THE QAGGIAVUUT AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN THE NUNAVUT PERFORMING ARTS

The first ever Qaggiavuut Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Nunavut Performing Arts was presented June 5, 2010 to Simeonie Keenainak of Pangnirtung.

Simeonie is master of the Inuit button accordion, a style of music that is identified by musicologists as being a unique form of Celtic music—different from all other accordion music in the world.

It is not a copy but an interpretation of the music brought by whalers to the Cumberland Sound area in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

The accordion was embraced by Inuit and transformed into their own sound. Simeonie himself, learned to play the accordion from an old woman who lived in a nearby camp to his. She was happy to pass her songs on to the eager young Simeonie and he learned them well.

For almost all his life, Simeonie has entertained the people of Pangnirtung and the people of Nunavut. Recently composer Jim Hiscott wrote an orchestral piece for Simeonie called Manimasii Aura that was performed by the CBC Orchestra and broadcast internationally. He has played all over the world, including in Scotland where he was hailed as preserving some of the traditional Scottish songs that had long been lost.

How does an accordion player do what Simeonie does? The hands move like lightning over the buttons and the keys, the in and out of the bellows, the hypnotic melody that begs us to dance, the speed, the complexity. Music, brought over the sea hundreds of years ago and then, brought into the qamaq and the tupiq and turned into something of the Arctic and of the tundra.

We honour you Simeonie Keenainak, for your lifetime contribution to the Nunavut performing arts!