Community co-creation

During the summer of 2021, my accommodation was the, what is referred to in the community of Gjoa Haven, ‘old arcade’ or the ‘blue house’. This blue house functioned as a launch pad for on-the-land sampling activities for multiple research projects due to its size and affordances for storage. It would also house several graduate and undergraduate students, including myself, that joined for the first part of the trip. Finally, it functioned as a meeting space where we would cook and eat together. There is power and heating in the building, but no facilities or windows. What it lacked in comfort however, it made up in opportunities to connect with people that the hotel did not as easily allow for. Knowing that we were based in the blue house, people would be passing by to pick up supplies and payments slips, or just to chat.

After most other students had left and returned back to the south, having the blue house to my disposal also made it much easier to coordinate audio-recordings, interviews, and other film-related activities.

Throatsinging

During the storyboarding and artwork phase of filmmaking, the HTA-members and I had also started to discuss what kind of soundtrack the film would need.

Soon, I was pointed towards Janet Aglukkaq, who had been taught the technique of throatsinging by her mom? and continues to teach others by practice. I met up with Janet and her friend Kathy Okpik, at Kathy’s house to record and film their singing. The choice to film this, rather than only audio-record it, was initially a strategic one; filming would mean additional video content that could generate attention around the "Voices of Thunder". Very quickly however, it became clear that filming would also provide a reason to come together and sing, a valuable purpose in its own right.

Turning the recording of their throatsinging into a music video allowed us to get creative in coming up with a little storyline. Only having a couple of hours available that day to finish the filming, we decided on a very simple story-arch of two friends visiting each other and throatsinging together. We staged some shots of how they would meet: Kathy making coffee, Janet entering the house, and the friends greeting each other.

As they start singing, the camera zooms in, as the frame fades into a white-out and reappears as the two of them singing on the land surrounding Gjoa Haven. To shoot the scene of Kathy and Janet throatsinging on the land, we of course had to travel outside of the hamlet, which caused considerable excitement for both women and Serge, Kathy’s younger brother, who joined us. It was through our conversations between filming and driving outside the community to find a good location to film the second part of the video, that I learnt how many community members would not have the resources (like vehicles or money) to go outside of the hamlet, onto the land.

Shooting this video provided an opportunity to be out on the land and practice the tradition of throatsinging. Something that, even though it took us only 15 minutes to drive up to the road where we were filming, can be seen as a privilege that is not accessible to everyone in the community.

Pihhiq & Drumdancing

During the days that we setting up an opportunity to meet with Janet to record their throatsinging, we were also connected to Christina Porter. Christina is a teacher at the Gjoa Haven school, who is very involved with drumdancing in Gjoa Haven. Although she doesn’t dance a lot herself anymore, her daughter Aldina and one of the young men we worked with a lot in town; Percy, do. Christina consulted us on the meaning of drumdancing and how these dances were often accompagnied with a Pihhiq. A Pihhiq is a song that is connected to a specific well-respected hunter from the community. They are traditional songs, that describe the life, or specific huntingstories of that hunter, and are sung by descendents of that hunter from memory. Christina helped us gather drums, traditional drumdancing garbs and called three women that would occasionally sing together; Mary Iqiruak, Angelina Aglukkaq and Holle Porter. First we would record the song inside the tent that we had set up in the blue house, to make sure that we would have a good audiorecording. Where I had asked Janet and Kathy to close their eyes during the filming of their throatsinging, the three women closed their eyes on their own accord during their singing. I asked them after their first session why they did so. They would comment that they could just ‘see’ the land that they were singing about when they would close their eyes. Indicating a clear connection between the Pihhiq and the land they’re singing about. After having filmed the three women singing in the tent we drove them, Christina and the two drumdancers out to the land around the community, close to where some people have their cabins, and stayed there for a couple of hours. We filmed Percy and Aldina as they were drumdancing and the women as they were singing their Pihhiq over and over again. The women were enjoying themselves so much they were not paying attention to whether they were being filmed or not, and just continued singing as long as they enjoyed themselves. This was demonstrated by the occurence of them ending their song and chatting amongst each other at the exact moment they emerged in the frame during a technically complicated drone shot. Mary commented like Kathy had, after filming on the land, that it had been a very long time ago that she had been able to go out on the land, and that she had so much fun! More than two years later, she recalled how she had initially felt a little intimitated by the whole situation in the tent, but how much she had enjoyed the day of filming and how grateful she was for the opportunity to sing with the other women and the dancers out on the land.

Storytelling at the Heritage Centre

Landmark: "Entering into relationship"

Invitation: Drinking Coffee