Inuit throat-singers get attention

Throat-singers steal the showWhen Inuits Lydia Etok and Nina Segalowitz took to the stage, their skill at throat-singing was a show-stopper.

“Our grandmothers and great grandmothers developed throat singing as a way to entertain themselves when their work was done and they were waiting for the men to come back from hunting. They were imitating sounds from nature, or animal sounds. It was also a way of competing among themselves, for hides, or food, or sometimes even mates,” said Segalowitz, who was born in the Far North, was adopted by a Jewish/Catholic couple and was raised in Outremont.