When Susan Aglukark takes the stage during her ambitious cross-Canada 30th anniversary tour, the renowned singer will no doubt once again charm audiences with her soulful music and heart-felt lyrics.
But beyond the music and video, and the nostalgic journey through This Child, Aglukark鈥檚 performances carry a deeper purpose. This tour is not just a celebration marking the three decades since the launch of This Child, her breakthrough album 鈥� it's a testament to resilience, cultural reclamation and the ongoing fight for healing within Indigenous communities.
"When I left my small Inuit hometown in what is now Nunavut 鈥� it was still the Northwest Territories back then 鈥� I had no idea who I would become," Aglukark said in conversation with Monday Magazine.
"I couldn鈥檛 even begin to imagine it because, growing up, there wasn鈥檛 much encouragement for dreaming in that way."
This Child, which followed Aglukark's first album, Arctic Rose, was a smashing success. Groundbreaking in that it brought Inuit and Indigenous storytelling into mainstream Canadian music, This Child went triple platinum, selling more than 300,000 copies, and earning Aglukark multiple Juno Awards.
Following This Child's success, Susan Aglukark released several more albums, collected more honours and was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2004 for her contributions to music and her work as a cultural ambassador for Indigenous communities.
In response to the suicide crisis sweeping Canada's North, in 2012 Aglukark founded the , a charitable organization dedicated to supporting Northern Inuit, First Nations and M茅tis youth.
As we talk, Aglukark is careful to point out that none of it was easy. That although in some ways she has had a fabulous career (my words), she is quick to acknowledge the hard work behind the success. "There鈥檚 very little glamour in this life," she says, drawing a parallel between her work and an iceberg floating in the sea.
"People see the beauty at the top, but ... beneath the water is this massive support and work and effort that nobody really sees," she explains. "We鈥檝e chosen this life, and we continue to choose it, but it comes with its own challenges."
As an activist and truth-teller, Aglukark has testified at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, speaking candidly about the lasting trauma and systemic injustices faced by Indigenous communities. Her testimony underscored the urgent need for healing, cultural support and systemic change. In 2011, just before starting the Arctic Rose Foundation, Aglukark found herself at a personal crossroads.
Struggling with the emotional toll of working while being constantly triggered by past trauma, she turned to mixed media art as a way to cope. "I had just hit a point in my journey where I couldn鈥檛 do it anymore 鈥� not in the same way," she shared in her interview. "Performing, writing 鈥� it all required working while triggered, and I needed to find a way to keep going."
Besides finding her voice as an advocate and community builder, and developing as an artist, Aglukark acknowledges that her stage performances have also evolved.
The 30th anniversary tour will feature multimedia elements, including video projections that enhance the storytelling aspect of her songs.
It also features Angela Amarualik, who not only opens the show but joins Aglukark on stage, providing the powerful sounds of Inuit throat singing.
The tour is to be a musical and cultural journey, focusing on hope, the hard, multi-generational work that reconciliation will be, and the role that music and storytelling can play in that process.
"I think we really have to be gentle with each other when we're navigating this," Aglukark says. 鈥淚 want to leave people with a sense of hope about the future.鈥�
Susan Aglukark's tour with special guest Angela Amarualik begins in Ontario on Feb. 28, with more than three dozen stops across the country, including Campbell River (April 1), Courtenay (April 2), Nanaimo (April 3) and Sidney (April 4).
