About Us

EXPO 2005, JAPAN

The Inuit Cultural Performers are a group of young Inuit who work and perform out of Ottawa, Canada. Because of their ancestry, they are very involved in promoting and preserving the Inuit culture through performing traditional cultural presentations. Their repertoire includes throatsinging, drum dancing, ayaya singing, and Inuit games.

Throatsinging is a unique type of vocalization whereby usually two people face each other and throatsing songs that imitate sounds found in nature and sounds of tools, such as: seagulls, geese, the wind, running water, and the saw. Traditionally, the women who stayed behind in the camp, while the men were hunting, entertained themselves with this friendly kind of competition. The first one to stop singing and start laughing, loses the game. Throatsinging was also a way of singing a lullaby to the children at bedtime, or to calm the babies while they rest in the hood of the amautik.

Drum dancing is also a very traditional way to pass the time on those cold winter nights, and to celebrate the arrival of the sun again in the spring. Originally, the men of the family played the drum, and recently the women also enjoy playing it, with its spiritual and celebratory affect. Traditionally, the drum was made of skin stretched over a circular wooden frame, but nowadays, it is made of nylon which makes it lighter and easier to play.
The drum dancer, while striking a short stick on the frame, moves in fluid motions to the beat of the drum creating a beautiful harmonious dance. In the past, drum dancing was widely played by shamen which took him on his journey to the other world. Quite often the drum dancing was and is accompanied by Ayaya singing to tell a story.

Ayaya singing is mostly an expression of personal experiences that people have passed on through the ages, telling stories of their Inuit culture, their family, celebrations and emotions, hunting and fishing stories, or songs about their
environment and weather.

The performers (who are in their 20’s) wear the traditional outfits. The coats are the amauti (female) or the attigi (male), and the boots are the kamiks, that their ancestors wore and Inuit still wear today. This clothing is not only attractive but very functional and practical for the climate in northern Canada.