ARTS , CULTURE & EDUCATION the stage together, drumming, singing,
trumpeting, harp playing, and fiddling. Again, Cynthia and Annie were a great attraction; their throat singing along with the other voices and instruments created an exciting, colourful background of sight and sound. So far from home, yet they had once more given Europe an exclusive glimpse into their culture and their souls with their Inuit song. Inuqaatigisiaqta — let us be good people
for each other!
Jürgen Boden Story contributor, Jürgen Boden, is the co-owner and publisher of Alouette Verlag, Germany. He is also the editor of the book Canada North of Sixty featuring essays by northern writers and personalities such as Ann Meekitjuk Hanson and pictures by northern photographers.
Author’s Note: Gifted documentary filmmaker Hendrik John filmed the Hamburg concert, as he had the other concert locations. He accompanied Rüdiger Oppermann on various trips to many countries where Oppermann sought out new talent and musical styles unknown to Europeans. Immediately following the Hamburg concert,
Hendrik rushed to edit his documentary about Klangwelten so that at the last concert in Karlsruhe on December 20 the preview version of the film could be publicly shown to mark the 25th anniversary of the concert series. It is hoped that his final version of the film will air on German TV in 2012.
The Origin of Throat-singing
Though my wife Elke and I had visited Baffin Island, the Kivalliq and High Arctic several times in the past and heard throat-singing on TV at that time, we wanted to know more. Asking our Nunavummiut friend, Ann
Meekitjuk Hanson, about the history and background of this special type of throat singing, she answered with the following: “Throat-singing was a girl’s game; now it
has become an entertainment. We used to throat-sing imitating the sounds we knew: birds, wind, animals or anything new. The touching is just to be near each other or for support. The movements are there to cre- ate or to follow the rhythm of one’s song. We sing to last longer than our partner. We laugh at the end because we are secretly trying to get her to stop first so we can be the winner! It is a game to see who lasts longer. When I was broadcasting for CBC in the 1960s and 1970s, I interviewed two women
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and asked them to throat-sing. They were shy at first. Then I told them that we were losing our game, the little girls throat- singing songs which we don’t hear any- more — then they finally agreed. We had so much fun remembering the times when we were living on the land and creating the sounds with our throats and breath. Then I aired the songs. There were
mixed reactions in the beginning, but then people were so pleased to hear the old songs again, the laughter and fun. There was only one caller saying she/he didn’t want to hear these old things because ‘we don’t need it anymore.’ Fortunately I didn’t listen to that caller and we continued to air throat-singing songs. Today, it is so popular at events, not only in Nunavut but also outside of the North. So, we nearly lost throat-singing, if it weren’t for those two women who brought it back to life on air for everyone to hear.”
“Moving Forward” by Temela Aqpik, Kimmirut, Nunavut
© HENDRIK JOHN
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