Kilautiup Songuninga

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Kilautiup Songuninga is an Inuit-led drum dancing and throat singing group from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It was founded in 2006 to recover traditional Inuit music and culture, and its name means “strength of the drum.” The group was the first of its kind in St. John’s. Its first public performance was in April 2006 at The Rooms during Celebrating Nunatsiavut. Founders included Sophie Angnatok (also known as Sophie Agnatok), Solomon Semigak, Stanley Nochasak, and Josephine Obed; they worked with ethnomusicologist Mary Piercey, Colleen Shea helped arrange the event, and Simon Kohmeister built their first qilaut (Inuit frame drum). The group is made up mostly of Labrador Inuit living in St. John’s. One founder, Sophie Angnatok/Agnatok, grew up in Nain and her grandmother was a throat singer. Solomon Semigak died in 2024, and his niece Sophie Semigak joined the group in 2025. By 2025 the members included Letia Kalluk, Makaela Blake, Ashley Dicker, Danny Pottle, Sophie Agnatok, and Sophie Semigak. Kilautiup Songuninga collects songs and stories to revive drum dancing and throat singing, traditions that were suppressed by Moravian missionaries in the 1700s. A revival movement began in the 1980s. The group has performed at events such as Government House in St. John’s for King Charles III’s coronation in 2023.