Community co-creation
Here I share the filming of kathy and Janet
Throatsinging
Soon we were 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 support a media campaign around the Voices of Thunder film, in the case the HTO would want to set up such a campaign. Very quickly however, it became clear that filming would also be a fun thing to do. Fun being a valuable purpose in its own right - reference. 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, even if they were not being filmed; Kathy making coffee, Janet entering the house, and the friends greeting each other. They start singing. As they get immersed in the singing, they close their eyes. The camera zooms in, as the frame fades into a white-out and reappears as the two of them being transported out on to the land surrounding Gjoa Haven, while they are still singing. The video suggests that this is something that happens in their own minds, rather than physically since there is no transition scene of them leaving their house to travel outside of the community. However to shoot the scene of them throatsinging outside, we of course had to travel outside of the community, 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 that many community members would actually not have the means, or resources (like vehicles or money) to go outside of the hamlet on to the land. Shooting this video actually 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 anyone.
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.