Rankin Inlet (May 19/04) - The Maani Ulujuk middle school (MUI) gym in Rankin Inlet came alive with images from the past for one colourful afternoon this past week.

Students from Grade 5 through 8 had their projects on display, vying for top honours in the annual Historica Fair.

The gym was full of a mind-boggling line-up of displays, ranging from the advent of the Canadian hockey card to numerous projects on Inuit culture and tradition.

The fair also received a touch of international flavour, thanks to Grade 5 student Sharmarke Ismail's project on South Africa and Somali cultural tools.

Maani Ulujuk Grade 6 teacher Pattie Philip said the event used to be referred to as the Heritage Fair, but was recently renamed to the Historica Fair to better illustrate the scope of the displays.

Traditionally, the fair had been geared towards promoting Canadian history, but has been expanded to include world history.

"We had a nice mix of projects this year," said Philip.

"Of course, we had quite a few focused on Inuit culture and tradition, but we had lots of students who researched world history, where pop came from, the history of hockey cards, those types of things.

"The topics are wide open. It really depends on what the students are interested in."

A late start

The Historica fairs are held in schools across Canada and are usually completed by the end of March.

Philip said because the MUI fair was held late this year, school staff chose to keep it a community event instead of having it progress to the regional and national levels.

She said students are given class time to work on their projects, but many take them home to work on during evenings and weekends.

"The makers of the top projects are awarded prizes, and all students are marked on them as part of their social studies curriculum.

"They really put a lot of effort into their work, as was evident by the quality of projects we saw on display this year."