NNSL (Jun 28/99) - Ensconced in a little three-bedroom cottage in a secluded area of Ottawa are three artists toiling. The three -- Allyson Simmie, Dolphus Cadieux and Bill Nasogaluak -- are working on a piece of great historical importance.

It's the new mace, of course -- a new mace for the new Northwest Territories. And why is this a big deal? Because the mace is an integral aspect of governmental process. Without it the legislative assembly cannot sit and do what it does.

"At the beginning of each day's sitting of the Legislative Assembly, a procession enters the Assembly Chambers," explains a GNWT write-up.

"Everyone in the chambers stands respectfully as the Sergeant-At-Arms, carrying the mace on his right shoulder, leads the procession, followed by the Speaker and the Clerks." The mace is, effectively, the symbol of authority of the legislative assembly and its Speaker.

The opportunity to create a mace doesn't happen very often. Most were created long before any of us were born, and they stick around just about forever.

The mace for the old NWT, now-divided territories, was designed in the '50s by artist and long-time Northern visitor James Houston. It was made by eight Inuit craftsmen from Cape Dorset. The original mace, now considered to be priceless, sits in the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife.

Now, Simmie (a jewelry and metal-worker), Cadieux and Nasogaluak (both carvers) will have their names in the history books. Doesn't mean though that the task at hand is all glamour.

"We're fine-tuning everything," says Nasogaluak. "Like this morning -- there's four bands and we were just confirming...is it going to be five-sixteenths or a one-quarter of an inch. Little technical ironing out."

The trio are in Ottawa to be near the silversmithing company, Gilles Beaugrand.

"We haven't actually started carving the pieces. We've already made life-size models of the piece. We went from life-size drawings to the actual size in model form," adds the artist.

The most time-consuming part of this job has been the actual designing to the fine-tuning, Nasogaluak notes.

"We're trying to iron out everything, absolutely everything. Every problem, we're trying to get rid of. And that's the most time-consuming. The actual work might take just as long but right now it just seems like it's an endless amount of working out minor technical detail."

There are several specifications that must be observed.

"There's a weight factor -- 35 pounds. And that was one of our initial concerns. It's going to be a concern throughout the whole project. We're working with some marble carvings, that's our heaviest factor. We're trying to work around it. We're down to 2.2 pounds on each particular marble carving."

There's also a length restriction to observe. And the mace must be completed by Oct. 31. The total budget, says Nasogaluak, is $129,000.

After the technical difficulties are all ironed out, the trio must make two working models, one for themselves and one for the silversmith in Montreal.

"Once we have our models, our next stage is to ensure that we have a certain design for the base that will hold the mace. We're trying to decide between two different sizes."

The team of artists have been sworn to secrecy about the actual design. The mace will be unveiled at the first sitting of the new legislative assembly, sometime in the future.

Nevertheless, Nasogaluak was able to discuss some elements of design.

"We're trying to represent the three main ethnic groups. We've got a certain design, in one form or another, we've got the Dene of the West, Inuit of the West, which basically the majority are Inuvialuit, and then the Euro-Canadians. And then, without revealing anything, we'll have symbolism that represents Metis also."

The flora and fauna of the Western Arctic will be represented, as well as "the terrain from the ocean to the river to the mountain to the trees."

Is Nasogaluak daunted by the historical importance of this artistic project?

"It's taken a while for us to really understand the impact," he begins.

"There are certain stages in the design where it seems like it's just work and then you step back and you realize this is history, this is history-making."