IQALUIT
The Iqaluit Music Society's annual Music Camp was delayed on the first day because the water supply was cut off to Nakasuk School. But it soon recovered, with 138 campers getting into the groove from Aug. 14 to 19. After all, organizers been doing this for 21 years.

Learning to play the fiddle in the front row, from left, are campers Claire Tingley, Tinu Egbuna, Anita Ellsworth, Jasmine Hartley and Abby Alainga. In the back row, from left, are Kaniq Allerton, Thomas Ma and Andrew Ma. - photo courtesy of Tat Ma

"Our long history ... is due to the tremendous support of our community," said camp director Darlene Nuqingaq.

The camp offers students age six and up the chance to take workshops in Inuit drum dance, throatsinging, fiddle, guitar, accordion, percussion, xylophone, recorder, choir, band, dance and creative music.

New this year, thanks to funding from the Healthy Children's Initiative, the camp also offered early childhood music programs for pre-school and primary aged children, and special workshops for children aged five and six, by Leslie Bricker, an instructor from Ottawa.

She wasn't the only volunteer instructor who travelled to participate. This year also included professional musicians Raphael Roter and Bea Labikova from Toronto.

Retired organist Frances Macdonnell from Ottawa raised funds for two years to bring nine youth volunteers to the music camp, including Tim Loten, who studies guitar at Berkeley University and 24 adults from St. Stephen's Church who volunteered around Iqaluit, bringing donations to the food bank and baby supplies to newborns at the hospital.

Nuqingaq says visitors to the camp have "been amazed" at what they can achieve in Iqaluit, particularly because the camp is free for students to attend.

"There's no formal fee, but ... because there's not time or room in the budget to feed our instructors, we usually put out a menu and parents will provide the casseroles and the meals. And they come help supervise lunch, so they can contribute that way," said Nuqingaq.

She says about one-third of the parents donate in kind. She estimates another one-third of parents contribute financially, with the largest donation being about $300.

Year-by-year funding

The Iqaluit Music Society has been able to offer the camp this way because of funding from the Department of Culture and Heritage.

"But it's not guaranteed, and it's year by year," Nuqingaq said. She says they also receive funding from Community Wellness, which she says has been a "mainstay" over the years.

"But they're probably only one-tenth of what we need. For the number of kids we have and the budget that we have, it works out to be about $500 per student, which is a normal camp tuition anywhere down south," she says. "I wish the arts was better funded."

That's particularly important in Nunavut, Nuquingaq says, because without funding, many children would not be able to access the arts.

"Music education is severely lacking. We currently have one private piano teacher in town, but many of my kids that I serve, they can't afford those private lessons, nor can they afford a piano. And nor could anybody from a not-for-profit be able to provide that many pianos for students even if they were willing to teach for free," she said.

During the year, Nuquingaq teaches Grade 3 at Joamie Elementary school. She started the Iqaluit Fiddle Club that eventually spawned the Iqaluit Music Society, and over the years has amassed a classroom full of violins.

Many studies have linked academic success to arts education, and Nuquingaq says she noticed a change in her students after she began teaching her whole class how to play.

"I was teaching my kids violin every day ... their reading levels and their math scores, from my anecdotal, improved dramatically," she said.

"In sports you can have teams and teams will help you to be more socially appropriate or a good team player, but music, it's not competitive. So you can get those social goals, but it also turns on your academic, it helps you in all areas of your life, your social, emotional and academic."

"There's a lot of different kids, kids who play sports, who do art like drawings, and you need music too," said Naiome Eegeesiak, one of the helpers at the camp. "Because maybe those kids aren't athletic. Or artistic in the drawing kind of way."

Which is why, Nuquingaq says, music shouldn't only be available to students who can afford it.

It's also why the Iqaluit Music Society works hard to not just instruct students, but turn them into instructors themselves.

According to the Iqaluit District Education Authority, the only school in the city with a full-time music teacher on staff is Inuksuk High School - all the younger grades make do with volunteer-run choir clubs, and the choral festival the Music Society presents each spring, or the limited private lessons available in the city.

"My goal would be to have more local instructors," said Nuquingaq.

'Developing instructors

The Music Camp has many graduates who have now gone on to teach classes of their own, if for no other reason than eventually, Nuquingaq would like to retire.

"We try to do succession planning like that, I've been teaching fiddle in Iqaluit for 21 years now and I'm looking to retire soon, so I don't want to just stop music camp."

Mary Itorcheak is one of those students. She started coming to the camp when she was six years old, and now, as a Grade 11 student, she's a co-teacher.

She mainly performs throatsinging and drum dancing.

"I just wanted the culture to keep going, so I kept going back every year to get better at throatsinging and drum dancing. And now I'm teaching throatsinging!" said Itorcheak.

"It brings back our culture. It's important to keep our culture. I believe when we're learning these old ways they'll bring back our culture and once we learn we can teach other people."

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