‘No whale, no music’: Inupiaq drumming and global warming

This article explores how climate change has recently influenced the Inupiaq cultural identity as the people of the whales. Their traditional whaling cycle reveals strong indivisibility of music, emotions, and place based human identity. To illustrate such integrity of the Inupiat and their culturally critical bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus), a search was made for specific ways in which climate change influences Inupiaq spiritual and physical ties with the whale in relation to traditional music making. Traditionally, the Inupiat say that it is the whale who brings them music, thus no whale harvest means no music production. However, when the environment is less predictable, the homeland eroded, place based songs gone, and human-whale integrity threatened, how specifically are these changes manifested in the Inupiat-whale relationship? Providing detailed descriptions of 2005–2006 nalukataq (midsummer whale feasts), this article examines how contemporary Inupiat respond to environmental changes in the emotional and cultural dimensions through their music making.