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Sometimes the mark that singers make on the world is about more than the music. On that front, this week the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts hosts a double bill showcasing two acts—Susan Aglukark and PIQSIQ—who are both innovative and respected trailblazers who’ve expanded the boundaries of pop.

An Inuit singer-songwriter originally from Nunavut’s Kivalliq region, Susan Aglukark has achieved legitimate icon status in Canada, evidenced by a career that’s included multiple Junos, a Governor General’s lifetime achievement award, and the Order of Canada. After honing her craft in northern Inuit communities, Aglukark broke out with her 1995 sophomore album, This Child, which fused Inuit folk traditions with soft country and ethereal pop.

Since then the singer has proven herself someone with little interest in standing still, releasing six more full-lengths, including 2022’s The Crossing, while serving as a long-standing advocate and ambassador for Indigenous communities across Canada.

Last year saw Aglukark give the world a memoir, Kihiani: A Memoir of Healing, which deals with everything from generational trauma to the business of navigating the Canadian music industry as an Inuk artist. Consider that the latest chapter in a career committed to amplifying Indigenous voices.

Great artists inspire new generations. On that front, PIQSIQ’s Inuksuk Mackay and Tiffany Ayalik have been more than open about the impact made on them by Aglukark. Growing up in Yellowknife, the two sisters found themselves mesmerized by the singer, who showed them that being from a small community doesn’t have to be an impediment to becoming an artist with epic ambitions.

Today, PIQSIQ is breaking new ground of its own, bringing traditional Inuit throat singing to new audiences. Convinced you’ve heard it all before? Get ready to be proven wrong by last year’s flat-out fascinating Legends, which finds Mackay and Ayalik drawing on throat-singing traditions they began learning in childhood, and fusing them with glitched-out beats and dream-fever loops. Giving one a good idea what kind of fantastical stories the siblings absorbed from their elders growing up, highlights include "Qallupilluit: Creatures Who Knock on the Ice", "Ijiraq: Shapeshifter", and "Mahaha: Tickling Demon". Like Aglukark, the sisters have used their profile to uplift new generations of Indigenous youth.

In advance of their double-bill appearance in Vancouver, the Straight asked both Aglukark and PIQSIQ to share what they love about each other, what makes them proud, and why you need to be there for a night that brings two generations of innovators together. 

What do you admire about each other’s artistry?

Inuksuk: “For over 30 years, Susan has been a trailblazing Inuk not only in the music industry but also as a community member with an absolute passion for Inuit and Indigenous youth. Her work with her Arctic Rose Foundation has helped countless youth have a safe place to connect with themselves, culture and mentors. Susan has used her incredible art to inspire others to use art as a vehicle for learning about emotional and mental health. She created a program that meets youth where they are at, and it is absolutely what we need more of in this world.”

Susan: “I absolutely love the boldness of the sound that PIQSIQ explores and how they reimagine sounds.”

When did Susan Aglukark first come on your radar?

Tiffany: “Susan is one of our most formative heroes. Growing up in the north, in a small town, we never thought that Inuit were ‘allowed’ to occupy spaces in the mainstream... that is until we saw Susan on the cover of Chatelaine magazine and saw her music video for ‘O Siem’ on MuchMusic. I can remember the exact moment when I saw her singing and dancing our beautiful western Arctic dancing, breaking down walls of ice. I just rewatched it recently and it still gives me goosebumps and tears in my eyes to think about the absolute celebration and overflowing positivity her music has spread far beyond the Arctic.”

When did PIQSIQ first come on your radar?

Susan: “I noticed PIQSIQ’s first release in 2018 titled Altering the Timeline, I was intrigued by the sound they created.”

What moment in Susan’s set will give you chills?

Inuksuk: “Hands down, ‘O Siem’! This is the song we will all be waiting for, the drum breakdown in the bridge will absolutely be a waterworks situation for I’m sure many in the audience! Having someone singing ‘O Siem, we are all family/O Siem, we’re all the same/O Siem, the fires of freedom/Dance in the burning flame’ is a message that should be on all our hearts right now.”

What moment in PIQSIQ’s set will give you chills?

Susan: “One of my favourites is ‘Nunavut to Qilak’. When you’ve been on the land or at camp you get to connect with its mystery.”

What has music given you as a gift?

Susan: “Music has paved a path towards dreaming for me, who I was when I left home and I am today could not have happened in any other career.”

Inuksuk: “A gift we have been given is a place to connect deeper as sisters. Yes, we are a band but we also feel that so much growth has happened for us as individuals, mothers, sisters, and our music that we create at each time in our lives is a really special snapshot of where we were at, exactly at that moment. We have these tangible records of what life sounded like for us in each of our eras and we hope to be back on a stage in 30 years looking back and celebrating whoever is coming up behind us as we are all following in the footsteps of women like Susan, all of us for the next 30 years at least will be in the wonderous wake that she created.”

Tiffany: “Something that I am continually surprised by is when people come up to us after the show and say things like ‘I came to the show and was wrestling with a problem and after sitting with your music, I know what I need to do next’. It is always, in our opinion, the highest compliment to us, our music helped to create even a tiny bit of space in someone’s brain or heart to work through something and offered even a small moment of clarity for whatever they are going through. That kind of feedback always feels like an incredible gift to us, hearing that we helped someone move the needle in some way. That definitely feels like a gift—it charges us and is such a beautiful, short, shared moment.”

Truth and reconciliation is an ongoing journey. What role does music play?

Susan: “I feel like we—Indigenous—are just scratching the surface on truth. Art and music allows us spaces to explore and discover—we need time with this.”

Inuksuk: “Thirty years ago, Susan was light years ahead of us all with ‘O Siem’. She has been singing about collaboration and allyship and accountable relationships long before institutions have been doing obligatory land acknowledgements that now feel hollow and devoid of meaning. Music is so important for reconciliation—if that word still has meaning. We get banged over the head with messaging that honestly is very easy to tune out of, but music allows us to come at some of these issues from a different angle. Through music, we can enter into a softer heart place and not get our hackles up when issues of reconciliation are discussed and inevitably trigger defensiveness... music will always help us bypass that so we can have a different kind of conversation.”

This show is a double bill. What artist would make for a dream triple-threat show?

Tiffany: “If anyone knows how to get Kashtin on the line, doing a show with them and Loreena McKennitt could be outrageously fun! If we did us, Susan, Kashtin and Loreena, I think the fabric of the universe would actually split.”

Susan: “Bruce Cockburn, because I admire mister Cockburn for all his advocacy on behalf of all of us Indigenous. I feel like we’d perform for him as a collective thank you.”

Why is your Chan Centre show going to be magic?

Inuksuk: “Susan is our musical fairy godmother... so much of who we are became possible because we saw her do it first. There will be a huge amount of love flowing in every direction on that stage and we hope that people will be inspired to see that you never know what positive effects you can have on the people you probably haven’t even met yet when you are your most authentic, brave, and beautiful self trying to bring love and beauty into the world.”

Susan: “This evening will be magical because the music and songs are from our culture and land and family and our beautiful community. I hope the audience will leave feeling this too.”

Susan Aglukark and PIQSIQ play the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Sunday (April 12).