INUVIK
The tradition of drum dancing nearly disappeared in the Mackenzie Delta in the '80s.

Drummers and dancers perform during the Inuvik Sunrise Festival earlier this year. The group always encourages audience participation. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo

"It used to only be the elders," said Brian Rogers, better known by his Inuvialuktun name Nungkii, leader of the Inuvik Drummers and Dancers.

"The eldest elder was 82 and the youngest was 62. There were no youth, no young adults, nothing."

Back then they were known as the Mackenzie Delta Drummers and Dancers and were made up of members from Aklavik, Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik.

"Slowly, they were finishing and there were no young people having interest in it or trying to revive it," said Nungkii. 

"The (leading) elders - Sarah Tingmiak, Alex and Hope Gordon, Norman Felix - said each of us in our own town, our community, we've got to start our own group so this drum dancing doesn't finish."

That was in 1989 and the tradition has been reviving slowly with an injection of youth and new members.

For Nungkii, drum dancing and language are inherently connected.

"When you drum dance, you go to a happy place that's really happy, lifts you up," he said. "Even how bad day you had, how awful people were to you, when you drum dance it lifts you up, takes away all your worries, everything is happy again. You feel renewed, rejuvenated through drum dance."

Every song tells a story. One example is chronicling the seal hunt, wherein the leader of the village makes a fishnet, finds a spot to place it, chisels a hole in the ice, sets his net, comes back to find a seal and tows it home to a happy reception.

Nungkii has been drum dancing since the early '90s. During the group's low point, membership was down to about 15 people. Now, the group sometimes gets up to 50 people together.

The tradition in the Western Arctic is a little bit different from the Eastern Arctic. Inuit in the Eastern Arctic use a larger drum and a shorter stick and hit the drum on both sides.

Wendy Smith has also been involved in the group since the '90s and has worked as the group's coordinator for the most part for the last 15 years.

She's from the area originally, but moving around the North as she grew up meant she didn't really feel like she knew who she was or what culture she came from.

"When I was moving around the North, I still didn't understand really what being Inuvialuit was," she said. "When I moved back (to Inuvik) I saw them drum dancing and it made me want to join. (It's) just a good feeling to know where you come from."

Smith doesn't speak Inuvialuktun fluently but learns through the tradition.

"It's part of your culture," said Nungkii. "It's part of your language. If you don't have your language, you don't have your culture."

The group meets regularly and has a busy list of shows coming up in spring.

Smith thanked the Inuvik Community Corporation for providing space to practise.