The song I’ve chosen is called “Immutaa” by Beatrice Deer. Personally, I really like this song – I find it really fun and catchy- and I had a lot of fun researching other Indigenous artists before settling on this song. This assignment made me think about cultural differences, but also about cross-cultural similarities.
Beatrice Deer is half-Inuk and half-Mohawk and sings in French, Engligh and Inuktitut. She and her band are currently based in Montreal, but she grew up in the arctic town of Quaqtaq, Quebec, which is where this music video was filmed. The song is an old, traditional Inuk song, and according to an interview with Deer, “no one knows the date of origin or the songwriter”, but it has been passed down through generations. Surprisingly, the lyrics don’t actually mean anything! “It’s a bunch of words without a real story line,” explained Deer. “Random – when I say random, like extremely random – words like “Harvesting walruses, fish spears, milk, his mittens, five” among other things.” Her version also features throat singing, a traditionally Inuit form of music. I found two other recordings of the same song, the first by the group Nukariik: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiOS688PoUY and the second made by Kelly Fraser, an Inuk pop artist, and her bandmate Charlie Kudluarok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7jFyu8XNNU What I found while searching for more information about this song has led me to believe that “Immutaa” is the kind of song you learn as a child. Deer learned it when she was in grade one, and some of the mentions of the song I found center around people having learned the song when they were kids. I’d love to have more concrete information on it, but there isn’t much readily available. It feels like the kind of children’s song your parents or teachers would sing to you, or the kind of song that everyone somehow grows up knowing. It reminded me of nursery rhymes or game songs you would learn from your friends, the kind of songs you would sing on the playground or on long car rides. When I was a kid, those kinds of songs carried a social significance with them – it was a way of showing that you were part of a group. With only 60,000 Inuit in Canada, preserving and passing down these songs is a way of keeping the culture alive. So even though the words don’t actually mean anything, the song itself carries cultural importance. Keeping Inuit culture alive is something that’s important to Deer, and also why she filmed the music video with the kids of her hometown. You can actually see them singing the song in a couple of shots in the video. “I wanted them to have fun and experience something different,” said Deer. “I want them to see themselves on a music video and realize that fun projects like that are possible to do, even for a small town girl like me.” Representation is an issue when it comes to Indigenous cultures, since popular media rarely portrays them accurately or respectfully, so I really liked the energy and vibrancy in Deer’s video. Its showing outsiders that Inuit culture is very much alive and not a thing of the past, and its also providing positive Inuit representation for the kids who might not see themselves reflected anywhere else. Here is the link to Deer's full interview, where she talks more about representation and her background: https://www.audiofemme.com/premiere-beatrice-deer-returns-to-her-inuit-home-for-immutaa/ And here are the lyrics for the song, just for fun: Immutaa aajijaa Nalirannii aajijaa Aivvaavugut, kakivaavugut Aippait nalippait, kakivait, nalippait, immuq Imutallu tallimallu, kiikitsialu Kiikiuna, kiikiuna Aivariaju tukumi taijaa Ijingillu taikkua Pualunnguangit sugalunnguangit Pualunnguangit sugalunnguangit Immutau tau tau tarqamuunaa Itikkut pikiakaillainarpuq Anakallainarpuq, immuq
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