Kihiani: A Memoir of Healing

by Susan Aglukark, Andrea Warner

Profoundly honest and moving, Kihiani is the uplifting story of an Inuk artist’s journey to healing and self-discovery 

Born in Fort Churchill, Manitoba, but raised in Arviat, a predominantly Inuit community on the western edges of Hudson Bay, Susan and her six siblings grew up in a humble but loving home. But while living in Rankin Inlet, when she was eight years old, Susan’s life was disrupted by a life-changing event, a distinct separation that created a schism inside her for many years and from which she continues to heal.

At fifteen, she started writing poems that spilled out of her, and when Susan had the choice to leave her community, she grabbed it like a lifeline. Eventually, Susan was approached by a producer at CBC who was making a compilation album of Arctic artists and years later signed with a major label for her third album, This Child.

 The disruption and milestones, the turmoil and joy, the devastation and healing—this is Susan Aglukark’s story of discovering her Inuk self. 

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Canada

Paperback

Expected publication September 15, 2026

About the author

Susan Aglukark (ᓲᓴᓐ ᐊᒡᓘᒃᑲᖅ ) is an award-winning Inuit singer-songwriter known for blending the Inuktitut and English languages with contemporary pop music arrangements to tell the stories of her people. Born in Churchill, Manitoba in 1967, she was raised in Arviat, Nunavut (then Northwest Territories). She worked for a time as a linguist with the Department of Indian & Northern Affairs, and then returned to the Northwest Territories to work as an executive assistant with the non-profit Inuit Tapirisat of Canada. It was during this period that she began to sing, becoming a popular performer in Inuit communities, and eventually drawing the attention of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and eventually winning a deal with a major record label.

Aglukark's music has drawn upon painful subjects from her own life experience, from the suicide of her niece to her own experiences as a survivor of sexual abuse. She has honorary doctorates from several universities and has performed for many Canadian and international dignitaries. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada and was awarded the Governor General’s Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award in June 2016. She lives in Oakville, Ontario.

(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[theliterateleprechaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m in awe of Susan Aglukark’s ability to refuse to give obstacles in her journey the power to define her.

There were so many times that Susan could have ‘thrown in the towel’ and succumbed to the status quo, yet she used the difficult experiences as a stepping stone to something better - a satisfying contemporary Inuit way of life.

You’ll read about her parent’s choices to become missionaries and how that affected the Aglukark children, her experience of sexual abuse as a child, her difficult school years, and the increasing suicides in her community - they all had the opportunity to topple her, yet she turned them around and built upon them.

I know this artist’s name because of her music. Little did I know that this art form was how Susan turned her trauma into art. The inspiration for her songs was enlightening, as is her continued ability to pivot with trauma. Most memorable for her was deciding that she’d had enough of the rampant student drug use at her high school, so she quit and went to a private Christian school in Saskatchewan. Discovering that the Maranatha way of learning was how she excelled was freeing. She refused to give others agency over her life, and she was the better for it. ‘Kihiani’ (title of memoir) became her mantra. You’ll learn what this word means in her Arviat dialect and how it’s become a guiding principle for her.

Susan Aglukark isn’t only the first Inuk to have a top-ten hit in Canada, she’s also a wonderful storyteller and an inspiring Canadian. I felt as though she was sitting on the deck with me, having an iced Americano and ‘shooting the breeze.’

I was gifted this copy by Edelweiss and was under no obligation to provide a review.

[akacya ❦]

2025 reads: 317/300

i received a complimentary audio copy as part of libro.fm’s influencer program. i am leaving this review voluntarily.

content warnings: childhood sexual assault, suicidal ideation, racism, colonialism

in this memoir, the author details her coming-of-age story, including her childhood trauma and the steps she took to begin healing, as well as the journey to finding her inuk self. though i was unfamiliar with aglukark’s work prior to reading this, i was drawn to this book due to the blending of the themes of healing from CSA and becoming more in-step with indigenous identity. i have read about these separately before, but not together. overall, i thought this was a lovely memoir. i was deeply moved by aglukark’s storytelling. i’d recommend this to those okay with the content.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gah!

I loved this so much.

I loved #susanaglukark’s faith, her voice, her story.

What a perfect way to wrap up Nonfiction November.

[Joyce MacPhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kihiani: A Memoir of Healing by Susan Aglukark and Andrea Warner

The inspiring life of Inuk singer-songwriter Susan Aglukark is captured in Kihiani: A Memoir of Healing. The book opens with a description of her childhood in Fort Churchill, Manitoba and in small communities in what is now Nunavut. It also provides the unexpected chain of events that led to a successful career including command performances, four Juno Awards, the Order of Canada and many other honours. We learn about Aglukark’s musical and personal journeys over more than three decades, and her passionate advocacy for Inuit and Northern Indigenous children and youth.

Aglukark’s musical journey began in Ottawa in 1989 while working for the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Many important developments in her musical evolution took place in Ottawa and she has performed in local venues including Parliament Hill and the Museum of History. Some of Aglukark’s most memorable shows at the National Arts Centre were a 2019 concert accompanied by the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and a 2025 concert celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of her most successful album, This Child.

Fans of Aglukark’s music will not be disappointed as she recounts the ups and downs of her musical career as well as her creative processes. She explains how key recordings such as Arctic Rose and This Child, which included the hit song “O Siem” were developed. The lyrics to several songs are provided along with background information, which is a great bonus.

