{"id":125173,"date":"2026-06-15T16:49:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=125173"},"modified":"2026-06-15T16:49:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:49:22","slug":"interview-susan-aglukark-talks-career-music-working-inuit-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2026\/06\/15\/interview-susan-aglukark-talks-career-music-working-inuit-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Susan Aglukark Talks About Career, Music, And Working As An Inuit Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_125175\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-125175\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-125175\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-06-15T164829.643.jpg\" alt=\"Inuit singer-songwriter Susan Aglukark (Photo courtesy of the artist)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-06-15T164829.643.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-06-15T164829.643-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-06-15T164829.643-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-06-15T164829.643-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-125175\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inuit singer-songwriter Susan Aglukark (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Singer-songwriter Susan Aglukark will be performing at the upcoming Indigenous Arts Festival. The Festival takes place June 20 at Biidaasige Park.<\/p>\n<p>The veteran Inuk artist will be closing the event, a free and family-friendly day-long celebration of Indigenous cultures. More than 30 years after her breakout album This Child, she\u2019s still making music and advocating for Inuit communities in the North.<\/p>\n<p>LV spoke to Susan Aglukark about her career, working as an Inuk artist, reconciliation and more.<\/p>\n<h2>Susan Aglukark<\/h2>\n<p>Uuliniq Susan Aglukark, (\u14f2\u14f4\u14d0 \u140a\u14a1\u14d8\u1483\u1472\u1585 suusan agluukkaq) OC, was born in Churchill, Manitoba, and raised in Arviat, Northwest Territories, a region that is now part of Nunavut.<\/p>\n<p>Susan worked for the Department of Indian &amp; Northern Affairs in Ottawa, later returning to NWT to work with the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada. She began to sing in Inuit communities, and released an independent album of her own music in 1992 titled Arctic Rose, which won the Best Music of Aboriginal Canada Recording award at the JUNO Awards of 1995. Her musical style blends country and pop with her Inuit roots, and she sings in both English and Inuktitut.<\/p>\n<p>This Child, released in 1995, sold more than 300,000 copies in Canada, and the lead single O Siem became the first top ten hit by an Inuk performer. She has since released seven studio albums of original music.<\/p>\n<p>Susan was the first Inuk artist to win four JUNO Awards. Aglukark was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and received a Governor General\u2019s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2016, and the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award at the 2022 Juno Awards.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to her music career, Aglukark has worked with several non-profit groups advocating for Inuit and other Indigenous youth as a spokesperson, including writing workshops. She has advocated and worked for food insecurity in the North, among other issues. She has also written two children\u2019s books.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nS7e3A4Z8bE?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h2>Susan Aglukark: The Interview<\/h2>\n<p>Is music a career or a calling?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA bit of both,\u201d says Aglukark. \u201cAs a career, it was series of opportunities that came along shortly after moving to Ottawa in the fall of 1990. And, it started with a project that was part of my day job. I worked for Indian Affairs at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As she relates, she was part of a video project that was dedicated to telling the stories of Inuit children like her who\u2019d had to leave home to get an education. \u201cThose of us who still had to leave home and live in residence to get their grade 12 diploma,\u201d she explains. \u201cThis was short video project that became a music video.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The video went viral before viral was a thing, and went into heavy rotation on Much Music. She was gaining recognition even before she knew anything about the music industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was the beginning of discovering that was a possibility,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Next came a call from CBC Radio North. \u201cThey asked for more music,\u201d she says. It started the ball rolling. \u201cJust a series of happenstances. We ended up with a CBC project with a producer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what resulted in Arctic Rose. The album\u2019s success garnered even more notice from the industry, including major labels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI signed a record deal with EMI,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Aglukark co-wrote the song This Child with Canadian producer Chad Irschick, and sales in the hundreds of thousands convinced her that a career in the music industry was a possibility.<\/p>\n<p>Was it more than just a music career for her?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes and no. I think we straddle this position. What does success look like? We wear many hats as an Indigenous artist,\u201d she says. \u201cAs artists, and if we\u2019re successful artists, we\u2019re also voices and advocates for critical issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those issues, she notes, haven\u2019t changed much over the years. \u201cThey were critical 35 years ago when I launched Arctic Rose. They\u2019re basic human rights issues,\u201d she adds. Such as, housing, clean water, food security, the mental health crisis. \u201cSo of course we have to be advocates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It puts an extra weight on the position of being an artist. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to pursue success for the sake of success. We have to find a balance. And learn \u2014 social media has changed how we advocate. How we speak up,\u201d she points out. \u201cThe message is out there more instantly,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we\u2019re always going to straddle that, because the issues haven\u2019t really changed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Music and creation in general can also be a path to renewal. \u201cTo choose to also utilize this platform as a tool to stay on a healing journey, and if we\u2019re very successful on healing journeys, and I\u2019ve been fortunate in that I am successful, to continue that healing,\u201d Aglukark says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPart of that healing is connecting with joy. I\u2019m loving what I\u2019m discovering, and part of that is navigating our trauma, our collective trauma as Indigenous people. We have to sit with that. We have to find a balance and sit with that,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s been my discovery and my joy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The act of expression by itself can bring healing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy it\u2019s very nature, it becomes that. I think that\u2019s part of our inner deep conflict as Indigenous people, is back to that whole conversation around success. What does success look like for you? Do you pursue success as a celebrity? Or for healing?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As she points out, it can be both.