The Effects of Inuit Drum Dancing on Psychosocial Well-Being and Resilience

Abstract

Since time immemorial, Inuit drum dancing songs have been used throughout the Arctic to reaffirm kinship ties, decompress from the rigors of hunting and gathering, and redirect competitive behavior. The Effects of Inuit Drum Dancing on Psychosocial Well-Being and Resilience: Productivity and Cultural Competence in an Inuit Settlement explores the sociocultural context surrounding two forms of traditional Inuit drum dancing in Ulukhaktok, an Inuit settlement in the Canadian Northwest Territories. Tim Murray uses case studies and social script analysis to argue that drum dance participation has emerged in this community as a way of supporting the psychosocial well-being of the settlement’s younger population and to explore how in the wake of colonization, drum dancing has resolidified in Ulukhaktok. Specifically, chapters examine the impacts of generational isolation and its downstream effects on the lives of settlement youth and young adults, the deployment of drum dancing as a tactical resource for modulating emotional access with elders, and its reemergence within the Ulukhaktok taskscape as a platform for reinterpreting local understandings of productivity and cultural competence.