by Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 16/98) - Soapstone might not be edible but it sure puts a lot of food on Northern tables.

So protecting it and other kinds of stone and ensuring its longevity has become an issue of great importance to carvers.

One of the steps that has been taken recently to help preserve the valuable resource involves an initiative established by the Inuit Art Foundation upon the request of a number of Canadian Northern communities.

"It came about when the Inuit Art Foundation would always hear from the artists that they have no stone and across the North, some people make a living from it and for some, it's a pastime. There's always a shortage of stone for most communities and they're always trying to find ways for the carvers to have access to stone," says Henry Kudluk, the Northern project co-ordinator for the foundation.

"Carving is the third largest industry in the North so we decided to help out in anyway we can," says Kudluk who originally hails from Coral Harbour.

With money coming from a federal government grant, the foundation hired Will Kelly, an independent geologist-quarrier, to travel to five communities in February and early March with Kudluk to discuss the problems surrounding the quarrying of stone.

The project was divided into two parts with the first leg involving visits to Inukjuak and Cape Dorset and the second half including trips into Rankin Inlet, Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak.

"We wanted to visit a community in each region with the exception of Labrador and the Western Arctic. The Western Arctic has no quarry site that we're aware of and Labrador, they're pretty self-sufficient," says Kudluk.

In each community, carvers and craftspeople as well as interested community members were invited to meet with Kelly and Kudluk to express their concerns. Kudluk says it was up to the communities themselves to come forward with their individual issues and the solutions to the problems.

"Right now we're just gathering information, there's no definite plan yet. Each community has a different set of problems and they're much simpler in some communities," says Kudluk.

"It's up to the community itself and the artists' association in the community to come up with the solution. They'll contact the Inuit Art Foundation with their solution and we'll help them. We don't want to go in there and say 'we know it all.' It's their own project and we're just there as a resource and to try and help them out."

Kudluk plans to begin contacting the hamlets for follow-up this week and he says that some of the communities have already started working on their problems.

In Taloyoak, the biggest obstacle is getting funding to travel to the quarry sites.

"Our community is very much like other communities in that there is a shortage of stone available. There are a number of different quarry sites and one is down by Darby Lake and it's used by the carvers from Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak," says George Bohlender, the economic development officer for the Kitikmeot Economic Development Commission.

"Even though the stone is available, the carvers lack the funding to go down and quarry the stone and bring it back to town," says Bohlender.

He says the root of the funding problem was in the lack of organization within the carvers themselves, an issue that has been solved since the foundation visited.

"There was no body out there that had the initiative or wanted to undertake the (organization) project but...the arts and craftspeople and the carvers formed the Illagiit Society. One of the big things they're going to do is undertake a quarry project and the other priority is to get a facility where the carvers and the craftspeople can work out of the elements," says Bohlender.

"They'll know what to look for, what to bring back and they'll have some way of distributing the stone in the community."

Rhoda Nanook works as the secretary-treasurer for the Illagiit Society. She says the foundation's visit was helpful and that they were able to offer the Taloyoak's artisans good advice.

"They talked about forming a group and they gave us advice and information on how to form an arts and crafts group. I think we started about a week later after they left," says Nanook.

"So far, we're mainly talking about people going to the quarry for soapstone because if we don't have materials, we can't start the group seriously."