REPULSE BAY - Students at Tusarvik School in Repulse Bay took part in the annual Heritage Fair at their school this past month.

The top projects in the event will be entered in a Nunavut-Wide Vertical Heritage Fair for territorial honours.

Students from kindergarten to Grade 12 participated in the event.

Teacher Maren Roberts said Tusarvik has held the Heritage Fair for the past three years. She said every project entered in the fair deals with Inuit culture or heritage.

"We had some class projects in the younger grades, and individual and group projects in the older grades," said Maren.

"The kids had their projects judged for 90 minutes following the lunch break.

"After judging was complete, there was an opportunity for every class to come to the gym and look at the projects.

"My Grade 6 class did a project on the history of Repulse Bay, while the Grade 7 class did one on Inuit Qaujiniajatuqangit, and some of the high school students covered important events to Inuit, just to name a few."

Roberts said the students have always responded well to the Heritage Fair.

She said Repulse youth seem to excel in all things cultural and traditional.

"Any chance they get to show what they know, the students take to it very well.

"The elders here are very well-respected and they almost always get the kids' attention.

"A Grade 5 class did a project on the lighting of the qulliq, and having an elder come in and make a presentation was a big part of it."

Should a Tusarvik student win at the Virtual Fair, they may get the chance to travel to Yellowknife and compete in a pan-territorial contest in the near future.

Roberts said the school is still waiting to receive complete details on the event.

"We've had some kids travel to Arviat for a regional fair in the past.

"The Heritage Fair is a project the kids seem to like, so we'll probably continue on with it in the future.

"We tie it into a cultural day we hold at the school, and that's been working well for us."