Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (May 27/02) - A large crowd was on hand in Rankin Inlet earlier this month to view exhibits at the annual Heritage Day Fair.

Now in its second year, the fair is held at the Maani Ulujuk middle school gym.

Those who attended this year's fair were treated to an impressive display by students in grades 5 to 8.

There were paintings to be viewed, traditional drums, Inuit clothing, country foods, Inuit games, traditional tools and family lineages.

School vice-principal Bev Hill says the students enjoy doing their projects.

The vast majority of the work is done in school and it takes about a month to prepare for the fair.

"There are a lot of hands-on components to the Heritage Day Fair projects and the students learn a lot about their families while they're putting them together," says Hill.

"Many of the students bring in artifacts from the land and others, while researching their projects, get to see some great old pictures of grandparents, old family friends, those types of things."

Ashley Burton was one student who focused on her family's lineage to produce her Heritage Day Fair project.

Burton's project was on Baker Lake's Jessie Oonark.

"I really enjoyed doing everything involved with my project because I learned so much about my great-grandmother and what her life was like when she was younger," says Burton.

"It was neat learning so much about my great-grandmother."

Hill says the parent turnout to this year's event was larger than the original fair in 2001.

She says, hopefully, that trend will continue.

"Most of the students received some pretty good input from their parents, friends and other family members while they were working on their projects and the more we get, the better it is.

"This being only our second year, the parents are just starting to get into the swing of looking at old pictures or talking about family traditions," she says.

"The more we do it, the more they'll start looking at their family lineage and that type of interaction is important for the kids in many ways."