Scott Roos
Special to the Herald
Canada’s North—a vast, rugged, and untamed landscape—remains arguably one of the country’s greatest mysteries.
To most of us living south of the 60th parallel, the culture, traditions, and people north of 60 are largely unfamiliar. But on Thursday, March 13, at Prince Albert’s EA Rawlinson Centre for the Arts, this all changed as Susan Aglukark, alongside her special guest Angela Amarualik, brought the richness of northern culture to life in a poignant musical performance.
Aglukark’s career, which began in the early 1990s, was built on a foundation of storytelling, healing, and sharing, with her groundbreaking debut album This Child—celebrating its 30th anniversary this year—becoming a seminal piece in Canadian music history.
For this special tour, Aglukark invited Angela Amarualik, a rising star in the Indigenous music scene of Canada’s North, to join her on stage. Aglukark performed two sets of empowering music steeped in the language and traditions of the North, taking the Prince Albert audience on a thought provoking cultural journey.
Aglukark’s signature hits from This Child, including the beautiful “Oh Siem” and the joyous “Hina Na Ho (Celebration),” were brought to life in an intimate yet powerful performance, with a local choir adding depth and richness to the celebration of culture and connection on these two tracks. She also played a smattering of songs from other groundbreaking albums and included a few from her latest release which she entitled The Crossing and ending the night with a stirring encore that included a heartwarming a cappella rendition of “Amazing Grace”.
Amarualik, a talented Inuk singer-songwriter in her mid-20s, took the stage solo for a brief set showcasing her own music. Among her performances were a few songs that featured the Inuit art form of throat singing, connecting the audience to a unique and powerful musical tradition. Amarlualik showed the ability to draw the audience in. She clearly has a lot of potential.
Aglukark’s decision to bring Amarualik on tour is a clear testament to her dedication to “paying it forward” and helping young Indigenous artists break through the barriers of the Canadian music industry. Reflecting on her own journey, Aglukark shared her excitement for Amarualik’s future in a recent conversation with the PA Daily Herald, noting, “I see so much potential in her…. and I’m so excited for her.” It’s not hard to see why—Amarualik represents a new era of northern Indigenous artists who, like Aglukark before them, are now claiming the space they’ve long deserved.
Aglukark’s reflections on her career are filled with both gratitude and awe at the progress of the northern Indigenous music community since she first began. Today, with artists like avant-garde throat singer Tanya Tagaq, who Aglukark first saw perform around 20 years ago, shattering global boundaries, Aglukark is confident that the glass ceiling for northern Indigenous artists has been broken.
“We’re there,” Aglukark told told the Herald when thinking of Canada’s indigenous music community as a whole, “and seeing Tanya (Tagaq) thinking we’re there. We can (and) we should. We love what we do and I could see that in Tanya (when I first saw her perform), and I was just so excited because she was proof to me that we were there and that we had broken that glass ceiling and we could just claim that space now.”
This sentiment was palpable during her performance in Prince Albert, where her voice echoed the conviction of a trailblazer who has paved the way for so many others.
For those who attended Aglukark’s “This Child 30th Anniversary Tour” stop in Prince Albert, the performance was more than just a concert—it was an exploration of culture, a celebration of the North, and an amazing evening of music. Susan Aglukark and Angela Amarualik brought the stories and songs of the North to life in a way that left the audience inspired.
