Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Panniqtuuq/ Pangnirtung - Traditional activities united with modern life were the theme of a mural painted by youth in Pangnirtung earlier this month

Lisa Jaw, Henry Poisey, and Emily Karpik work on the mural at the Pangnirtung Youth Centre.

About 20 young people contributed ideas they thought should be depicted in the painting and around 15 of them helped to paint, according to Chris Heide, co-ordinator for the Making Connections Program in Pangnirtung.

A visiting university student from Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., assisted with the mural.

“It turned out a specialty of his was doing large murals so he asked the hamlet if we’d be interested in having a mural on a building and it was the Youth Centre that said yes,” Heide said. “We were talking about murals before he ever arrived so his arrival was timely.”

The mural is located on the outside of the Youth Centre where it can be viewed by everyone in the community.

“It’s on the outside wall of the Youth Centre, a very prominent location in town,” Heide said. “You can see it on the street as you come up toward the Northern Store.”

Uluit and the flower patterns often found on kamikpaks border the mural, while a frame for stretching skins is created with pictures of a spear, a kakivak for fishing, a hockey stick and a pool cue.

All the pictures show the traditional and contemporary ways of Northern life coming together harmoniously, Heide said.

“There’s sort of a traditional Inuk in a skin parka and on the other side you’ve got a young dude there with his baseball cap on backwards and they’re working to finish an Inuksuk together,” he said.

It took about two weeks to paint and was finished on Aug. 1.

Donations of paint and other materials were provided by a local businessman, the hamlet and the Northern Store, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada donated hotdogs and corn for a barbecue at the youth centre to celebrate the mural’s unveiling on Aug. 2.

“We had a free barbecue on the porch in front of the mural and lots of people came and complimented it,” Heide said.