Elders, youth plan future of the drum dance
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Rankin Inlet (Apr 25/01) - The beat of the drum rang out loud and clear in Rankin Inlet last week.
The sounds came from drum dancers who gathered together from Rankin, Arviat, Repulse Bay and Gjoa Haven, as well as singers from Whale Cove and Chesterfield Inlet for the Nunavut Drum Dance Festival.
Johnny Aupilardjuk, 20, has been drum dancing since the age of 13.
His father (Mariano Aupilardjuk) taught him how to drum dance, and he has improved during the past seven years by watching others and dancing every chance he gets.
"Drum dancing is my people's tradition and that's important, but it's also fun and I enjoy doing it. I'm going to keep going as long as I can."
Aupilardjuk says he's encouraged by the rise in the number of young people who are starting to drum dance.
He says young people need to be involved for drum dancing to remain vibrant, but there are other concerns as well.
He says although elders talked during the week about keeping songs alive, they were more concerned about changes they see.
"There's only supposed to be one drum dancer on the floor in traditional drum dancing. They can have as many singers as they want, but the elders are concerned when they see two or more drum dancers on the floor at the same time.
"That's not the way of traditional drum dancing."
Participants also visited Maani Ulujuk middle school and Alaittuq high during the festival and planned for next year's event.
"The elders want Rankin to control our funding, so it can't be spent in each community and will be there when we need it. Repulse Bay was also voted the site of next year's festival.
"Eleven communities wanted the festival. Repulse and Gjoa Haven tied with nine votes each on the first ballot and Repulse came out on top in the second election.
