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KIMMIRUT/LAKE HARBOUR - Kimmirut is a community very much in touch with the land, with many residents still living off the bounty it provides.

Many of the talented artists in the community pay their respect to the land that helps sustain them by crafting detailed works of art devoted to the animals that are found around Kimmirut.

Qip Michael, 14, stands behind his inuksuk soapstone carvings. The Kimmirut resident has been carving since he was six. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

Simeonie Killiktee has been carving since he was seven years old.

He learned the skill from his grandfather, often sitting in his lap and watching him file away at soapstone to create the polar bears and seals he saw while camping on the land.

"I was sitting on his legs and he would let me carve the stone," said Killiktee.

Killiktee would carve without a grinder or an axe, preferring instead to work the soapstone - which he uses exclusively - with a file

"We file the whole stone," said Killiktee.

At the age of 16, Killiktee moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to carve for an art show. His works have been displayed in galleries across North America.

Last Sunday, he was displaying two muskoxen and a swimming polar bear. His tremendous skill was apparent, as Killiktee crafted the bear to balance precariously on one leg.

"There are a lot of carvers here," said Killiktee. "I teach some of the people up here. Like five guys so far."

He shared a table with one of them, Peter Aningmiuq, who sold an eagle carved out of soapstone.

Aningmiuq credits Killiktee's tutelage for making him the carver he is today.

"I started polishing for him, helping him," said Aningmiuq. "That's how I learned, from watching."

Aningmiuq prefers to work with green apple-coloured soapstone and does mostly birds and whales.

He has been working on mastering the eyes of his animals.

Also at the table was Qip Michael, 14, who was selling inukshuks.

Michael has been carving since he was six, when his father started teaching him.

"Sometimes I do polar bears, seals, birds," he said.

Appa Josephie, who admitted he does not carve as much as he used to, said carvers in Kimmirut have been busy, making inukshuks around the clock for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games to be held in Vancouver.

Michael, who seems to have mastered the Inukshuk, said he has sold some of his creations to the local co-op, which ships them down for sale in Vancouver.

Carving is alive and strong, and with this initiative, along with the enthusiasm, ingenuity and artistic abilities of Kimmirut residents, it should remain a staple and vital part of life in the hamlet for future generations.