{"id":1338,"date":"2021-12-03T18:20:51","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T18:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/theragingtwenties\/?p=1338"},"modified":"2021-12-03T18:20:52","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T18:20:52","slug":"inuk-comedian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/theragingtwenties\/2021\/12\/03\/inuk-comedian\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Inuk comedian uses humour to reclaim her identity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inuk comedian Nicole Etitiq will be attending Ottawa\u2019s Crackup Comedy Festival in March 2022. Photo by Nicole Etitiq.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time Nicole Etitiq set foot on a comedy stage, she was 19 years old. She had just moved back to Iqaluit, Nunavut after having spent her childhood and teenage years in Ottawa. It was Halloween night and she was at an open mic with some friends. In a moment of spontaneity, she got up in front of the crowd and improvised her way through her first set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was seven years ago. Today, this haphazard approach has cemented itself as Etitiq\u2019s artistic process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really like to prepare too much because then I\u2019ll start overthinking it and get stressed out,\u201d she laughed, explaining the reasoning behind her resistance to rehearsing any material. \u201cJust telling very real stories that are relatable and embarrassing really helps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Etitiq, \u201crelatable\u201d and \u201cembarrassing\u201d include everything from detailed accounts of online dating in a city where she might accidentally swipe right on a cousin, to sharing her strategies for coexisting with her upstairs neighbour\u2019s very loud sex life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI try not to be [political] because I feel like a lot of the time it\u2019s so easy to become political,\u201d Etitiq said. \u201cFor me, stand-up is very much energy exchange. When you go up on stage you are giving people a piece of yourself and I think that\u2019s how it makes people laugh the most.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she rejects an overtly political approach, her raw and honest use of anecdotes from her personal life indirectly tackles topics of colonialism, racism, the housing crisis and mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time when there is increased attention and pressure on Indigenous people to educate the country\u2019s settler community about what their experiences have been, Etitiq is using the spotlight to do something radical. She is taking space to share stories about dating or picking up her Amazon-ordered vibrator at the post office. And it\u2019s being noticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving Indigenous women, women of colour, women who are at higher risk for sexual violence and at higher risk for going missing, there is an empowerment for sure, to be able to explore that,\u201d said Jenn Hayward, long-time M\u00e9tis comedian and organizer in Ottawa\u2019s Indigenous comedy community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She met Etitiq four years ago, when they did a show together, and has been watching Etitiq get comfortable in the spotlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etitiq has been invited to Ottawa\u2019s Crackup Comedy Festival in March, where she will perform at the \u201cGot Land\u201d show alongside other Indigenous comedians from across the country. Aside from a smaller event in Nunavik before the pandemic broke out, this will be the first time she is invited to travel to share her art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nicole
Etitiq performs at Crackup Comedy\u2019s Arctic Comedy Festival in Iqaluit, in October. Photo by Ashley Board.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery comedian brings their life experience to the stage,\u201d said John Helmkay, founder and president of Crackup Comedy Festival. \u201cTo have Indigenous comedians who grew up in small communities, or in different environments than Toronto or Ottawa, it brings a different perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a 26-year-old Inuk woman dreaming of a comedy career, Etitiq has her feet in two worlds. She was born into a community where most women have at least one, if not many children, by her age, and yet she lives in a city where produce prices make avocado toasts as laughable a concept as home ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etitiq\u2019s experience as a millennial involves the difficult work of reconciling the typical anxieties around what she is going to do with her life with her Inuit culture, that prioritizes community. Weaving together the different strands of influence that shape what she wants for her future is not straightforward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that it does really feel like two different worlds,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the week, she works as an Inuit employment analyst with the Government of Nunavut, a job that she loves. On weekends, she likes to do absolutely nothing, or as close to nothing as she can get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can mean lying around for hours watching TikTok videos, playing Mario Party with her friends or, when she needs a good cry, driving around town in her recently paid-off car to the tune of Adele\u2019s latest album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etitiq grew up in Ottawa, away from the community where she was born and where she felt most at home. Her dad moved her south when she was young in order to try to give her a better education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was hard trying to understand my own identity of being Inuk and also living down south,\u201d Etitiq said, explaining that she often struggled with feeling simultaneously \u201cnot Inuk enough\u201d for her community in the north and culturally isolated in the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview, Etitiq explains what it was like to experience micro-aggressions and field questions about being Indigenous as she was growing up.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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