Kihiani was co-written by Aglukark with Andrea Warner, a pop culture expert and associate producer at CBC Music in Winnipeg. While I don’t know how Warner approached her writing partnership with Aglukark, I like the conversational tone of the book. I felt that Aglukark’s voice came through loud and clear in her descriptions of what being Inuit in Canada really means and the difficulties of the music industry. Aglukark didn’t pull any punches when it came to describing how the Government of Canada’s treatment of Inuit affected her people, and she gives the Inuit perspective on many issues.

This revealing biography offers a personal account of how Aglukark dealt with the serious repercussions of childhood sexual assault, the inadequate legal processes and her eventual healing decades later. Her healing encompassed many forms of self expression, including songwriting, beading, painting and mixed media art.

Activism was also an important part of her healing process. In 2012 Aglukark established the Arctic Rose Project, which grew into the Arctic Rose Foundation by 2016. The foundation works to support northern Indigenous youth through arts-based after school programs and other cultural and creative projects. She was awarded the 2022 Humanitarian Award presented by Music Canada for her efforts with the foundation.

Family and love were another healing influence in her life. Aglukark describes how meeting and falling in love with her husband, sound engineer Jacques Poirier, led to a successful marriage and saved her career. The joyful birth of her son Cameron in 1996 completed her family. However, Aglukark suffered from post-partum depression after his birth and navigated through that difficult time to speak publicly about her experience.

The 30 images included were mostly family photographs, including portraits of great-grandmothers and grandmothers from both sides of Aglukark’s family. Diary excerpts are a meaningful addition and reveal important turning points in her life. Subtle humour throughout the book is a welcome element.

Kihiani should be on the reading list of every high school in Canada. It contains valuable insights about the reality of Inuit and Indigenous peoples in Canada, and the role that music and art can play in healing and resiliency.
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You can learn more about Susan Aglukark at her website: susanaglukark.com

[Mike Broderick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGally and the publisher for an advance copy of Kihiani. As I learned in this book, Susan Aglukark had music before O Siem. However, I remember when that song came out and she hit charts. First of all it was an excellent song, but it was really the first time that someone from an Inuit community was making a splash in popular media (that I could recall).
This book was "meh" for me as there were some parts that were very interesting to me and others that were not as interesting. The rating will show this.
I thought it was an interesting way to way to organize the book:
Had memoir type details
Had stories about her development of stories.
It had the lyrics of key songs along the stories that the accompanied each song.

It is always heartbreaking to hear yet another Indigenous child being sexually assaulted. We know that Indigenous communities were at risk for this behavior for many reasons. I am so glad that she was able to find success, find some level of healing and was able to discuss it in this book.
Despite the positives, this book is a middle of the road read for me.

[librarylovestory · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kihiani means "Because I must" and is a powerful story of an Inuk woman and artist working to overcome her childhood trauma.

Susan Aglukark is a popular Canadian Inuk artist who rose to fame during the 90s. I am a bit too young to remember her, and so I appreciate learning about this Canadian icon who has also done so much for young Inuit in Canada through her work and foundation.

Kihiani describes how she used music to tell stories about the Inuit history and hardships that all Canadians should hear. Her art as well as her faith have helped her recover and heal from trauma.

🙏Thank you HarperCollins Canada and NetGalley for a gifted advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

⚠️ Potential Trigger Warnings (may not be an exhaustive list): sexual trauma, suicidal ideation, abuse, colonialism, intergenerational trauma.

[Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susan Aglukark, an award-winning Inuk singer/songwriter here in Canada, tells the story of her happy early childhood, a childhood trauma that changed everything, and her long journey of healing.

This is a very simple, humble, unpretentious memoir about healing from trauma. Susan Aglukark is a very private person, so she only opens up as much as she needs to for her message to break through. That makes this a much more comforting read than most memoirs involving child abuse. Plus, if you’re a fan of her music, you’ll walk away with more insight into her career and writing process than you previously had. I highly recommend it.

Longer, more personal review on my blog: https://worldliteratour.com/review-ki...

[Scott Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the subtitle suggests, this is primarily a memoir about mental health and healing from trauma. In fact, there’s scarcely a page without at least one instance of the word “trauma”. It deals with depression, suicide, sexual abuse, residential schools, anxiety, and inter generational trauma. For me, it’s a bit repetitive and would have been stronger with 50-75 pages removed. The bits about the music business and creation of her foundation were most interesting to me, but they are brief.

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

As Canadians, we know so little about our Canadian heroes and heroines. Susan Aglukark tells her story of growing up in an Inuit community. As an Inuit artist, she talks about a loving family and a horrible childhood incident, which haunts her life. She describes her path to stardom and her efforts to help her community and to bring attention to its issues.

[Gwen Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read. Certainly brought the reader into the life of the north. It was a brutally honest look at the issue of child sexual assault. More power to Susan Aglukark for addressing the issue head on. It must have been very difficult to write.
My only criticism would be that at times the narrative became very long winded.

[Anne Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was eye-opening to learn more about Susan's upbringing and childhood. She shares her long journey to healing from sexual abuse as a child and how tragically sexual abuse and suicide has been a long standing history in Nunavut, as well as the impact of the residential schools on generations. Her self-doubt as she became more successful is touching as she found it hard to believe.

[Enid Wray]

An important addition to the collective historical record.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read about Aglukark's success and struggles as a musician and recording artist. Honest, intimate portrayal of her personal doubts and personal surprise at her own success.