Inuit often identify three traditional forms of music that are integral to their culture: katajjaq (vocal games), qilautiqtuq (drum dancing) and ajaja (personal songs with drums). Contact and trade with European whalers beginning in the 1800s brought an array of Western influences to Inuit communities. The introduction of accordions, jaw harps and fiddles along with their respective musical forms like polkas, jigs, and reels of the Scottish Isles and Highlands would forever change the landscape of traditional Inuit music. The arrival of Christian missionaries in the mid-nineteenth century, forced conversions, and the policies of Indian Residential Schools promoted gospel music and hymns, adding another layer of Western influence on Inuit music. The influence of Western music on Inuit culture continued in the 1960s and 1970s when the availability of radio introduced country and rock and roll to remote communities. The relative ease and accessibility to media from southern Canada gave even remote Inuit communities the opportunity to listen to, experience and partake in a variety of musical genres, so much so that some Inuit consider country and rock and roll to be just as traditional as katajjaq. More recently, the availability of internet and access to free platforms of sharing and exchanging music has enabled Hip-Hop, Rap, Reggae and Electronic Dance Music (among many other popular genres) to become an integral aspect of Inuit music and culture. The aim of this paper is twofold; first, I will track how life in Residential School influenced music making among Inuit children and youth. Second, I will trace how these musical influences make themselves apparent in the musical and artistic output of Inuit musicians during the 1960s, to the present day. By examining how Western music influences Inuit music making, I hope to highlight the ways in which Inuit have been engaging with modernity.
About the presenterRaj Shobha Singh
Raj Singh, PhD, is a music researcher in the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University. Her interests include critical Indigenous theory, Indigenous methodologies and Indigenous modernity. Her current work examines how Inuit musicians combine traditional and contemporary forms of music to include new realms of lived experiences. Moreover, her work with Inuit hip hoppers interrogates the intersections between gender, identity, and race as they relate to individual and communal notions of belonging.