Daniel T'seleie
Northern News Services

Baker Lake (Aug 29/05) - Several artworks honouring the Kivalliq's elders were introduced to Baker Lake's community hall.

Artist Gerald Kuehl presented the 12 portraits to the hamlet last month. They will join 20 other portraits of elders that have decorated the building's walls for nearly 20 years.

More than 200 people attended the unveiling ceremony on Canada Day.

"We had expected maybe 10 or 20," said project co-ordinator Karen Yip.

Many people in the community are related to the drawn elders, and their faces were already familiar around town before the portraits were presented.

"There's really good response to them," Yip said. "The elders were thrilled."

Kuehl also spent a few days in Repulse Bay earlier this month to take photos of elders there so that he can paint their portraits.

While in Repulse, Kuehl gave some of his time to Tusarvik school to meet with the school's older students and talk to them about his art.

Kuehl has been visiting Baker Lake since 2002 for his drawings. When Yip saw his work she thought copies should stay in the community.

Yip partnered with the Baker Lake Hospice Society in an attempt to acquire the art.

A funding application was sent to the Department of Culture Language Elders and Youth, complete with a letter signed by 70 community members. The request was granted, and the hamlet pitched in $200.

The portraits cost $375 each, which includes framing and an extra copy presented to each of the elders.

Yip hopes the hamlet can get more portraits of elders as the years pass. Twenty other portraits by artist Jim Shirley adorn the walls of the community hall, but there was a 20-year lapse between those drawings and the new ones.

"There's been some elders who have come and gone," she said. "It would be nice to keep a record of all the elders that we could."

More of Kuehl's portraits of Kivalliq elders can be seen online at www.portraitsofthenorth.com.