I'm a Real Inuk; I Love to Sing! Interactions
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“INULARIUYUNGA; IMNGIRNIK QUVIGIYAQAQTUNGA!”—I’M A REAL INUK; I LOVE TO SING! INTERACTIONS BETWEEN MUSIC, INUMMARIIT, AND BELIEF IN AN INUIT COMMUNITY SINCE RESETTLEMENT by ©Mary Elizabeth Piercey-Lewis A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Music Memorial University of Newfoundland May 2015 St. John’s Newfoundland Abstract Arviat (previously Eskimo Point) is a small predominantly Inuit hamlet in Nunavut, which in 2006 had 2,060 residents. Like all other native communities in the Canadian north, Arviat has experienced, and is experiencing, tremendous change. The nomadic iglu-dwellers have become sedentary wage workers and/or sophisticated harvesters of Arctic char and other natural resources. In spite of cultural and social change, Inuit feel a strong continuity between their past and present. Many born and raised on the land now occupy key economic, political, managerial, and educational positions within an administrative apparatus that did not even exist fifty-five years ago. Many Inuit accept change as it comes, and make modifications in their lifestyle and cultural habits based on their strong sense of Inuit identity. This strong sense of Inuit identity is based on an Inuit concept called inummariit, which translates as “real Inuit.” Most Inuit live by a belief system based on living like a “true Inuk.” How Inuit conceptualize living the “Inuit way” or inummariit is diverse and complex. Furthermore, inummariit identity is constantly changing. This can be seen in how Inuit have negotiated outside influences such as Christianity, fox trapping, media, technology, and syllabic reading and writing into the same body of Inuit traditional knowledge as hunting caribou, oral tradition, and survival on the land. This dissertation investigates the ways in which music, inummariit, and belief interact in the Inuit community of Arviat. It examines how Inuit belief systems have changed and developed in response to resettlement and colonialism using music as a i portal to understand personal negotiations and transitions. To accomplish this goal, the musical stories of three generations of three musically oriented Inuit families are examined: the Illungiayoks, the Okatsiaks, and the Mamgarks. Using Bourdieu’s (1977) theory of generations and in particular his notion of habitus, I analyze stability and change in the music performed by Inuit in Arviat, revealing the many ways in which inummariit is conceptualized by generations. An examination of the distinctive generational cohorts which have shaped Arviat’s history, politics, and culture provides an understanding of how twenty-first century Inuit think about music and contemporary Inuit life. The Illungiayoks are a family of tradition-bearers who perform the traditional Inuit drum dance in contemporary contexts. This dissertation examines the connection between the performance of traditional Inuit drum dances and the concept of inummariit for three generations of male Inuit from the same family. I argue that the performance of the drum dance and its accompanying song parallel generational ideas about Inuit social organization and identity negotiation. The history of interaction between Inuit and their colonizers suggests that the current practice of drum dancing is one means employed by Inuit to preserve some of their traditions and to empower Inuit to attempt to assert local sovereignties, identities (whether sub-group specific or pan-Inuit), and expressions. The Okatsiaks are the music and song leaders at the Anglican Church in Arviat. This dissertation examines the ways music and inummariit are negotiated in the performance of religious rites. The performance of Kuukpaluk—the River at Easter is a Christian rite which connects Inuit with their past, both Anglican and Inuit. This dissertation shows that it is not only a tradition of the past, it is a dynamic event practiced ii today; an event that has evolved and changed over the decades. Issues of syncretism between Christianity and traditional Inuit ideology are discussed, revealing how contesting and accepting conceptualizations of inummariit are enacted simultaneously. The Mamgarks are adherents to the Catholic faith. The matriarch is the song leader at the Catholic Church in Arviat. The present study extrapolates understandings of inummariit from the religious practice of three generations of women from the Mamgark family. Through the examination of the enactment of the Mass, localized and local hymn texts,1 and the radically different generational attitudes toward music and Catholicism, generational conceptualizations of inummariit are revealed. This study focuses on the Inuit concept of identity—inummariit. Inummariit, the true Inuit way of knowing and being, is multifaceted and diverse. Individual and generational conceptualizations of what it means to be a “true Inuk” overlap in many ways while coexisting. These conceptualizations, as revealed through the performance of and narratives about music, nuance histories of encounter and resettlement, education and language loss, and cultural revitalization in the community. These conceptualizations insist that inummariit be understood as traditional and modern simultaneously. 