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NUNAVUT - An effort to ignite online interest in traditional Inuit stories continues to grow.

The website www.inuitmyths.com is an initiative of the Nunavut Bilingual Education Society. The organizers are preparing to update the site with new content this winter.

The Inuit legend of Nuliajuk, or Sedna, is one of the stories shared on www.inuitmyths.com. The illustration was created by Larry MacDougal. - graphic courtesy of inuitmyths.com

"It is an attempt to try to provide resources for teachers and for anyone in Nunavut and Canada interested in Inuit traditional stories," said project leader Neil Christopher.

The site features digitized audio from interviews with Inuit elders provided from the CBC archives, society publications and translations from the collections of the writings of Knud Rasmussen and Franz Boas among other materials.

Society co-founder Louise Flaherty translated most of the text on the site from English to Inuktitut or vice versa.

She was the community co-ordinator with the teacher education program at Nunavut Arctic College when the project began but is on transfer assignment with the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth.

"The reason why we started our society was for students to have access to Inuktitut materials and for them to be able to view traditional stories and to have access to syllabics just to keep our Inuit language stronger and alive," she said.

"There's a variety of legends from different regions. My role has been to translate those and to make sure that the translations are accurate to the original story."

Flaherty said the site's illustrations, drawn by southern artist Larry MacDougal, draw people into the writing and audio on the site.

"I think kids find the illustrations catchy and I think they can relate to that," Flaherty said.

"You'll see the huge ogres carrying these two kids on their back or the sea creature carrying the child. Just looking at the illustrations makes you want to find out what it's about."

Each year there is new material added to the website.

In December there will be another round of revisions that will update the site including more interviews, more traditional stories and more illustrations.

"Our students also bring that knowledge with them so they research from their home communities," Flaherty said.

"There's lots of stories out there that I know we still haven't heard."

If anyone has stories they wish to share, they can contact the society through the website.

The society has published about 30 books but many are coming close to being out of print.

Some of them are available for download on the site.

"Soon only the Inuktitut content will be available for free download, with the English version being available for sale with the profit being reinvested in the project," Christopher said, adding an interactive component for children may eventually be added to the website.

The first two issues of Taiksumani, a book of traditional Inuit myths told through a contemporary story, are available for download on the site.

The art is drawn by Iqaluit artist Babah Kalluk.

"If you see any other Inuit books out there drawn by Inuit they don't really look like these ones," he said.

"It's really great for kids to see this kind of thing because a lot of these stories are starting to be forgotten and this is bringing them out in a new fashion and a new art form. I think it's a great way to reteach the youth or anybody about these stories through these mediums."

Kalluk advises the society as an editor for the illustrations submitted for upcoming publications and the website.

"We're getting other artists from around the world to do their interpretations of these Inuit myth characters," Kulluk said.