Voices From the Past

WORDS by CHARLES ARNOLD

THE VOICES OF UNALINA (LENA) AGNAVIAK AND Laura Shukaiyuk are a bit scratchy as they sing “Mackenzie River Dance Song,” but that is to be expected since their song was recorded on a wax cylinder more than 100 years ago by Diamond Jenness, an anthropologist with the Canadian Arctic Expedition.

From 1914–1916, Jenness was based at Nulahugiuq (Bernard Harbour), on the mainland side of Dolphin and Union Strait in what is now Nunavut. His main task was to document the culture of the Copper Inuit (Inuinnait) of the area, including their songs.

Accompanying Jenness were several people from Siberia, Alaska and the Mackenzie Delta region who were employed by the Canadian Arctic Expedition, including Agnaviak and Shukaiyuk, and Jenness recorded several of their songs as well. In all, 137 songs were pressed into wax cylinders using an ‘Edison recording machine.’

Jenness wrote out the words to the songs in phonetics and Silas Palaiyak and Patsy Klengenberg, who were employed by the Canadian Arctic Expedition, translated them into English. The wax cylinders later were sent to Helen Roberts, a classically trained musician who was also an anthropologist, who transcribed them into western musical notation.

Their combined work, published as “Songs of the Copper Eskimos” (Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, Vol. XIV. 1925), was an important undertaking, but words and musical notations on paper are not the same as hearing the songs as they were originally sung. Fortunately, most of the fragile wax cylinders have been preserved at the Canadian Museum of History and have been transferred to digital format. You can hear Lena Unalina and Laura Shukaiyuk singing their Mackenzie River Dance Song on the Inuvialuit History Timeline website.

Drawing of a Copper Inuit drum dance, based on an illustration by Silas Palaiyak circa 1915.

Most of the songs Diamond Jenness recorded were dance songs. Drawing on what he saw during his time in the Arctic, he described two types of drum dances, both of which are still performed today. The most common form of Inuinnait drum dance involved a single performer playing the drum him- or herself while singing and moving from foot to foot in a shuffling or a hopping motion. Others might accompany the performer in singing the song, perhaps just joining in on a chorus of ayiiayiis. The slow and steady tempo of the beating drum has been likened to the beating of a heart.

As can be seen in photographs accompanying the article “Drum Dancing at Igluqpait,” elsewhere in this issue of Tusaayaksat, in the Mackenzie Delta Region the primary drum dance form involves several drummers sitting or standing in a row behind the dancers. As described by Jenness, the drummers, and others standing with them, sing while several people dance, often men and women together.

The tempo of the drumming that accompanies these dance songs has been described as ‘lively.’ Jenness remarked that in this type of drum dance the motions of male and female dancers are quite different. Males dance vigorously, while women’s dance movements can’t be described any better than through the words in Lena Unalina’s and Laura Shukaiyuk’s song:

My arms they wave high in the air. My hands they flutter behind my back; they wave above my head like the wings of a bird. Let me move my feet, let me dance, let me shrug my shoulders, let me shake my body. My arms let me fold them; let me crouch down. Let me hold my hands under my chin.

Angivranna, from the Copper River area, was one of the Copper Inuit (Inuinnait) whose songs were recorded by Diamond Jenness (photo by George Wilkins).

Unalina (Lena) Agnaviak is on the right in this undated photograph. On the left is Susanna Akouyak (Royal Canadian Mounted Police/Library and Archives Canada).