Lucy Tulugarjuk

Lucy Tulugarjuk (born February 28, 1975) is an Inuit actress, throat singer, and director. She is executive director for the Nunavut Independent Television Network.

Biography

Tulugarjuk is from Igloolik, Nunavut.

Career

Tulugarjuk is known for starring in the 2001 film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, for which she won the award for Best Actress at the American Indian Film Festival. In 2015, she acted in the film Maliglutit.

In 2017 she directed her first feature-length film Tia and Piujuq (Inuktitut: ᑏᐊ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᐅᔪᖅ). The film featured Marie-Hélène Cousineau as producer, and Tulugarjuk's daughter in the lead role as Piujuq.

With Carol Kunnuk she was co-director, co-writer and co-star of Tautuktavuk (What We See), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and won the Amplify Voices Award for Best First Film.

She performs as a throat singer, but in 2014 declined to perform for Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq in protest of the government's seismic testing. That year, she wore seal skin at the Gone Wild show in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories to support Inuit culture. In 2016, she also called for the resignation of Aglukkaq's successor as MP, Hunter Tootoo.

She is executive director for Nunavut Independent Television Network, a service of Isuma based in Igloolik. In 2021, Isuma launched Uvagut TV, a 24/7 online channel devoted to Inuktitut language programming, for which Tulugarjuk is managing director. Tulugarjuk reported that she sees the channel as "a tool for preserving and revitalizing the Inuit people's language and culture."

Filmography

As actress

As filmmaker

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Lucy Tulugarjuk at IMDb
• Lucy Tulugarjuk at Isuma TV
• Lucy Tulugarjuk on the Inuit Art Quarterly Profiles
• Lucy Tulugarjuk on Qaggiavuut