Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Baker Lake (Oct 02/02) - A unique photo exhibition is drawing rave reviews out of Baker Lake.

The former director of the Baker Lake Inuit Heritage Centre, David Webster, arranged for 53 mounted photos depicting the days of the Churchill Vocational Centre (CVC) to be exhibited this past summer at the legislative assembly in Iqaluit.

Speaking from his Ottawa home, Webster says the exhibit garnered a huge response.

He says people have nothing but positive memories of the CVC, which operated from 1964-74.

"We've all heard so much about problems at other boarding schools, but, in all my years in the North, I've never heard one negative word about the CVC," says Webster.

"Many people say there wouldn't be a Nunavut without the CVC because so many who led to its creation went there to get their basic education before going on to bigger and better things."

The CVC was started by Ralph Ritcey while he was with the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

Ritcey recently donated a complete set of CVC yearbooks to Nunavut, which Baker MLA Glenn McLean is going to present to the legislative assembly's library.

The Order of Canada was awarded to Ritcey this past year for his dedication to the development of the CVC.

"He wasn't your average government guy who would go strictly by the book.

"He broke so many rules to get the CVC going, it was just unbelievable."

Webster says during his time in Baker, many people who came to tour the Inuit Heritage Centre ended up captivated by CVC yearbooks.

"They'd get so into the books, I couldn't get them on the actual tour because they just wanted to spend their time looking through them."

Former CVC principal John Provins donated 450 photos to the centre, from which those exhibited in Iqaluit were selected.

Webster says the demand for copies led to another idea being hatched.

"The demand got so great there was no way I could accommodate the requests, so I had the pictures uploaded on the Internet at www.bakerlake.org

"You click on the Inuit Heritage Centre and select photo archives to see the pictures. "This way, people can look at them and print out what they want."