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Susan Aglukark adds her voice to the “Speak Up!” exhibit

Interview

She’s a #1 hitmaker, a multiple JUNO Award winner, a cultural icon, a globally-renowned humanitarian, and she holds honorary doctorates from two universities in Alberta alone! And the ever-inspiring Susan Aglukark now has yet another distinction to add to her unique CV.

She is part of a new slate of Indigenous trailblazers who are featured in the National Music Centre’s Speak Up! storytelling exhibition. Susan’s contributions are featured alongside stories and perspectives from Eekwol, Andy De Jarlis, Shingoose, and Kashtin.

The new edition of Speak Up! launched at Calgary’s Studio Bell on September 29, and the exhibition will be accessible for free on September 30th, Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Susan spoke to CKUA’s Grant Stovel from her home in Oakville, Ontario. She tells us about the Speak Up! exhibition; being honoured as the JUNO Awards’ 2022 Humanitarian of the Year; the way that her music, her work as an acclaimed abstract painter, and her charitable initiatives like The Arctic Rose Foundation are all projects that inform and inspire each other; and she introduces a song from her brilliant new album The Crossing, which was inspired by the Nunavut community of Arviat, where she grew up.