KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

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KEYNOTE PERFORMER

HUMANITARIAN AWARD JUNOS 2022

Dr. Susan Aglukark is one of Canada's most unique and most honoured artists.  An Inuk from Arviat, Nunavut, Susan has been walking in a tension between two worlds, a defining note in her remarkable career. 

She is a rare and exotic presence in the mainstream music world - an Inuk woman, a modern woman, a strong woman with something important to say is sometimes very rare in the entertainment industry - Susan embodies pure, graceful honesty and strength.  As her songs climbed the charts, her stories and her candor about the struggles of the Inuit and Aboriginal communities, and her bravery as she opened up her own anger and struggle won her an audience beyond that of most pop artists. 

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 Susan Aglukark is the first Inuk artist to win a Juno (3) and a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for lifetime artistic achievement, she is an officer of the Order of Canada, holds several Honourary Doctorate degrees and has held command performances; but Susan also acknowledges the path has not been easy.  

Despite the success she experienced in the 1990s, by 1998 she was suffering from post-partum depression and found herself in a dark place in need of time to reflect and heal, what followed was the several years of reflection, healing and making deeper commitments to her singing/songwriting career. And so began what Susan calls her “awakening”. As she learned more about her culture and the strength and resilience of the Inuit who have been on this land for over 5,000 years, Susan was also engaging her own “inner artist” and falling in love with performing, sharing stories and singing.

BE STILL, MY HEART: 

REFLECTIONS ON THE HEALING POWER OF MUSIC, LOVE & COMMUNITY

This presentation will use song, poetry and story to explore the healing power of music, its capacity to open our hearts and connect us with an experience of love and community. 

Drawing on her many years of experience as a counsellor and music therapist supporting children, adults and families through serious illness, grief and loss, and on lessons learned through the establishment of her non-profit organization Lumara, Dr. Mohan will reflect on the ways in which suffering can shift when we allow our hearts to open ~ transforming our experiences of pain and isolation into experiences of love, belonging and community.    

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Heather Mohan is a Registered Clinical Counselor and an Accredited Music Therapist with a Masters degree in Music Therapy, and a PhD in Arts Education. She has worked as a therapist, program coordinator, researcher and educator in the hospice/palliative/bereavement care field for over 25 years. 

She has been a faculty member in the Graduate Counselling program at the City University of Seattle, in the Music Therapy program at Capilano University in North Vancouver and is currently an Adjunct Professor in the UBC Department of Medicine (Division of Palliative Care). She works full-time as the Executive Director of Lumara –a BC-based, registered charity she co-founded in 2007 to provide emotional support and care for children and families coping with serious illness, grief and loss. Heather has been invited to present her clinical work and research on palliative and bereavement care at conferences and universities around the world: in Canada, United States, New Zealand, Japan and Europe. 

NEUROLOGIC MUSIC THERAPY  

Very few people would argue the universal power that music has on humans, but what is really going on in the brain when it engages in a task such as listening to, moving with, or playing music?  

This presentation will give you a brief introduction to the evidence-based practice of Neurologic Music Therapy, and a glimpse at how elements of music can be used to influence non-musical brain and behaviors functions.  Through several case studies you will experience the transforming power of music on cognitive, sensorimotor, and speech and language, and, the indirect influence on the emotional health of our clients with Parkinson’s Disease, dementia, and acquired brain injury. 

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Corene P. Hurt-Thaut is a professor of music, director of the MMus in Applied Music and Health, and a research associate at the University of Toronto; associate professor at the ArtEZ School of Music – ArtEZ Conservatorium in the Netherlands; and co-founder and Program Director for The Academy of Neurologic Music Therapy. She is nationally and internationally recognized for her clinical expertise in the evidence-based practice of Neurologic Music Therapy. 

Dr. Hurt-Thaut has numerous research publications in the area of music and motor control as well as ten book chapters highlighting specific applications of neurologic music therapy to her credit.