RANKIN INLET
Performing artist Kathleen Merritt is baring her cultural soul on her new CD, Ivaluarjuk: Ice Lines and Sealskin.

Multitalented artist Kathleen Merritt is releasing her first CD this coming summer. - photo courtesy of Doug Thomas

Merritt began performing while attending the Nunavut Sivuniksavut (NS) program in Ottawa. The program is geared for students living on their own in the city while studying the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

Part of the program is cultural performance, which helps students present themselves and their culture to other audiences by performing around the city.

Merritt said that's why she began learning how to throatsing.

And, she said, she soon began to grow very passionate about throatsinging.

"As soon as I heard it, I wanted to learn more," said Merritt.

"I had friends who had taken the NS program a year or two before me and I wanted to learn from them.

"When I was in my second year at NS, I spent every spare second I had trying to learn how to throat sing.

"I really enjoyed it."

After finishing with NS, Merritt began working with Alianait in Nunavut's arts sector, eventually advancing to the national level.

She was often invited to throatsing or drum dance, and she also performed with the Rankin Inlet Youth Group after moving back home.

Merritt said the more she got involved with folk music, attending various festivals and meeting numerous artists, the more she knew she wanted to collaborate.

She said she's spent a lot of time collaborating with artists from various musical genres during the past four years.

"Throatsinging is easy to collaborate with any style of music but I've been wanting to put more of what's me out there for the past few years.

"I'd been involved with other people's music, but I wanted to create something representing my tastes, my sound and who I am.

"I began thinking about doing my own album, but I knew I wasn't ready.

"I wanted to learn more about the process and then, this past November, I decided to apply for funding."

Merritt applied to Economic Development and Transportation's Artist Development program.

She said the program is accessible to anyone who wants to record an album, as long as they're considered a professional artist among their peers.

"I truly believe if there's funding available to Nunavut artists, we should use it.

"I've applied for funding through Canada Council for the Arts and FACTOR for other artists.

"But I knew, for myself, I wanted to take advantage of the funding available in Nunavut."

Merritt said her first album is very eclectic.

She said some tracks have their roots in the blues.

"It's very much been a collaborative album.

"The other Nunavut artists I worked with are amazing, and we were able to co-create something I was looking for through expressing my ideas.

"I kind of did it the expensive way by creating the pieces in the studio.

"That's OK because it worked out perfectly."

Merritt is doing her own promotion and marketing for the album.

She approached the project as a huge learning experience, from the recording process to developing a marketing plan.

Merritt said the experience was fun and she knows what to do differently the next time around.

She said while she had her own ideas going into the studio, the arrangements are a 100 per cent collaborative effort.

"I would guide the process along, in terms of how I wanted everything to sound.

"I wanted to celebrate both my cultures on this album.

"Growing up in Nunavut, I've always identified with my Inuit culture, and, while I knew my dad was from Nova Scotia and there was Irish heritage there, I never poked around into it too much.

"I really played with those sounds on the album, and there's one tune that's an Irish jig with throatsinging."

Merritt considers herself a throatsinger, artist and poet, but not a songwriter.

The poet in her is heard through the spoken word on a couple of album tracks.

"I poured my heart and soul into this to celebrate life and identity," said Merritt.

"I'll be doing a small album release in Iqaluit this coming July, if I can manage to organize it between the Alianait Arts Festival and another I'm going to right afterwards.

"We'll be performing at Folk on the Rocks in Yellowknife and the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik.

"One of my best friends, Kerri Tattuinee, will be coming along with me, as well as Chris Coleman and Ellen Hamilton, and we're also planning something for Rankin, possibly Arviat and Winnipeg."