1 By localized texts I mean Inuktitut translations of pre-existing Christian hymns where translations deviate from the original English meaning to refect an Inuit understanding. By local hymn texts I mean newly composed Inuit Christian songs. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I wish to dedicate this dissertation to my dear friend, my little sister (nukaq), Gara Mamgark (Figure i.1), whose unfailing commitment to this study is exemplary. Thank you, Gara for sharing your friendship, work ethic, and expertise: Nakurmiik nukaq! This dissertation is the outcome of my thirteen years of interaction with Arviamiut. Its completion would have been impossible if they had not offered me their friendship and trust. I thus wish to thank warmly all of the Arviamiut who welcomed me into their community, churches, homes, and families: matna luaviik! Special thanks must be given to my adoptive Inuit parents, Simeonie and Rosie Mamgark (Figure i.2), who over the years genuinely considered me their ukuaq (daughter-in-law): qujannamiik sakik. Thanks are due to all of my informants, who graciously agreed to share their knowledge and experiences with me: Rosie Mamgark, Simeonie Mamgark, Gara Mamgark, Matilda Sulurayok (Figure i.3), Bernadette Illungiayok, Silas Illungiayok (Figure i.4), Qahuq Illungiayok (Figure i.5), Ollie Illungiayok (Figure i.6), Mariah Illungiayok (Figure i.7), Eva Okatsiak (Figure i.8), Sandy Okatsiak (Figure i.9), Mary Okatsiak (Figure i.8), Jamie Okatsiak (Figure i.10), Martha Nutarasungnik, Eric Anoee Jr., and Ee Ulayok. You are true friends: piqannarijat. Other people and organizations deserve my gratitude. I am grateful for Gara Mamgark, Sandy Okatsiak, and Mariah Illungiayok who read and re-read versions of this dissertation so that I got their families’ stories right. I would like to thank elder Louis Angalik and Simeonie Mamgark for drawing maps of the Padlirmiut and Tariuqmiut iv territories and for providing the Inuktitut names of places, rivers, and lakes situated on those maps. My fieldwork would have been difficult to undertake without the support of the Arviat District Education Authority, St. Francis Anglican Church, and St. Therese Catholic Church. On the intellectual side, my PhD supervisor Dr. Beverley Diamond instilled in me a desire for rigorous research, an appetite for reflective writing, and a passion for a pursuit of understanding the multi-faced nature of culture—indeed life. I am indebted to the members of my thesis committee Jean Briggs, Tom Gordon, Kati Szego and Beverley Diamond who read and re-read drafts of this work and who provided valuable criticism and comments to help make it a better contribution to the field of ethnomusicology. I extend heartfelt thanks to friends and family who have supported me throughout the completion of this dream. In particular, I am grateful to fellow doctoral candidate Evelyn Osborne, who provided inspiration and motivation throughout the entire writing process. To my own family my husband Christopher Lewis, my mother Mary Piercey, my father Eric Piercey, and my sister Margaret Piercey: you believed in me from the beginning, encouraged me to pursue my dreams, and supported me in every way possible. Thank you. Last, but not least, I must thank all the organizations which have made my fieldwork—and this dissertation—possible: Canada’s Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, Canada’s Northern Scientific Training Program, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Nunavut Research Institute, and the Department of Education with the Government of Nunavut. Some passages from the v present dissertation are published elsewhere. They are used here with permission from the original publishers: Canadian Folk Music Journal Bulletin (2005), International Journal of Community Music (2008), Aboriginal Music in Contemporary Canada: echoes and exchanges (2012, eds. Diamond and Hoefnagels), Critical Perspectives in Canadian Music Education (2012, eds. Beynon and Veblen). My thanks to the editors of these publications for permission to include segments of these essays in this greatly revised and expanded dissertation. Figure i.1 Lou and Gara Mamgark, Arviat, Nunavut, 2003. vi Figure i.2 Simeonie and Rosie Mamgark, Arviat, Nunavut,