Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

CORAL HARBOUR (Jul 01/98) - Amouyah Eetuk thought she understood the Inuit legends of Coral Harbour elders.

But it wasn't until the McGill University education student recently collected the stories and turned them into a puppet show that she learned the true meaning of legends she had heard since she was a young girl.

"I thought I knew about Inuit legends, (but) I just read the legend and never really felt what those people were feeling," she said. "I've heard those legends over and over in school -- I (even) worked in the schools and read them to the children."

Eetuk is one of 14 Coral Harbour students entering the last year of a bachelor of education program who put together the puppet show for a drama course required for their degree. The students collected narratives from the elders in the community and used the dialogue to write a script for the play.

Adele Kory, a Repulse Bay teacher who taught the three-week drama course, said that the show was a success in the community, attracting more than 150 children for the performance.

"They made the Inuit puppets with nylons, kamiks and sealskin," she said. "The facial features were incredible."

Eetuk said that the exercise allowed her to understand -- for the first time in her life -- the real meaning of the ancient stories, passed orally from generation to generation.

Through her work with the elders, she is able to feel the hardship felt by her ancestors who lived off the land. "I feel what the family went through," she said. "I missed out a lot, but I finally understand the feeling in their legends."

Ilimarasugjuk, a legend about a family who escaped starvation, is one she won't soon forget.

"These people went through a lot," she said. "But they learned that they had to trust each other in order to survive."

Eetuk said the ability to understand the message behind these legends is as important as their survival. Without understanding the modern-day message, she added, it is all irrelevant.

"These stories show how to live a better life and how to make the world a better place to live," she said.