T-shirts with a message
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Rankin Inlet (Dec 20/00) - The crumbling Inuit face speaks loudly before one even notices the slogan on the T-shirt.
The T-shirt is the result of a Kivalliq Inuit Association (KIA) project to promote and create awareness of the Inuktitut language.
The project has led to hundreds of T-shirts being shipped to every school in the region.
KIA representative Bernadette Dean says the KIA called out this past fall for students and adults to submit designs and logos promoting Inuktitut.
Winning entries were selected and, with funding from Canadian Heritage's Aboriginal Languages Initiatives, the T-shirts were born.
Dean says the winning selection has a powerful message of the slow death of Inuktitut written over the image on the T-shirt.
She says the picture itself says, lose your language and you lose your identity.
"We're sending free T-shirts to every school in the Kivalliq," says Dean.
"The T-shirts are to be given to students from kindergarten to high school making a strong effort to excel in the Inuktitut language."
The winning design was submitted by Amanada Muckpah, 17, a Grade 12 student at Alaittuq High.
Four slogans were picked saying why Inuktitut must remain strong and adorn the back of the T-shirts.
The slogans were submitted bilingually and appear that way on the T-shirts.
Slogan authors were Ida Muckpah, Catherine Connelly, Suzanne Ningeocheak and Marcelline Aupilardjuk.
The T-shirts are in nine colours, come in two different styles and will fit the smallest to the largest of students.
"We're really happy with the way this project turned out and we'd like to thank everyone who submitted a design or logo.
"The talent shown was tremendous and made it difficult to select the winning entries."
A magnet will be released by the KIA in the future bearing the design submitted by Grade 5 student Charmaine Okatsiak.
Her theme was that of an Inuit youth not being able to communicate with their grandparent because they can't speak Inuktitut.
