Tanya Tagaq

From Nunavut, Tanya Tagaq is an improvisational singer, avant-garde composer, and author. A member of the Order of Canada, Polaris Music Prize and Juno Award winner, and recipient of multiple honorary doctorates, Tagaq is an original disruptor, a world-changing figure at the forefront of seismic social, political and environmental change.

In its many forms, Tagaq’s art challenges static ideas of genre and culture, and contends with themes of Indigenous rights, colonialism, environmentalism, racism and violence against women and girls, particularly MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls).

Tagaq’s bestselling, award-winning debut novel Split Tooth has been translated into six different languages and sold around the world. A full-length feature documentary on Tanya’s life, career, and art called Ever Deadly debuted at TIFF in 2022. Split Tooth on stage, a collaboration with Kaneza Schaal and Christopher Myers, is scheduled for debut in 2025.

Tagaq has collaborated and recorded with Saul Williams, Kronos Quartet, Bjork, A Tribe Called Red, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Fucked Up, and more. She has composed pieces for the Kronos Quartet and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and created a sound installation for the National Maritime Museum in London.

Tagaq has performed at many prestigious international festivals including Dark Mofo, Bonnaroo, Big Ears, Helsinki Festival, Aarhus and many more, and venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre.

She has also acted in and composed for HBO’s True Detective: Night Country and the upcoming Netflix series North of North.

Photo by Rebecca Wood.