“Katajjait” : throat singings
The Inuit word “katajjait” is usually translated in English by “throat singings” – katajjaq is the singular. Actually, in Inuktitut (the Inuit language) katajjaq refers to a game where two women imitate animal voices and natural sounds like the one from feet walking on the ice or the one from the wind and the sea. The katajjait tell a story in alternate rhythm, with a musical pattern combined with words. Evie Mark, a young woman from Nunavik pratices the katajjaq, thus explaining :
“Throat-singing is a form of art, in a sense. We don’t have a word in Inuktituk for art, but it is an art in a sense because that it is a way of socializing, a way of getting together. For one very typical example is when the husbands would go on hunting trips. The women would gather together when they have nothing to do, no more sewing to do, no more cleaning to do, they would just have fun, and one of the ways of entertaining themselves is throat-singing. It goes like this. Two women face each other very closely, and they would throat sing like this. If I would be with my partner right now, I would say A, she would say A, I would say A, she would say A, I say C, she says C. So she repeats after me. It would be a sort of rolling of sounds. And, once that happens, you create a rhythm. And the only way the rhythm would be broken is when one of the two women starts laughing or if one of them stops because she is tired. It’s a kind of game. We always say the first person to laugh or the first person to stop is the one to loose. It’s nothing serious. Throat singing is way of having fun. That’s the general idea; it’s to have fun during gatherings. It is also a way to prove to your friends around you or your family that if you are a good throat-singer, you’re gonna win the game.”
Once discouraged by priests in many places across the North, throat-singing has increased dramatically in popularity in the last twenty years, and today there are many women - and a few men- who practice katajjait to have pleasure together and while local festivities. For example, throat singers from Puvirnituq in Nunavik (Northern Quebec) are very famous all around the world.
Today, many girls still have opportunities to learn katajjait, either from grandmothers or mothers or as a part of a cultural program such as Makkuktut Sangiktilirput in Kangirliniq (Rankin Inlet, Nunavut). There are several pairs of singers who have recorded albums or who throat-sing professionally. Two girls from the Kivalliq Region, Inukshuk Aksalnik, from Rankin Inlet, and Pauline Pemik, from Arviat, have performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and in other large venues.
More informations…
About katajjaq : http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/inuit.htm
Makkuktut Sangiktilirput : http://www.pulaarvik.ca/youth/index.html
