Singing for a world record
Iqaluit children celebrate flag anniversary, sing O Canada with other other Canadian schools
Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Friday, June 19, 2015
IQALUIT
Students from Iqaluit's Nakasuk School and Joamie School are among children from across Canada waiting to hear whether they will set a world record for the largest group recording of O Canada. The recordings, by charity Hometown Proud, took place June 15 as part of a nationwide celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Canadian flag.
Nakasuk School choir director Marlene Letkeman, Iqaluit Mayor Mary Wilman, Grade 4 student and singer Miles Brewster, Hometown Music Council executive director Rob Hanson, and Nakasuk principal Tracey MacMillan gather after students recorded O Canada. - photo courtesy of Tracey MacMillan
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"So far they have recorded 18,000 students, I believe, in five provinces and one territory," said Nakasuk School choir director Marlene Letkeman. "The entire school was involved with that, but that was sung strictly in English. That will be then mixed with all the voices that have been recorded across Canada sometime in the fall, and will be available online."
Nakasuk's morning routine involves a trilingual version of O Canada, using Inuktitut, French and English. Upon hearing this, Hometown Proud asked to record a special video of the school choir singing the song with drum dancers.
"It was cool because I have never been recorded by anyone before, other than (home) video," said Grade 5 student Penelope Armstrong. "I felt I had to sing really loud to make Marlene proud that I was part of the choir. My friend said she could hear me."
The video of the trilingual song will be available on the project's website some time in the future, Letkeman was told. The audio of the English version, which is aiming for the world record, will involve about 80 schools and will be complete by the end of the year.
As part of the project's visit to Iqaluit, students Lucassie Nowdlak and Mackenzie O'Dell were asked to research the flag's local relevance and make a presentation for a video.
O'Dell researched John Amagoalik, Father of Nunavut, and his appreciation for the flag.
"He made Nunavut a part of Canada," O'Dell said. "The flag was important to him because he was proud for making his hometown a part of Canada."
"It means that I'm proud to be Canadian and that it's a symbol of my hometown," Nowdlak said, explaining what the flag means to him.
"For us, it was an extension of our social studies curriculum, where we learn about the government and Nunavut specifically," said their teacher Shannon Richardson. "They were videotaped wishing Canada's flag a happy 50th birthday. (The producers) were picking students from the other provinces and classes, and picking through them to include them in some form of documentary, and it's going to be some sort of collage of kids around Canada, so they (Lucassie and Mackenzie) were representing Nunavut."
Canadian Heritage funded the project, and encouraged schools to post their own projects for inclusion in a digital yearbook at flagofcanada.ca.