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s going to come to that. Your art is going to bring you to that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BftVexRACDc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h3>Career Evolution<\/h3>\n<p>Over time, her notion of what a career in music can be has changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has evolved,\u201d says Aglukark. \u201cThe beginning was definitely that \u2014 I would say the first five or six years, was this holy crap. Is this really happening? I didn\u2019t see this coming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As with so many Indigenous artists, there was a period of own awakening to her own heritage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was so much we were disconnected from.\u201d Inuit children went through their own iteration of residential schools. By the 1950s, run by the federal government, many of them operated on a model that consisted of day schools, and student hostels, where students lived. Children were relocated, often far away from their families. To attend secondary school, students had to move out of the region entirely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were disconnected from our cultures. We were also institutionalized,\u201d she says. The experience left its mark. \u201cIn the early years of my career, I felt like I constantly had to ask [permission],\u201d Aglukark says. \u201cThe first years, it feels amazing \u2014 I\u2019m an artist. But, the feeling like someone could take it away at any moment [stuck].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the first flush of success came a period of questioning. \u201cThe time between This Child and Unsung Heroes, the follow up album, [I asked myself] the question, do you want to do this, and what are the next steps \u2014 because there was a lot of learning to do,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had to learn basic English.\u201d As she explains, it wasn\u2019t from scratch, \u201cbut there was a lot of catching up to do.\u201d She also had to learn about the music industry and how it operates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had to sink my fingers into, how to write for the sake of music, and not for the radio. I had to navigate that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the end, she knew she wanted to continue as a musician. \u201cI think I want to do that, but I have a lot of learning to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Taking the institutionalization out of her thinking was one of the issues she had to tackle. \u201cThat\u2019s when I knew, I am an artist.\u201d She could focus on her music. \u201cTo be a better writer, be a better singer,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what the journey has been since then. Since the early 2000s.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Reconciliation From An Artist\u2019s Perspective<\/h3>\n<p>Has the environment changed at all for Indigenous people over the years? Is reconciliation just a word that\u2019s thrown around, one with no true meaning? As someone who\u2019s been in the business for decades, Susan is uniquely positioned to offer a relevant opinion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWatching how much has changed in the industry in terms of making access to it safer, and what I mean by that is, there was a time when there were very few of us at this level, and there was always that pressure from the industry to be an \u2018Indigenous artist\u2019, and look Indigenous,\u201d she says. \u201cVersus I am just a person, who happens to be an Inuk person, who wants to be a good singer and songwriter,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<p>Working under industry pressure to serve up some notion of what an Indigenous artist is supposed to be and look like can be stifling. \u201cI kind like just being here, and taking up space,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAm I being disingenuous to say, I\u2019m just an artist who happens to be Inuk?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s used that kind of pressure and conflict to inform her songwriting. Through time, and artists like her who\u2019ve been in the industry since the 1990s, attitudes gradually change. \u201cIt allows the next generation \u2014 and there\u2019s so many of us \u2014 to take up that space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays, there\u2019s a conversation about Indigenous traditional vs. contemporary cultures. \u201cAnd that\u2019s exciting. Our world changed,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy parents came from the land. We have to be true to how much changes, and how fast it changes. I think that access to that platform, and that safe access, has been firmly established,\u201d Susan continues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the great privileges I have had as an Indigenous artist, is to become part of that reconciliation process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Music and other arts are ways of healing as well as expression. \u201cHealing has to be a critical part of that reconciliation process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She emphasizes that the process is ongoing. \u201cAnd we\u2019re not there,\u201d Aglukark says.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VizlCq-6zV0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h3>Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n<p>She\u2019s grateful that she\u2019s been able to make her mark in the music industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI get to do this everyday,\u201d Susan says.<\/p>\n<p>The pressure, though, can be debilitating.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt burned me out. I was so burned out about 15 years ago. Even today, when I go into a singer songwriting environment, I have high anxiety,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe space we navigate as Indigenous artists, we\u2019re all healing, and to sit and take up the space as artists, and be part of the reconciliation process,\u201d she continues. \u201cI want to be an artist, and I love being an artist. But, it\u2019s also triggering me.\u201d In part, that conflict is what fuels her art.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re dealing with as Indigenous artists today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the fact that reconciliation is a process that\u2019s only just begun to bear fruit, she\u2019s optimistic as long as it continues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs long as the dialogue continues, as long as we don\u2019t go back to being stagnant,\u201d Aglukark says, \u201ceven if we go sideways for a generation \u2014 as long as there\u2019s some movement, it will progress.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The Indigenous Arts Festival<\/h2>\n<p>The Indigenous Arts Festival takes place Saturday, <strong>June 20<\/strong> at <strong>Biidaasige Park<\/strong> in Toronto&#8217;s Port Lands district. The park entrance is on the south side of Commissioners Street on the island of Ookwemin Minising. Find out out to get there <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/explore-enjoy\/parks-recreation\/places-spaces\/beaches-gardens-attractions\/biidaasige-park\/how-to-biidaasage-park\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a free, community-focused and family-friendly event, and offers traditional and contemporary music, dance, artisan and culinary experiences with workshops and activities, art and food markets, and live musical performances.<\/p>\n<p>The concert takes place from 5 to 9 p.m., and features Mississauga Credit First Nation Youth, Manitou Mkwa Singers, Lacey Hill, Derek Miller and Susan Aglukark.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Find out more [<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/explore-enjoy\/festivals-events\/indigenous-arts-festival\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/strong>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Are you looking to promote an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/advertising\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0e101a;\"><u>event<\/u><\/span><\/a>? 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