Iqaluit (Sep 27/04) - Nick Newbery, the teacher who helped children who were struggling in school appreciate their culture and graduate, is leaving the North after spending 30 years here.

As a parting gift of sorts, Newbery has a number of his photographs of Northern children on display at the Nunavut Legislative Assembly until the end of October.

Nick Newbery has a series of photographs on display at the Nunavut Legislative Assembly. They span the years 1976-2003 in communities he taught in: Taloyoak, Panniqtuuq, Qikiqtarjuaq, Kimmirut and Iqaluit. - Kathleen Lippa/NNSL photo

The pictures were taken during Newbery's time spent living and teaching in Taloyoak, Qikiqtarjuaq, Panniqtuuq, Kimmirut and Iqaluit between 1976 and 2003.

Newbery has taken thousands of photographs of everything from landscapes to wildlife, but he chose to feature the children of Nunavut for his farewell show here because he spent 28 years as a teacher.

Standing in front of all those framed pictures of lively faces, Newbery doesn't talk about the art of photography. He talks passionately about living in the North, especially in Taloyoak in the 1970s.

"There were no phones, no television, it was wonderful," said Newbery.

He also has strong words for a school system that often fails Northern children, he believes.

"I just saw that the children were walking," said Newbery. "They weren't graduating."

Newbery developed courses around "life skills."

"I always felt the culture of a community should be reflected in the curriculum. There wasn't a lot of that 20 years ago."

Newbery's camera gave him a tool to capture the ways of life he saw changing rapidly.

The photography display is the kind of show where people walk up to the pictures to see who they recognize -- the little boy in a seal skin jacket riding a Dukes of Hazard Big Wheels, or a girl on stage in a bright red homemade parka emblazoned with Montreal Canadiens logos.

The beautiful girl in Panniqtuuq wearing the caribou skin parka was outfitted for a magazine called Gentleman's Quarterly, Newbery explained. That picture was taken when he came to Panniqtuuq to photograph male models wearing modern winter clothing. That's when he saw how beautiful traditional Inuit clothing was.

Newbery can tell a story about every picture in the show, although he doesn't always remember everyone's name.

The pictures are not labelled, so you don't always know which community is which.

But that may change when the show moves on to the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit and possibly a gallery in Ottawa and Halifax.

Before moving to Canada from Great Britain in 1970, Newbery was a freelance hard news photographer, selling pictures to the Times and other newspapers.

He got off to a superb start with his camera when working for his student newspaper in Belfast, Ireland. In 1964, Newbery was sent to cover a story on a band coming to town called The Beatles.

Newbery still has those incredible pictures of the young, suited up John, George, Paul and Ringo kept neatly in a photo album. He never sold them to anyone.

Not for sale

Currently, the pictures on display at the legislative assembly are not for sale either.

And it's just as well. You couldn't put a price on the picture of a little boy in rubber boots as far as Education Minister Ed Picco is concerned.

"That's Pakak," said Picco proudly, pointing to his son, now 8.

"The show is an amazing legacy of 30 years in the North," said Picco.

Upon returning south, Newbery hopes to teach Inuit Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.