Traditional Entrepreneurship

He works a full-time job, comes home and works another full-time job, but the payoff is worth the effort for Edward Kogiak and his newfound drum-making business.

“I got into drum dancing after my late grandfather Danny A. Gordon passed away, and I’ve been into it ever since,” said Edward, originally from Aklavik but now living in Inuvik.

“Keeping the culture alive is what I enjoy about it. I like to drum dance with my family, and my son is really into it too. He turns seven this August and has been in quite a few of our shows. When he was first

born, he would sleep through the whole practices, wouldn’t get up from any of the beats of the drums.”

Edward could see the culture of drum dancing struggling to stay strong, and he had always wanted to learn how to make drums, so he contacted Brian Rogers, who had also taught him how to drum dance.

“He played a big part in my life, teaching me,” said Edward.

Brian taught him how to make drums, but it took a lot of trial and error for Edward to get them right.

When I first started, I made my drums too long, so they didn’t fit the jig. Or I’d make them too short, so they didn’t join together. I also made them too thin. Over time, I came to the conclusion of how long I’ve got to make them, the width and the depth. Now, I feel I’ve got it perfect, where I make them all the same now.”

The process takes several steps, but most of the time is waiting.

First, he has to get the materials to make the jigs, which takes him three or four days to complete. Then he gets the material for the drums – he prefers maple wood – and cuts them into strips, followed by soaking for five days.

One rim takes five days to make. He soaks them for 24 hours, then steams for one hour, bends them, lets them dry for 24 hours, glues them together and lets them sit another 24 hours. Then he makes the handles and grooves and lets that dry for another 24 hours before putting on the material.

He does everything in his house, with his makeshift steamer taking up about a third of his kitchen and his drums-in-process using up half his living room, but he hopes to get a proper shop in the future.

Edward started a Facebook page for his newfound company in late 2018 and in just over half a year had made 60 drums.

“I just recently finished a big order of 15 drums for the music school,” he said. “This one I’m working on is 18 drums, and then I’ve got another 21 to do by August.”

On big orders, he gives a wholesale price to clients, and he especially cuts down the price when it comes to youth drums.

“My men’s drums sell for quite a bit higher than my youth and kid’s drums,” he said. “I put those ones down to as minimum profit as I can so I can get them into drum dancing, get them into the culture and keep the culture alive. The cost basically pays for my material, not my time, but it’s because I want to keep the culture alive.”

His work can be found on Facebook under the page E.Kogiak Drums.