"Native Spaces in the City: an Inupiaq Community in Song and Dance", presented by Heidi Senungetuk at the Schulich School of Music Doctoral Colloquium

Abstract: This presentation examines the current music and dance activities of an urban Alaska Native dance group. With its roots in Kingigin, also known as the Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the Kingikmiut Dancers and Singers of Anchorage practice and perform traditional Inupiaq music and dance as a way of maintaining their culture and ancestral ways of being. An analysis of this urban dance group’s activities during their regular practice sessions and performances reveals a soundscape and a resultant acoustemology of the group. 

Dr. Heidi Aklaseaq Senungetuk (Inupiaq) serves McGill University as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in Indigenous Studies after earning a PhD in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University. Her research has focused on Inupiaq music and dance in urban spaces in Alaska and she will be exploring northern Indigenous performative arts in Arctic regions under the supervision of Dr. Allan Downey during her time at McGill.