Tanya Tagaq
Tanya Tagaq is an award-winning Inuk throat singer, visual artist and best-selling author from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. Her experimental music mixes traditional throat singing with modern rock, pop, classical and alternative sounds, and she often challenges long-standing post-colonial issues in her work, such as climate change, food sovereignty, and loss of traditional knowledge and education.
Tanya developed her own version of throat singing while studying at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD). She performs a singular-voice style, which she emphasizes is different than the throat singing traditionally done between two Inuit women. In this game, the women face each other and exchange guttural groans, tiny cries, and other sounds inspired by the land until one loses pace with the other.
Her improvisational-style concerts have earned her international acclaim, and she has received many accolades, including two JUNO Awards, the 2014 Polaris Music Prize for her album Animism, and the 2015 Canadian Folk Music “Pushing the Boundaries” Award. In 2016 she was named a Member of the Order of Canada.
Curator's Comments
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Speak Up! is curated by David McLeod (member of the Pine Creek First Nation, MB), Indigenous programming consultant.