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Building Cultural Sovereignty: Inuit Arts and Music

Information

Length

2h00

Language

English

Audience

Adults

Type of activity

Lecture

Mode

In Person

Free (service charge applies)

 
Wednesday February 8, 2023 at 05:30 pm

In connection with the exhibition TUSARNITUT! Music Born of the Cold, this roundtable discussion invites experts in Inuit culture to discuss the role the arts play in affirming a sense of cultural belonging, be it through sculpture, drawing, dance or music.

Moderator:
Iris Amizlev, Curator – Community Engagement and Projects at the MMFA, will facilitate the discussion,replacing Lisa Koperqualuk, who is no longer available.

Panelists:
Heidi Aklaseaq Senungetuk, violinist and ethnomusicologist
Emily Laurent Henderson, writer and arts administrator
Evie Mark, throat singer, seamstress, filmmaker and educator

 

Major Public Partner: Government of Canada
Major Benefactor: Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne
Public partners: Government of Quebec, Conseil des arts de Montréal, Canada Council for the Arts

About the lecture
The pursuit of cultural sovereignty is an act of resistance against colonial influence on Inuit culture. In concrete terms, it involves encouraging this culture’s forms of expressions, celebrating its values, language and spiritual beliefs, and ensuring the survival of cultural knowledge and mores. Cultural sovereignty recognizes that self-determination is not only a basic human right but also a cause for organizing and coming together as we pass on artistic practices from one generation to the next.

About the moderator
A curator and art historian, Iris Amizlev has a doctorate in Art History and Anthropology and a Master’s in Art History from Université de Montréal. She has worked in the curatorial departments of the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) and the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ). Amizlev led the Volunteer Guides program in the Education and Wellness Division at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and served as guest curator in the realization of the Stephan Crétier and Stéphany Maillery Wing for the Arts of One World, in 2019. She is currently Curator of Community Engagement and Projects at the MMFA.

About the panelists
Heidi Aklaseaq Senungetuk (Kingikmiut Inupiaq) is a violinist and ethnomusicologist who serves Emory University as an Assistant Teaching Professor of Musicology. Previously, Senungetuk held positions at McGill University and the University of Alaska. Her article “Indigenous Musics of the Arctic” was published by Oxford Bibliographies in Music (2017), and she wrote the prologue “Pagmapak: In Modern Times” for the book Music and Modernity Among First Peoples of North America (Wesleyan University Press, 2019). Her essay “Tavlugun atuutit: chin marking music” is included in Raven Chacon’s score For Zitkála-Šá (Art Metropole, 2022).

Emily Laurent Henderson is an Inuk and settler writer and arts administrator based in Toronto, Ontario. Her written work centres on Inuit self-determination in the arts and in a constantly shifting art market. She has been published in Inuit Art Quarterly, Azure, Studio Magazine, C Magazine and Inuktitut Magazine, and was a contributor on the WWF’s 2022 Beyond Targets report. Henderson is actively involved in the arts scene in southern Ontario and currently serves as an advisory member on the Toronto Arts Council as well as on the Indigenous advisory council for the Ottawa-based SAW Nordic Lab. Throughout the summer of 2022, she served on the committee for the City of Toronto’s StreetARToronto (stART) public art initiative, which supported opportunities for Indigenous muralists within the GTA. Emily Laurent Henderson is currently working in research and exhibition support for the Art Gallery of Ontario in its Department of Canadian and Indigenous Art.

Evie Mark is a throat singer, seamstress and filmmaker from Ivujivik, Nunavik, who currently resides in Montreal. Raised by her grandparents, who taught her about her cultural heritage, including throat singing, Mark began learning the practice at age 11 from her Inuktitut language teacher. In addition to her music career, Evie Mark has a background in television production, filmography and journalism. As an active teacher and cultural liaison, she has also helped lead youth cultural programs in the Torngat Mountains of Newfoundland and Labrador, and at the Aqpik Jam Music Festival in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik. Mark has worked as an educator for the Kativik School Board (KSB) and the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services (NRBHSS), and has served as an interpreter for the KSB, the NRBHSS and the Makivik Corporation. She currently teaches Inuktitut and art at the post-secondary educational centre Nunavik Sivunitsavut, in Montreal and continues to travel for her throat singing performances.

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