This summer, Aasiva has been happy to get back to performing after a forced hiatus due to Covid.
“It has been a difficult time to perform as an artist, especially from Nunavut. There was one day [in 2022] where all performances for six months were just cancelled.”
Getting back to concentrating on her music career full-time is on the horizon for the Panginurtung-born Inuit folksinger and ukulele player/instructor, who has been working for Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated. With her contract ending in December, Aasiva is looking forward to being a full-time artist once again next January.
Aasiva has very much savoured the opportunity to perform live recently, especially for the inaugural Canadian North/Air Greenland flight on June 26. The artist took the opportunity to first perform in Nuuk after a flight with many stopovers, then boarding the plane back to Iqaluit to perform the same day.
“I thought it was really cool,” she says of the experience. “I’ve never performed in two countries in one day. It was quite a feat. It was really incredible to see our two countries coming together. I was really excited to say on stage in Nuuk how we are seeing two peoples — really one Inuit people — united again after being divided by borders.”
Since then, Aasiva has remained in Iqaluit, where she performed twice at the Alianait Arts Festival, which she credits with being “a huge supporter” of her career as a performance artist, and the first to give her the opportunity to perform.
“I’m really appreciative.”
Upon returning to music full-time, Aasiva is looking forward to more performances, collaborations with other artists, and “eventually the opportunity to record another album.”
Initially starting as a fiddler, it wasn’t until attending college at Nunavut Sivuniksavut that Aasiva really discovered herself as an artist. After learning the ukulele, which she now teaches to young Inuit, she says that she discovered a love of writing her own music that was deeply intuitive, and similar to throat singing in that she “mimicked the sounds of my environment.” Her music was a way for her to get in touch with her feelings, and inspiration often “came out of nowhere.”
Without a formal technical musical background, Aasiva, who dreams of becoming a music therapist one day, says “I am more when I’m playing music. I become more open and vulnerable. I think music has healing capabilities... I found it harder when I was younger to express my feelings. I think a lot of Inuit, and particularly Inuit women, feel the same way... You can use music as a coping mechanism, a form of release.”
Teaching ukulele workshops and performing her own music is a way Aasiva is using her gifts to help other Inuit.
“It’s been really incredible seeing [my students] grow,” she says.
