Sikumiut (People of the Ice)

Websites:  https://citizenfreak.com/artists/90459-adams-charlie
Origin: Puvirnituq, Québec, 🇨🇦
Biography:

Sikumiut
People of the Ice

In the mid-1970s, in the remote Inuit community of Puvirnituq, Quebec, a group of young musicians came together under the name Sikumiut—a word meaning “people of the sea ice.” At the group’s heart was Charlie Adams, a self-taught guitarist and singer who had recently returned from high school in Churchill, Manitoba. Determined to bring the sounds and stories of Inuit life into a new era, Adams formed Sikumiut as his first band—an early vehicle for what would become a lifelong mission of cultural expression through music.

Blending the jangling rhythms of folk-rock with the melodies and language of the North, Sikumiut created one of the earliest and most compelling Indigenous rock recordings ever pressed in Canada’s Arctic. Their sole release, a six-song EP titled People of the Ice, was recorded and issued in 1976 through CBC Northern Service Broadcast Recordings in partnership with La Fédération des Coopératives du Nouveau-Québec. Sung in both Inuktitut and English, the record captures a vibrant moment in northern youth culture, when electric guitars and drum kits met centuries-old storytelling and Arctic imagery.

The band featured Charlie Adams on vocals and guitar—later acclaimed for his solo albums such as Minstrel on Ice—alongside Matiusi Tukalak, Lucassi Irqumia, and Lucassie Koperqualuk. Together, they built a sound that was at once local and universal: songs of longing, joy, memory, and change, rooted in Inuit tradition yet shaped by the shifting cultural tides of the 1970s.

Though the band never recorded a follow-up and little is known about their live performances, People of the Ice remains a vivid cultural document. It marked the very beginning of Adams’s artistic journey and already hinted at his emerging voice—one defined by deep emotional introspection and quiet defiance. Unlike many artists of his generation who sang only of community or celebration, Adams introduced a rare vulnerability into Inuit music, writing songs that explored matters of the heart, identity, and displacement.

Originally intended for regional radio and distribution through northern co-ops, the Sikumiut EP has since become a highly prized collector’s item, and is now recognized as a landmark recording in the history of Indigenous music in Canada. It is part of the legacy of the CBC’s Northern Service series, which documented the voices of Inuit and First Nations artists in the 1970s and helped preserve them for future generations.

For a group that lasted only a moment, Sikumiut left behind something rare: a record that feels both joyful and deeply rooted, ephemeral and enduring—like footprints across a frozen bay that somehow never melt.
-Robert Williston

Related acts:

Charlie Adams: https://citizenfreak.com/artists/90459-adams-charlie