Rankin Inlet (Mar 05/03) - Lively discussion was the order of the day during a meeting this past month to discuss plans to place interpretive materials at the Iqalugaarjuk (river with lots of little fishes) Park.

The park is adjacent to the Qarmaviniqtalik (place with ancient sod houses) site on the Meliadine River.

The materials, such as signs and brochures, would be used to help visitors understand the story of the land and the people who lived there.

A local committee will also be formed, which will have input on what takes place on the land. The site encompasses almost the entire watershed area, about 10 kilometres long and three kilometres wide.

Project manager Page Burt said the people who attended the meeting were more interested in sharing stories about the site than how many signs would be there.

"As far as structures on the site, people didn't have much to add to what we already have -- autumn houses, tent rings, meat caches, a drying rack, fox traps and kayak racks, those types of things," said Burt.

"We would also like to do something on the wildlife commonly seen in that area, along with plant communities and the way they're used by the people."

The Meliadine esker was formed as sort of a stream bed in reverse.

Great rivers flowed out of the retreating ice sheet during continental glaciation.

The rivers carried sand and gravel to form the eskers that wind across Canada.

There has been some controversy over the name of the park.

Burt said Qarmaviniqtalik is not the archaeological site people regularly visit.

She said the site is across the river and is a place people avoid because of Ijiriliq (shadows or hiders).

"The government started calling the whole area Ijiriliq Park and local elders have told us that's incorrect.

"They didn't want the park named after something everybody's afraid of so we'll put that in our report."

Burt said nobody's quite sure where the name Ijiriliq Park originated from.

"Nobody's stepped up to take credit for it, that's for sure.

"Hopefully, our recommendations will go through and, sometime within the next year, the signs will be completed and erected at the site."