Canada
Iqaluit
Throat singing echoes between prefab buildings in a capital city carved from Arctic tundra.
Two women face each other and begin trading rhythmic sounds — guttural, melodic, competitive. Throat singing in Iqaluit, Nunavut, is not performance art. It is the living pulse of a culture that has thrived in the Arctic for thousands of years.
Iqaluit is the capital of Nunavut, Canada's newest and largest territory, and the only territorial capital with no road connection to anywhere. Every person and supply arrives by plane or seasonal sealift. The city of 8,000 is built on rock and permafrost at the head of Frobisher Bay, which freezes solid enough in winter for snowmobile highways. Inuit art studios sell original prints and carvings directly from artists' workshops — the co-operative system established here in the 1960s launched Inuit art onto the global stage. The Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum holds one of the finest collections of Inuit cultural artefacts in the world. Despite its small size, Iqaluit hosts an annual music festival, a film festival, and regular throat singing performances.
Solo
Iqaluit rewards the culturally curious solo traveller. Buy prints directly from artists in their workshops, attend throat singing in community halls, and walk the frozen bay at midnight — this is Canada at its most genuinely different.
- Throat singing performances happen regularly — two women face each other and trade rhythmic sounds until one laughs.
- The capital of Nunavut has no roads connecting it to anywhere — every person and supply arrives by plane or seasonal sealift.
- Frobisher Bay freezes solid enough to drive snowmobiles across, and the annual ice fishing season feeds the community.
- Inuit art studios in town sell original prints and carvings directly from the artists' workshops.
Country food at a community feast: raw caribou, muktuk (whale skin), and Arctic char aged in permafrost.
Bannock fried in seal oil — Inuit comfort food that warms from the inside.
Anything from the Storehouse Bar & Grill tastes surreal when you're this far north.
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