TALOYOAK/SPENCE BAY
There had been an interest in Taloyoak to commemorate the service of Canada's soldiers, but no one had taken on the job of organizing the Remembrance Day ceremony, so George Hill did in 2005.

Every year, Netsilik Ilihakvik in Taloyoak holds a Remembrance Day ceremony, such as this one last year when Mayor Tommy Aiyout and Sarah Takolik, a councillor with the hamlet, lay a wreath at the cenotaph constructed by students. - photo courtesy of George Hill

His father served in the Second World War. Other family members served in that war, and some in the First World War.

"Being raised in a military family, it has always been important to me," he said.

Hill also teaches the Grade 8 to 12 social studies program at Netsilik Ilihakvik.

"We're constantly talking about current events," he said. "I talk about the importance of what the military and other groups have done in securing our rights."

The class discussed recent Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.

"I pointed out that this girl, and other girls, have been threatened and/or shot at and had acid thrown at them just because they happen to be female and have the nerve to want to go to school. Can my students imagine not being allowed to go to school just because they're girls?"

Others have sacrificed a lot for us, he emphasizes.

"I think the students want to show some kind of respect."

Most recently the tragic events in Ottawa and Quebec, where Canadian soldiers were killed, brought the Canadian military to everyone's minds.

"Until now, it's always been over there but now, with these two actions by whomever for whatever reason ... they're current."

Hill has also talked to his students about the number of military people who have committed suicide this past year.

"All because of post-traumatic stress disorder and what they've gone through overseas, not being able to get the proper treatment to deal with it."

With suicide being so prevalent in the territory, such current affairs offer a compassionate approach to teaching about issues that are not so far away from students' realities.

The first year's ceremony was modest as compared to the ceremony in the last couple of years.

"We started out with a service, with poetry writing and a poster contest for the whole school," said Hill. "I pounded the community for prizes and asked for prizes from other organizations. That part has fallen to the wayside because the kids weren't really that interested in it."

And since it was getting harder and harder to get prizes, Hill felt, since there was a greater and greater need for resources from other groups and organizations, he should focus on other aspects of Remembrance Day.

"I continued with the service, then three years ago as one of our (career and technology studies) projects we decided to build a small wooden cenotaph - a four-sided, pyramid-shaped object."

(A cenotaph is a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere.)

The students decorated each side and named them - World War I, World War II, Korea and Peacekeeping. Each year, the cenotaph is taken out and placed at the front of the gym for the service.

Participants are legion.

"We have pretty well all of the Rangers, and all of the Junior Rangers come out that day dressed in their sweatshirts and hats. A representative from both groups, an adult and a youth, take a wreath up. We've been lucky. We've had the RCMP attending every year. We've had them on the condition that nothing's happening in the detachment that day. And we've been lucky that for whatever reason a few officers have had their dress reds here."

Elders are included, and place wreaths. Each class makes their own wreaths to place at the cenotaph.

A wreath is laid on behalf of the hamlet and when Netsilik MLA Jeannie Ugyuk is in town, she participates. Representatives from the Catholic and Anglican churches read a passage and say a prayer, while students read In Flanders Field, a war poem written by Canadian physician Lt. Col. John McCrae.

A teacher, who served in Afghanistan and is new to the school this year, plans to participate in the ceremony in full dress.

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