Inuit music

[2] The Copper Inuit living around Coppermine River flowing north to Coronation Gulf have generally two categories of music.

A song is called pisik (also known as pisiit or piheq) if the performer also plays drums and aton if he only dances.

Katajjaq (also pirkusirtuk and nipaquhiit) is a type of traditional competitive, but cooperative, song, considered a game, usually held between two women.

It is one of the world's few examples of overtone singing, a unique method of producing sounds that is otherwise best known in Tuvan throat-singing.

They repeat brief motifs at staggered intervals, often imitating natural sounds, like those of geese, caribou or other wildlife, until one runs out of breath, trips over her own tongue, or begins laughing, and the contest is then over.

"The old woman who teaches the children corrects sloppy intonation of contours, poorly meshed phrase displacements, and vague rhythms exactly like a Western vocal coach.

The CBC Northern Service played a critical role in the distribution and promotion of Inuit music; as an essential cultural link between the remote communities of the Canadian Arctic, it often served as the only venue for Arctic-based musicians to record a song or an album.