Art in Focus: "Two Women Making Throat Music" by Lucassie Echalook

“Two Women Making Throat Music,” 1974; Stonecut print on paper; Lucassie Echalook - Born: Inukjual, Quebec, 1942; University of Alberta Museums Art Collection, University of Alberta Museums; 1978.1.14

Every year, November 7 marks International Inuit Day, also known as International Circumpolar Inuit Day. This day honours Inuit culture, their contributions to the world, and amplifies  their voices.¹ It is these Inuit voices that are quite literally celebrated in the stonecut print Two Women Making Throat Music (1978.1.14) by Lucassie Echalook. 

While Echalook is most known as a prolific sculptor of hunting scenes, he occasionally puts his skill as a stone carver to use in order to create stonecut prints such as Two Women Making Throat Music. In this print he has depicted two women, their arms entwined around one another, as they engage in katajjaq or throat singing. 

Katajjaq is practiced almost exclusively by Inuit women and is usually viewed as a game or entertaining pastime. Using circular breathing, women stand facing one another and sing in response to their partner. The first person to lose their breath or laugh loses the game.² For many years the practice was banned by Christian missionaries but today, contemporary artists like Juno Award winner Tanya Tagaq and TikTok star Shina Novalinga have contributed to its resurgence.

Annual print catalogues have long been produced in many Inuit artistic communities. Two Women Making Throat Music was featured in the 1975 Arctic Quebec Print Catalogue and is one of two prints by Lucassie Echalook in the University of Alberta Museums Art Collection. Echalook’s work is also included in the collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery - the largest collection of Inuit artwork in the world.

¹ Ellis Quinn, “International Inuit Day is an occasion to affirm Inuit voices across the circumpolar world, leader says,” Eye on the Arctic, Radio Canada, November 7, 2019, accessed November 6, 2023.

² Julie Remy, “New wave’ of Inuit throat singers reach the Canadian mainstream music scene,” Radio Canada International, June 19, 2020, accessed November 6, 2023.

This web story is part of the University of Alberta Museums Art Collection Spotlight Series, a collection of web stories aimed to share works of art from the University of Alberta Museums Art Collection with the world. Posted monthly, these stories connect works of art in the Collection to important matters on our campus and in our world.