Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (May 25/98) - After reviewing hundreds of drawings, Meeka Kilabuk's committee is just about ready to raise Nunavut's first flag.

"We held drawing contests for a flag and coat of arms last spring and last summer. We received over 800 altogether for the two," said Kilabuk, chair of the seven-member symbols selection sub-committee of the Nunavut Implementation Commission.

Because the symbols will represent the new territory, the committee has had to work hand-in-hand with the governor general's office and the chief herald of Canada, the office that has the authority to approve the drawings on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II.

The committee, however, has been key in choosing which drawings will be given final consideration.

"Our role was to review all the drawings and we did an elimination. We had a little set of rules and we're going to eliminate the ones with too many details. So we brought it down to 10 each -- 10 for the coat of arms and 10 for the flag," said Kilabuk.

The committee then narrowed it down to five choices for the flag, which "were rendered at the government art studio in the governor (general's) office and they came back and they looked fantastic," said Kilabuk who along with her committee recommended two of the five to NIC.

"Whether the commission will take the selection committee's recommendation, I don't know."

She said a total of four drawings were selected for the coat of arms and that she and one of the artists who entered the contest were planning to travel to Ottawa last week to meet with the government artist.

"Andrew Karpik, he and I are going down next week to work with the government artist and also to advise the government artist for Inuit art because our art is very different," she said,

"Hollywood can't do polar bears. Animation, they always look like teddy bears," said Kilabuk, adding that the final two selected designs will be chosen and revealed by NIC towards the end of June.