Shauna Seeteenak

Shauna Seeteenak is a hiphop artist from Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), NU, who began writing poetry at a young age. Her love of rhythm and expression morphed into writing hiphop lyrics around the age of 13. In an interview with IAQ in May 2022, when asked about her burgeoning interest in hiphop she commented that “I’ve always loved rap. I loved that i was able to express myself in that way.” [1]

Seeteenk was introduced to rap through the seminal female 80s and 90s rap group Salt-N-Pepa and was further inspired in her youth by the music of Eminem. She downloaded a free digital audio workshop and used XBox Rock Band to begin recording her own songs as a teenager. After her music spread around Qamani’tuaq in 2009-2010 she was invited to her first music festival, the Iqaluit, NU annual music festival Alianait, where she met other artists including fellow hiphop artist Mosha Folger (M.O.), who invited Seeteenak to collaborate on a song for his next album. Seetenak was featured in M.O. and Geothermal MC’s 2011 Inuk hiphop album String Games on the song “Scaling”. 

Seeteenak also met the founder of her future label Hit Makerz, Thor Simonsen at the Alianait festival. In 2019 Simonsen and Seetenak worked together on putting together her first demo, which eventually became Seeteenak’s debut album Therapy Sessions (2021). Seeteenak has since begun working with Ever Sick Productions and produced four singles in 2023: Sunshine, Hulijut (truth), Qivikitailigit (don’t give up), and Thrive. The hiphop artist explores deeply emotional Inuit issues in her music. Seeteenak was nominated for four Arctic Music Awards in 2023 in the categories of Artist of the Year, Single of the Year (for Qiviktailigit (don’t give up)), Indigenous Artist/Group of the Year, and Album of the Year. She is active on Soundcloud and Instagram where she regularly posts her music.

This Profile was made possible through support from RBC Emerging Artists.