This Inuit drum dancing group is recovering music traditions that were almost lost

Sophie Agnatok and Ashley Dicker have known each other for decades. Today, they're closer than ever — in more ways than one. 

"We're right in each other's faces," Agnatok said, referring to how, as throat singing partners, they perform up close to one another. 

"It's really intimate, and it requires so much focus and so much connection."

Dicker's first memories of Agnatok go back to their childhood in Nain, Nunatsiavut, an Inuit-governed region in northern Labrador. 

"When I was a young girl, I would break into Sophie's bedroom with my best friend, who was her sister, and I would steal her perfume," Dicker said, laughing. 

Agnatok and Dicker are members of Kilautiup Songuninga, which translates to "strength of the drum." They're the first Inuit drum dancing and throat singing group to come out of St. John's. Agnatok is now the group's president. As a founding member, she has been part of the group for nineteen years. Dicker joined four years ago.

"Before we even had Ashley, I'd been dying and dying for a throat singing partner. I finally got one," said Agnatok. "I'm very, very lucky to have her." 

For the six members of Kilautiup Songuninga, community is part of its draw. 

"It's hard for Inuit to gather here," Dicker said. She moved to St. John's eight years ago and joining the group has helped her combat homesickness. "It's so good to be somewhere [you can be yourself], or with people you could be yourself with."

Kilautiup Songuninga also helps its members recover aspects of their culture that many of them grew up without access to. 

"When we had started, we did not know our traditions, it wasn't brought up. We weren't taught our songs, we were taught church music," Agnatok said.

Throat singing and drum-dancing were feared and banned by Moravian missionaries who saw it as devil worship. In place of traditional Inuit music, they forced the adoption of brass instruments and choral singing.

Agnatok was raised by her grandmother, herself a throat singer. That legacy inspired Agnatok, though her grandmother did not teach her the practice. 

"I was cleaning up one day and I found this newspaper clipping, and it was my grandmother. She was here [in Newfoundland] for the Folk Festival back in 1984. And I'm like, wow," Agnatok said.