NNSL (Mar 30/98) - It's a theme that transcends the borders of Northern communities around the world: the time to preserve and pass on the cultural traditions to the younger generation is now.

And perhaps the easiest and most accessible method of ensuring that the old ways are kept alive is through performing and teaching the dances, drumming and songs of the elders.

During the Arctic Winter Games held earlier this month in Yellowknife, it was apparent that the desire to celebrate the ancient cultural traditions is especially strong in northern Canada.

In Inuit communities, the women often pass on the ancient game of throat singing to their daughters and granddaughters.

Mary Ittunga of Taloyoak says her grandmother introduced her to it as just one of the many games the women played when the men were out hunting.

"I was about six or seven. I used to learn from my grandma, I really like it," says Ittunga, 58.

"When the men would go out seal hunting and only the women would be in the igloo and there were lots of games and fun, so much fun. We played the games in an igloo because we didn't have a house for a long time and the ladies would make a circle around the big skin on the ground and we would play ball. I still do it in my home with the (grand)kids and they really like it."

"Lots of people are throat singing," says Ittunga who adds that it changes from region to region because of dialect differences.

"It's a noise that we have from the Kitikmeot but Cape Dorset has got a different one. We've got lots of them to play and some are really funny and you have to understand Inuktitut or it's not too good," she says.

Other songs that Ittunga knows are based upon a way of life that is slowly being replaced across the Arctic.

"Some songs are really mean but there are two I really like. My grandfather had his own song a long time ago when he used to go all over hunting to Coppermine, Inuvik. He would travel a lot. He would make a song and he would always walk and he had a hole in his kamik because he did not have too many dogs. I like that song because he made himself small to be a good hunter."

"One more I like is when the ladies have a baby and they have to try and sing to make the babies sleepy," says Ittunga who performed during the Arctic Winter Games with her cousin Bernadette Uttaq.

Speaking through Ittunga, Uttaq says she feels that it is very important to make sure her children know their heritage.

"I want them to learn soon. In the past, our people would teach it...my family doesn't visit, my kids don't visit me," says Uttaq, 61.

Ittunga shares Uttaq's urgency about the future. She says that it is crucial that she pass on the games, language and lifestyle of her elders to her eight children and 20 grandchildren.

"Everybody is forgetting the Inuktitut way of talking and games. There is too much kabloona now. We need the games, talking, hunting, good Inuit food, the best. My husband is still hunting all the time. He works all day and then he goes hunting. He got a seal last night," says Ittunga who vividly remembers the first time she ever saw a white person.

"It was an RCMP who travelled all around and I was so scared. I was so little and I was so scared."

The throat singers performed around town all week long during the games and had the opportunity to share their culture with representatives from many of the world's Northern communities.