Maria Canton
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 20/99) - While browsing the Internet, Monica Ell came across something she wasn't expecting to see, an Inukshuk on a beer label.

"I was surprised, but I was more discouraged if anything," said Ell, who is the vice-president of Pauktuutit, a national Inuit women's group.

"The Inukshuk is a symbol of our past, our future and the paths we take."

The image of an Inukshuk appears on a label for True North beer, produced at the Magnotta Brewery, a southern Ontario microbrewery.

Ell says that with all of the problems in the North, the use of an Inukshuk on a beer bottle is not really appropriate.

"Unfortunately, there isn't a lot we can do, but we can stress they change their labels," she said.

"We're going to put together a letter of some sort and send it to them."

The Magnotta Brewery, however, says they have been labelling True North with the Inukshuk for more than three years and their intentions were never to take advantage of or capitalize on the rock cairns that are used as guides on the land.

"The label is an original piece of art by artist Ken Kirkby, who spent many years in the North," says Rossana Magnotta, executive vice-president of the beer company.

"If anything, we are paying homage to the Inuit people. To us the Inukshuk represents purity, love, peace and beauty."

Regardless of what the Ontario brewery says, Iqaluit MLA Hunter Tootoo says the use of the Inukshuk is just another example of a southern business capitalizing on something that is truly Northern.

"Arts and crafts are one of our main export industries and our people count on them for making a living," he said.

"When they are mass produced in the south they lose the uniqueness that they have," says Tootoo of the label.