From Throat Singing to Transcultural Expression

This chapter focuses upon the musical and theatrical works of the Inuit singer Tanya Tagaq and her contribution to a current global artistic discourse. ¹ In a pop-electronic-experimental music context, Tanya Tagaq practices a form of throat singing (katajjaq), which is representative of a generation of aboriginal artists – across all disciplines – who remain committed to preserving their heritage while also embracing new cultural influences in their artistic productions. Tagaq’s musical intentions extend beyond her Inuit culture, drawing on various influences to create works with transnational artistic appeal (Meintel 1993; Chartier, Pepin, and Ringuet 2006). By implementing the term transnational, I refer to the practice of artists moving seam-lessly between the established customs of different cultural spaces (from that of their origins to a more global one), forging social networks across national boundaries where they create unique identities through aesthetic, cultural, and technological exchanges (Portes 1999, 2001). ² In a dynamic of ‘transformative continuity’, aboriginal traditions have “long been accustomed to borrowing without questioning homogeneity or authenticity” (Laugrand 2013, 226). It seems that this process takes on a new form in a world where the combination of contemporary nomadism (Attali 2003) and the ever-present media (Appadurai 1996; Toynbee and Dueck 2011) characterize ‘modernity’. Tagaq, like other Amerindian and Inuit artists, affirms her “right to modernity” (Chartier 2005) through a cultural mélange – a blending of local, aboriginal, native elements with those that are borrowed, non-aboriginal, exogenous. This approach, as also demonstrated by artists, such as Balinese guitarist Balawan (Harnish 2013) or Malian female pop singer Oumou Sangaré (Duran 1996), is part of a new artistic ‘cosmopolitan aesthetic’. According to Beck (2006), this assumes that members, both domestic and foreign, are open to a borderless world and cultural diversity while still remaining connected to their original cultural values. In so doing, they create an artistic space where the mutual (and beneficial) exchange of cultural codes between their heritage and the shared aesthetic conventions of the global stage allow them to distinguish themselves. It is in this context that a new wave of aboriginal artists are emerging, whose multidisciplinary and transnational practices both reflect and feed into a voluntary movement, not a quest, but a re-conquest (or “reverse invasion” [Morley and Robins 1995, 114]) of a new aboriginal cultural balance. Tagaq’s artistic practice is illustrative of this movement, raising some important questions: how is cultural dialogue manifested in her musical and stage performances? And how do we address the enactment of her distinctive identity, of her “unique signature” (Desroches 2008, 2011)?