Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Jan 02/03) - The call has gone out for more women to join a program combining traditional sewing and academic skills in Rankin Inlet.

Instructor Liz Gerard says the idea for the program -- Strong Women make Strong Families -- came about when instructors at the Rankin Inlet Community Learning Centre noted the community could benefit from a course aimed at helping women learn about health topics.

Gerard says that focus directed the centre's proposal.

"We couldn't work anything out with Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, so that led us to the Healthy Children's Initiative," says Gerard.

"We also have literacy funding to help support the program."

Strong Women make Strong Families started in October and runs until the end of March.

Participants must have children up to the age of six or be pregnant.

Gerard says the course is quite similar to the Kivalliq Inuit Association's Reclaiming our Sinew program.

Course subjects are split between academic studies and traditional sewing skills.

"There are a lot of health topics being covered in the course."

"I asked the students at the beginning of the year what they wanted to learn about in terms of health and they selected the topics."

The program is covering such areas as healthy relationships, nutrition, self-esteem and family budgeting.

The sewing skills portion takes place in the morning.

"The budget allowed for the purchasing of sewing machines, so the students spent a great deal of time working on modern parkas.

"We then moved on to traditional sewing skills, and the students began sewing caribou skins for their kamiks."

Elder Monica Udjuk is teaching the caribou skin preparation-and-sewing portion of the program.

A total of eight students began the course, but numbers dwindled towards the end of the year.

"We had a number of students leave the program for personal reasons," said Gerard. "We have four remaining and we'd like to increase that as we reconvene this month.

"We have students who really improved their reading skills during the program, and the others are sewing things they never learned in their own family configuration."