Award winning singer Susan Aglukark visits Nain for presentation and workshops

Nain received a high-profile visitor on Saturday, as award winning Aboriginal singer, songwriter and speaker Susan Aglukark paid a visit to the community.

Aglukark said the trip was her third to Nain, but she hadn't been in several years. She said she was excited to get to work with youth there.

"We met up with a few people in Ottawa in late January and got to talking about some of their challenges here, so I said we can do some work there if you want us to come down," she said.

Aglukark led a keynote presentation about her life growing up in Nunavut and finding her career as a musician.

"From that experience, I've developed a few workshops, and the one I'm [doing] here in Nain is a piece that's going to help develop conversation about how we engage dreamers, and by engaging the dreamer, help them stay on the pursuit of their life's love," she said.

In the pursuit of [your dreams], you become more confident.- Susan Aglukark

Aglukark said that she also uses art journaling to help stimulate conversation around goals and challenges, as creating art helped her overcome challenges. She said she struggled with confidence early in her singing career, but it helped to write things down and create visual art.

"I was learning about how truly easy it really is to identify the dream, and then to pursue it, and then in the pursuit of it, you become more confident, you become stronger," she said.

"Everything happens, everything starts to fall in to place."

'It's an important story to tell'

She said she also had challenges growing up in Nunavut, and went through the court system there, but she was was given a second chance to follow her dream of being a singer.

"It's an important story to tell because I want them to know that you don't have to give up on your dream, you don't have to give up on that part of your life, and we can help you reengage that dream, because we've experienced it," Aglukark said.

She said after giving her presentation and leading art journaling workshops, she is meeting more young people who are pursuing their dreams, either academic or artistic, and wants Aboriginal youth to find hope in dark moments.