kugluktuk on the flight from Yellowknife last Monday and were welcomed by Joe and Susie Evyagotailak at their home. Joe met us at the airport and was our Skidüber driver to get our instruments and other stuff to their place—Frosty but fun!
Our three-day workshop began on Tuesday morning in the Milukshuk Centre, the same lovely space that was provided two years ago by the Hamlet (That one of our workshop stars, Lalita Atatahak standing at the door).
Each of the three days of the workshop had a more structured morning followed by less structured afternoons to allow for one-on-one or small group mentoring with the instructional team.
Tuesday, we did introductions, with stories about our relationships with songs, song-writing and music generally. Having Susie, Joe and Ken there to get the workshop started made all the difference for grounding the project in the community. One of the participants, Patrick Akana, had an amazing list of songs that he was learning so, from time to time, we'd take a musical break and crank through one or other of his favourites, talking afterwards about the structure and form of the song, taking time to work though any chord progressions that others were finding difficult. Embedding videos will make this email unwieldy but try to imagine the gang cranking out Tom Petty or John Fogarty with enthusiasm and smiles all around.
Wednesday, Lynn and Joe co-hosted a song-building session based on a classroom-sized floor map of the Arctic. This seemed to keep everyone's attention and was a one-off kind of cross-cultural instructional duo that was totally engaging. Here's Joe pointing out a place on the map and telling yet another story that one day might make it into song.
Wednesday night was our film premiere and concert, which went very well. The show opened with Susie (with two helpers) doing a ceremonial kulliq lighting.
That led to a local trio, led by MLA Simon Kuliktana, doing a set that included a couple of story tunes sung in Inuinnaqtun.
Barney and Dustin followed with a short set of tunes that led to the four of us singing a rendition of Susie's Song/Land of a Thousand Drums as a lead-in to the film premiere. The film premiere was perfect (great sound and projection) except that about two minutes into the running of the film I managed to kick the extension cord powering the projector out of the wall ... aside from that the premiere went without a hitch.
On Thursday, Joe did a wonderful drum session to add to the musical mix of the week, talking about the history and origins of Inuit drums and drumming, followed by some practise with traditional singing and drumming followed by a freeform drum session to Zach Top's Sounds Like The Radio played at maximum volume on somebody's phone.
The afternoons had many small memoriable moments from the less-structured mentoring.
One particularly touching (and intense) exchange grew out of work by two of the youth on songs remembering friends and family members who had taken their own lives. When it was clear we had made our way into emotionally-charged ground, two of our workshop leader did some masterful teaching. Dustin sang Hurts Like Hell and then explained how this was written by his friend Jay Smith, who had also taken his own life. He then rolled up his sleeve to show how he'd remembered Jay for all time by getting a likeness of his friend (from an album cover) tattooed on his forearm.
This story tweaked Lynn's memory of friend of hers who had died similarly and about whom she had written a song, a home recording of which she played on her phone, which was also memorable and very helpful, I think, for the youth who were thinking and writing about their own grief and pain.
A powerful example of how songwriting supported emotional expression came when one youth participant asked for an additional writing session on our final morning. Together, we captured a rough recording of their original song, giving them a strong foundation to continue developing their work after the workshop.
The wonderful Artscan merch sent arrived the day we left but happily our colleague KHS teacher, Kenny Taptuna, was able to make amazing swag bags all the workshop participants and helpers that he's planning to distribute early this week.
So all-in-all, Inipkaaqtuat II was a success, thanks in no small measure to ArtscanCircle's support of the venture.