I don't think I've ever featured an artist from Nunavut.
Hell, most of you don't know where Nunavut is.
Riit is from a town in Nunavut called Panniqtuq located on Baffin Island, which is about 45 km. south of the Arctic Circle. For those who measure distance in screaming bald eagles instead of kilometers, that's about 28 miles. Nunavut is a Canadian territory, formed in 1999 when the Northwest Territories were split roughly along ethnic lines. Nunavut is primarily Inuit, who are a First Nations group that you may know by another name we're not saying.
(There are certainly Inuit outside of Nunavut, which you already know if you read Totally Covered, so, you can miss us with that).
Riit is the stage name of Rita Claire Mike-Murphy, who is a children's television show host. She hosted a show in English and Inuktitut called Anaana's Tent. Here's the Season 1 promo in English.
And here it is in Inuktitut.
We don't make this stuff up.
In 2017, she released her debut album, and followed it in 2019 with the critically acclaimed Ataataga - a 2020 Juno Award nominee - which included the lead single "quamajaupik". Her music is traditionally Euro-synth, except the lyrics are all in Inuktitut. Literally translated to "you are shining", this is a love song that preserves her native First Nations language, which is exactly her intent.
As part of the release of this single, Riit also had a performance for CBC Music in which she debuted this song.....
The performance is just spectacular, and that's why we're doubling up today and not pushing Riit's Maple Leaf March debut to 2025.
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