Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 3, 2007

NUNAVUT - The work to unlock Nunavut's photographic past continued last month with the launch of several hundred additional photographs on Project Naming's website.

Can you identify this family? This photograph, of an RCMP special constable with his wife and children, was taken on Sept. 6, 1936, in Craig Harbour. It is one of thousands of unidentified photos that can be viewed, and hopefully named, on the Project Naming website. - photo courtesy of D.L. McKeand/Library and Archives Canada/PA-174490

Educational resources derived from the photo identification project will also find their way into Nunavut schools for the first time this winter.

The photos, which can be found at www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/inuit, are just a fraction of Library and Archives Canada's vast collection.

"This is Nunavut's photo album that has been stored outside of Nunavut, and very few people are able to come down and see it," said Murray Angus, a teacher at Nunavut Sivuniksavut (NS) who spearheaded the project.

Many of the Inuit in the pictures, taken from the late-1800s to mid-1900s, have never been identified. The majority have not been seen by most Nunavummiut.

The naming project kicked off in 2001, when NS students began heading north with photographs from the archives.

Diane Iyago of Baker Lake, who graduated last year from NS, returned to her home community over Christmas with 60 to 80 pictures. She interviewed two elders at the time.

Most of the people in the photos were easily identified by her grandmother, Lucy, "who was living in Baker Lake for a very long time," she said.

Iyago said her own great-great-grandmother was even featured in one picture, "standing near one of the trading posts they used to have around here."

"I learned a lot about what it was like back then," she said.

Project manager Beth Greenhorn said she receives regular e-mails from people in the communities, identifying family members and friends through the online Naming Continues form.

"I get goosebumps when I get these e-mails from people who say they've never seen a certain picture before of their parents, grandparents," she said.

Library and Archives Canada has also been working with Nunavut's Department of Education to build classroom activities and discussion material around the photographs.

These will be directed to students in Grades 6 through 9, beginning this winter.

"Hopefully these will stimulate a lot of conversation about the photographs, who took them, and what their motivation was," Greenhorn said.

The Department of Education has circulated news of the material to regional school offices, and is looking for ways to link the project to existing curricula "whenever possible," according to Shirley Tagalik, manager of curriculum and school services.

A pilot video-conferencing project between Nunavut schools and elders from across the territory to discuss the Project Naming photographs is also in the works, as well as establishing links between northern and southern schools, she added.

The project has been a joint effort of the federal Department of Canadian Heritage, Nunavut Sivuniksavut and Nunavut's Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth.