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Susan Aglukark's Toronto home is a far cry from her home town of
Arviat, a village neatly tucked away on the west coast of Hudson's Bay,
shielded by the harsh Arctic elements and the distance that cuts the
settlement off from the rest of Canada.
But these days, the 28-year-old Inuit singer is taking advantage of a
golden opportunity to traverse a chasm between her roots and a
mainstream culture that she has recently begun to experience. Thanks to
a rapidly-selling album, This Child, the raven-haired, pixie-ish
performer is enjoying a skyrocketing career that has carted her away
from the North into a minuscule fishbowl of Canadian celebrity.
Even though she may not be able to view the aurora borealis from her
Cabbagetown flat as often as she likes, the recent two-time Juno award
winner seems to have adapted quite nicely to the trolleys and towers
outside her window.
"My upbringing in a small town is not really that far apart from me
right now," she said. "I really don't see a huge difference on a
personal, emotional and spiritual level between living in Toronto and
living in Arviat. I was 25 when I finally moved from the small town
scene. The only real change is the hugeness of the cities and the fact
that there is no solitude."
Snaring some quality down-time for herself is going to be even
tougher. Aglukark is already a CBC entertainment staple, and at this
point in her young career, has serenaded everyone from the Queen to
Brian Mulroney. Aside from her two Junos, her mantelpiece is cluttered
with trophies from the national Aboriginal Achievement Awards, the
Canadian Country Music Association, MuchMusic and the Alberta Recording
Industries Association.
Hailed by Maclean's Magazine as "one of 100 leaders to watch for", she
has the opportunity to grab the Canadian mosaic by the tail and yank it
into a more horizontal position.
She has plenty of company to help do just that. Joining Aboriginal
peers like The Band's former frontman Robbie Robertson, actors Graham
Greene and Tom Jackson, Quebec folk duo Kashtin, actress Tantoo Cardinal
and musician Buffy Sainte Marie, Aglukark is at the front of a group
that is helping to redress Canuck consciousness once accustomed to being
inundated by the more WASP-ish melodies clanging from Toronto's trendy
Queen Street community.
Even though she's aware of the responsibilities associated with acting
as a visible representative of her Inuit culture, she's reluctant to
assume little more than a figurehead role.
"I am fully and completely committed to this now," she stated. "I knew
that if I wanted to help my own people in any way that I could, politics
would not be way to do it. I've seen too much of it. I realize now how
much I can do through this. I am not giving it up. There's too much
for me to do to turn my back on it."
Although she sells oodles of CDs and has won scores of awards -- such
as the two Junos for best ne solo artist and best Canadian Aboriginal
artist -- her ethnic status still creates an element of confusion over
which berth she should occupy in pop culture's bunkhouse.
"That had crossed my mind, but I really believe that if I had allowed
it to become an issue, it would have become an issue at a personal
level," she said.
"I accepted the awards as a proud Canadian Aboriginal person. But it's
up to us as a people to stay one step ahead of the game today, so that
we don't become controlled by those kinds of situations that could crush
what we worked so hard for."
Aglukark also realizes that the road would have been bumpier had it not
been for a federal multicultural policy passed in 1968 and Aboriginal
artists who took a lot of heat fro cracking the mainstream. In
particular, Buffy Sainte Marie, who actually convinced EMI Music to sign
Aglukark two years ago, suffered public and personal humiliation (and
even accumulated and inch-thick FBI file) for the sake of her won music
and social activism.
"Had it not been for Buffy Sainte Marie, and she's one ofthe biggest
examples, the opportunities to paint a picture from a different
perspective never would have existed," stressed Agulkark.
Aglukark's own success is also a triumph over social hardships. a
middle child with six siblings, Aglukark experienced poverty an suffered
one terrifying experience of child abuse.
Eventually, she learned how to conquer her inner turmoil when she
discovered Christianity at a Regina school, earned a diploma in
Yellowknife and was able to testify against the molester of another
child in Rankin Inlet several years later.
Reflecting on her past, Aglukark believes that geography and her Inuk
upbringing had little bearing on the ravages of her childhood.
"What we went through as children is really no different than what a
normal kid in suburban Toronto might have gone through."
Aglukark credits her personal spirituality for retaining her sanity
through those dark years.
"It's what kept me straight," she said.
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