Waste not, want not
Students concoct creations with fur trimmings through GNWT's fur scrap program
Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Monday, June 22, 2015
TUKTOYAKTUK
Students at Mangilaluk School in Tuktoyaktuk are giving new life to scrap pieces of fur that would normally be discarded, says the school's Inuvialuktun teacher.
Jasmine Gruben sewed an owl out of fur trimmings at Mangilaluk School in Tuktoyaktuk earlier this year using fur trimmings sent by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. The department sent fur to 42 schools throughout the territory this year. - photo courtesy of Betty Elias |
"It's just good to receive and to decide okay what can we do with it?" said Betty Elias.
"What can I teach from it?"
Mangilaluk School is just one of 42 schools across the territory receiving boxes of fur trimmings from the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment this year, said Francois Rossouw, the department's fur management and traditional economy co-ordinator.
Southern manufacturers provide the fur through an arrangement with the Fur Harvesters Auction and ITI.
The project began with $500 worth of trimmings last year and expanded to $1,500 this year, Rossouw said. They are distributed to communities for free.
"The idea is to get young, school-aged kids touching and using fur in their craft projects and whatnot," Rossouw said.
For students in Tuktoyaktuk, that means everyone from kindergarten to Grade 8 gets a chance to touching and learning about fur.
Younger students learn to identify fur while Grade 4 to 8 students do their own sewing projects, Elias said.
First they learn which fur works best for certain items then decide what they want to make.
One student sewed a tiny pair of sealskin mitts, Elias said.
"It's just to give them an idea on how to work with furs and how to distinguish what kinds of furs are good for which items," she said.
Other sewing projects included sewing fur trim onto adult mitts and making life-sized stuffed mice.
Children love the tactile aspect of working with fur, Elias said.
"The kids, they just love to feel it," she said.
Working with fur also provides a chance to teach students about their roots.
"We have fur up here and it's always been in our traditional culture that we've always had to work with fur," Elias said.
"These are the types of things our ancestors and our great-grandparents and great-great grandparents worked with."
One of the program's added bonuses is that it helps foster respect between elders and youth, Rossouw said.
"Suddenly one day you're sitting down with them and their knowledge and their skill level is massive," he said. "Instantly you look at them in a different light. I think that's an important thing."
In addition to bringing elders and youth together and learning a lifelong skill, the fur could become a teaching tool for other subjects, Elias said.
"You can use it in science and other stuff too," she said. "Right across the curriculum you could use it."
Rossouw said he hopes the project will generate interest and continue next year.
"We can probably grow it," he said.
"There's no reason why we shouldn't."
