Inuusivut: Our Ways

Uvagut (ᐅᕙᒍᑦ) takes its name from the Inuktitut word for 'us'. Singer, guitarist and songwriter Norman Ishulutak formed the group in Frobisher Bay, now Iqaluit, in 1978, and from the beginning the band wrote and sang its own songs in Inuktitut. Nearly fifty years on, they are still playing.

The first members played for their own enjoyment. A December 1983 profile in Inuktitut magazine named Ishulutak as bandleader and writer of most of the songs, which it described as mainly country music, though he was already interested in bringing soft rock into the sound. The lineup then was Ishulutak on electric and acoustic guitars and vocals, Noah Nowyook on bass, and singers Susie Onalik and Ooleena Nowyook. Once the band took its songs to CBC, they were heard on radio across the North.

CBC Northern Service released Uvagut's first album, For Our Children's Future, in 1980. Producer Les McLaughlin recorded the group at CBC Frobisher Bay and at Marc Studios in Ottawa, with Serge Bougie on percussion and Paul Gurry on guitar alongside Ishulutak, Nowyook and Onalik. The ten songs are short, most under three minutes, and cover the land, history, faith, childhood and the future. 'Inuit Nunangat (Land of the People)' and 'Puiguqtauttailili (Don't Forget Our History)' sit beside 'Naluqattaqunga (I'm Not Sure I'll Be With My Girlfriend Forever)', 'Inuusira Qanuinniaqa (How Will My Future Life Be?)', 'Surusiukkanningniruma (If I Were a Kid Again)' and an Inuktitut 'How Great Thou Art'.

Uvagut played the opening of Toonik Tyme, Iqaluit's spring festival, in 1982, sharing the bill with accordionist Simeonie Keenainak and the Family Brown while Inuit Broadcasting Corporation cameras rolled. The next year the Inuit Circumpolar Conference held its third General Assembly in Frobisher Bay, and IBC filmed the ICC Jam for its program Nunatsiakmiut. Ishulutak's guitar and Nowyook's bass open the broadcast over footage of delegates arriving at the airport, and later the two back Charlie Panigoniak and Lorna Panigoniak on a version of the 1912 gospel song 'A New Touch of Fire'.

In January 1993 the band travelled to Mid-Ocean Recording Studios in Winnipeg to make Inuusivut: Our Ways with producer Tim Elias and engineer Craig Strong. Ishulutak sang and played guitars and harmonica, Ooleena Nowyook shared the vocals, Jose Arreak played acoustic guitar, Archie Ishulutak played drums, Dave Boileau played keyboards and Larry 'Narual' Campbell played bass, with Noah Nowyook and Pat Angnakok also listed as members. Ooleena Nowyook contributed two songs of her own, 'Qujannamiiqpagit (I Thank You)' and 'Tautunnguaqpagit (I Remember)'. The band issued the album itself in 1993, and Inukshuk Records reissued it on CD and cassette in December 1995.

The songs on Inuusivut address Inuit life, land, self-government, money, alcohol and drug abuse, hunting, language and the relationship between elders and younger generations. 'Nunavut (Our Land)' deals with land and self-government. 'Kiinaujaq (Money)' considers the place of money in northern life, while 'Sunatuinnait Aangajaarnaqtut (Don't Abuse)' addresses alcohol and drugs. 'Angunasutti (The Hunter)' closes the album with English lyrics by Pat Angnakak. The title song asks listeners to be proud of who they are, to look to their elders and to pass the language on to their children. In 2004 Ishulutak told Nunatsiaq News he had been singing about social issues for 23 years, and the paper described Uvagut's country-tinged ballads as known throughout the eastern Arctic.

Uvagut remained active in Iqaluit and across Nunavut. IBC filmed them again in 1992. A video from the 1997 Pangnirtung Music Festival is titled 'Norman and Uvagut band singing Paranoid in Inuktitut'. About 500 people gathered outside Nakasuk School for Nunavut Day in 2001 to hear Uvagut play Inuktitut songs and rock and roll, and at National Aboriginal Day celebrations in June 2003 Nunatsiaq News reported that the band 'brought down the house'. IBC recorded a full Uvagut concert special in Iqaluit that same year.

Uvagut's songs also reached a younger generation of Nunavut musicians. When the Jerry Cans were starting out, Andrew Morrison and his bandmates played an Uvagut song at the Iqaluit Legion. In 2012 the Jerry Cans named the veteran Iqaluit band among their influences. At a 2018 tribute concert of Nunavut music, a young performer explained why Uvagut songs were on the program: 'They're favourites, it's what's on the radio. It's been around for a long time and they're catchy.'

Ishulutak served as one of four judges for the Government of Nunavut's 2019 Qilaut Inuktut songwriting contest. In 2022 Iqaluit music teacher Mary Piercey-Lewis included 'Inuusivut' in Inuit Inngiusingit: A Collection of Inuit Choral Music II, calling it one of her students' favourites and 'a really lovely song about being proud of who you are.' Aakuluk Music posted a remastered edition of Inuusivut on SoundCloud in 2020, and the album reached wider streaming services in 2023. In August 2024 the Aqpik Jam festival in Kuujjuaq billed Uvagut among its veteran performers, a band that had been composing music and performing together since 1978.

-Robert Williston