Trip to the iglu a popular event
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Arviat (May 16/01) - Hundreds of students and members of the community paid a visit to the annual Classroom in the Iglu project in Arviat this past month.
Now in its eighth year, the 2001 iglu -- constructed by five elders and another adult -- was the project's biggest to date.
The hamlet funds the project through Brighter Futures, with all supplies purchased at local stores and all salaries paid to local Inuit.
Levi Angmak elementary school principal Marvin McKay-Keenan says organizers held a community feast to close the iglu, which attracted the majority of students from the elementary and high schools and the early childhood education program.
"The program has become a big community event and we've never had any problem with vandalism or anything like that," says McKay-Keenan.
"The people in our community really seem to respect the project and help look after the iglu."
The site for the iglu moves around the community from year to year.
This year's iglu was located about three kilometres northwest of the hamlet, near the intake for the water supply.
Students who visit the iglu eat soup made with caribou or fish and also enjoy healthy servings of bannock with a cup of tea.
McKay-Keenan says female students learn traditional skills at the iglu, from sewing traditional clothes and cooking traditional food to making a fire.
The male students learn how to make their own hunting tools, build iglus and butcher caribou.
"All our iglu workers were asked to teach students traditional Inuktitut words for whatever they were learning to do or make.
"One of the goals of the iglu project has always been to improve the quality and quantity of the Inuktitut language spoken by students in Arviat."
Qitiqliq high school principal Fred Durant says his students enjoyed taking part in the project as well.
"The project was a big success for our school as a whole," says Durant.
"Every single one of our students visited for at least one-half day and we even had some of our staff and volunteers sleep out one night in the iglu.
"The project is a lot of fun."
