Owner: HWMC

Catalog#: 2NA-MBST-16

 

Struck Membranophones

Inuit: ‘Kelyaut’-Drum – (C)

Artic
Artic & Subarctic / Inuit

Wood, Caribou hide tufts, bear claws and deer pedicles
Mid-Late 20th century
Diameter: 19 in
Membranophone – Struck Membranophone 

An Inuit Kelyaut  or Qilaut/Kilaut (frame drum) of the Arctic.  This frame drum is the staple in all traditional Inuit music, including dance music and storytelling.  This one is distinctive in that the skin head is possibly caribou hide with hair stretched over the bentwood (possibly Willow wood) frame, trimmed on the rim with four bear claws.  A deer pedicle wrapped in leather strips serves as the handle.  A beater, usually made from a thin, curved stick is used to strike the single-headed drum from below.

Traditionally, the Inuit did not have a specific word for what English-speaking people call ‘music.’ The closest word in Inuktitut is ‘nipi’ — which includes music, the sounds of speech, wild animals, the forces of nature and noise.

Reference:  https://travelnunavut.ca/things-to-see-do/music-performance-art/

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