Baker Lake (May 17/06) - A group of students at Rachel Arngnammaktiq elementary school in Baker Lake had an opportunity to share a piece of their culture with far-off lands recently.

Independent curator Judith Varney Burch of Halifax, Nova Scotia, travelled to the Inuit Heritage Centre to spend four days working with Grade 3 students and local wall-hanging artists.

Burch has travelled extensively throughout the world with her collection of Baker wall hangings entitled Culture on Cloth.

The display has been embraced by Canadian Embassies in Mexico, Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia and India.

Baker arts co-ordinator Tania Marsh says Burch worked with students in China and Mongolia to create wall hangings based on their culture and uniqueness.

Their creations were framed, labelled and donated to the children of Baker Lake, where they will be displayed for the community to view.

The display is tentatively set for the Thomas Tapatai Community Library.

"In exchange, teachers and Grade 3 students at the elementary school worked with Burch and wall-hanging artists to create two large wall hangings which will be donated back to China and Mongolia," Marsh said.

"Each student created personal images important to them, and the artists sewed them onto a larger piece of material."

Burch concluded her four-day visit with an evening slide show at the library, presented with Chinese and Mongolian music playing in the background.

She also shared a number of responses to her travelling exhibit, and spoke about the uniqueness of the lands and people she visited.

"Baker wall-hanging artist Ruth Tapatai, who has a couple of pieces exhibited in Culture on Cloth, also shared her experiences on travelling to Japan as a representative for the exhibit," Marsh said.

"This project would not have been possible without the generous contributions of Calm Air, First Air and the Kivalliq Inuit Association in sponsoring Burch's round-trip travel to Baker from Halifax.

"The Inuit Broadcasting Corp. filmed the process, and deserves our appreciation for its support and involvement."