On Friday June 12, from 3:00 - 4:30 (EST), award-winning throatsingers from PIQSIQ, Tiffany Kuliktana Ayalik and Kayley Inuksuk Mackay gave a one-and-a-half half hour long introductory workshop to throatsinging. This workshop is open to Inuit women only please.

The workshop took place online using Zoom. This workshop, like every De-ICE-olation workshop, was free.

With a style perpetually galvanized by darkness and haunting northern beauty, sisters, Tiffany Kuliktana Ayalik and Kayley Inuksuk Mackay, come together to create Inuit style throat singing duo, PIQSIQ.  Performing ancient traditional songs and eerie new compositions, they leave their listeners enthralled with the infinity of possible answers to the question “what is the meaning of life.”  

With roots in Nunavut, the two grew up in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.  After years of forging hard won skill, they developed their own form blended with haunting melodies and otherworldly sounds.  Approaching adulthood, they realized throat singing was not only a musical expression, but a radical, political act of cultural revitalization.  In Inuktut, a “piqsiq” is a storm where the winds blow in a specific way, making it look like the snow is falling back up towards the sky.  Being of blended backgrounds, Kayley and Tiffany have had to navigate strange cultural waters and have learned to embrace that journey. 

As PIQSIQ, they perform improvisational looping live, creating a dynamic audience experience that changes with every show.  PIQSIQ incorporates that haunting, ethereal feel into their debut album Altering the Timeline and since it’s release have gone on to perform both nationally and internationally.  With a style inspired by northern beauty, sisters, Tiffany Kuliktana Ayalik and Kayley Inuksuk Mackay, come together to create Inuit style throat singing duo, PIQSIQ. 

First singing as a game as children, they realized as adults that throat singing was not only a musical expression, but a radical act of cultural revitalization.  As PIQSIQ, they perform improvisational looping live, creating a dynamic audience experience that changes with every show.