Inuktitut is Elisapie's fourth solo effort. It's a covers album that sprouted in the artist's mind in the winter of 2021, when songs by artists such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Blondie, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica, Queen, and Cyndi Lauper, whose music once took over the community radio airwaves throughout Nunavik, Northern Quebec, triggered a flood of tears. Many of these songs were an escape as the community and cultural references were being challenged by colonization. Elisapie began a mental archaeological process: finding songs associated with emotional memories and people from her past. She followed that with a second, more prosaic quest. She sought the permission of the original artists to translate and adapt the songs that are now on this album.
Elisapie reinvigorates the poetry of these 10 songs thanks to the raw sounds of the thousand-year-old Inuit language and gives each track a unique and deeply personal quality. The tracks range from rock & roll and pop classics from the 1960’s to the 90’s. Every song is linked to a loved one or an intimate story that has shaped the person Elisapie is today. Through this act of cultural reappropriation, she tells her story, offers these songs as a gift to her community, and makes her language and culture resonate beyond the Inuit territory.
