Quantum Tangle are a

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

-winning Canadian musical group who combine traditional

Inuit throat singing Inuit throat singing, or ''katajjaq'' ( Inuktitut syllabics: ᑲᑕᔾᔭᖅ), is a distinct type of throat singing uniquely found among the Inuit. It is a form of musical performance, traditionally consisting of two women who sing duets in a ...

and spoken word storytelling with

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

-influenced

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers suc ...

, consisting of vocalist Tiffany Ayalik, Kayley Inuksuk Mackay as drummer, vocalist and throat singer, and singer and guitarist G. R. Gritt."'I’m in disbelief’: Yellowknife duo nominated for Juno Award"

CJCD-FM CJCD-FM (100.1 FM broadcasting, FM, "100.1 True North FM") is a radio station in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Owned by Vista Radio, it broadcasts a classic hits format as serving Yellowknife and Dettah. The station also has a rebroadcaste ...

, February 8, 2017.

History

Gritt and Ayalik met at the Northern Scene arts festival in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. Formed in 2014, Quantum Tangle are based in

Yellowknife Yellowknife (; Dogrib: ) is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the ...

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

. Ayalik, who is

Inuk Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and ...

, is a native of the city, while Gritt, who is

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

, was born in

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes) ** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...

, Ontario and raised in the outlying community of

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...

. Gritt has lived in Yellowknife since 2009. As a solo artist prior to the band's formation, Gritt was a regional finalist in

CBC Music CBC Music (formerly known as CBC FM, CBC Stereo and CBC Radio 2) is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a ...

's Searchlight competition in 2013 and 2014. For four years, they were a mentee of Yellowknife's

Northern Arts and Cultural Centre The Northern Arts and Cultural Centre is located in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. It is the only performing arts centre in the NWT. The 313 seat Centre opened May 3, 1984. Created by Yellowknife residents with major support from Th ...

. Gritt came out as

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

in 2014, and uses

gender-neutral pronouns A third-person pronoun is a pronoun that refers to an entity other than the speaker or listener. Some languages with gender-specific pronouns have them as part of a grammatical gender system, a system of agreement where most or all nouns have a va ...

. Ayalik also performs as a stage actress. Quantum Tangle released their EP ''Tiny Hands'' in 2017 and their first full-length album, ''Shelter as we go...'', in 2017. Both recordings were released on the Coax label. Quantum Tangle won the

for Indigenous Music Album of the Year for their album ''Tiny Hands'' at the

Juno Awards of 2017 The Juno Awards of 2017, honouring Canadian music achievements, were presented in Ottawa, Ontario the weekend of 1–2 April 2017. The ceremonies were held at the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata and televised on CTV with Bryan Adams and Russell ...

. Mackay was introduced as a band member in May 2018 when the band performed at the

Indigenous Music Awards The Indigenous Music Awards, formerly called the Aboriginal Peoples' Choice Music Awards, is an annual Canadian music award, given out to Indigenous people who are in the music industry. The APCMA receives financial support of the Department of ...

.Ollie Williams
"Quantum Tangle adds new member at national awards ceremony"
''Cabin Radio'', May 22, 2018.

Social justice work

The band's music investigates

systemic racism Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, healt ...

, endeavours to unsettle ubiquitous

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

ideologies, and aims to empower

marginalized groups Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. It is used across discipline ...

. In addition to making music, Quantum Tangle facilitates a series of school workshops and performances on the topic of

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

issues in

Northern Canada Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada#Territories, territor ...

References

{{authority control Canadian blues musical groups Canadian folk rock groups Inuit musical groups First Nations musical groups Musical groups from the Northwest Territories Culture of Yellowknife Musical groups established in 2014 Juno Award for Indigenous Music Album of the Year winners 2014 establishments in the Northwest Territories Inuit throat singing