Heritage Day a hit in Naujaat
Inuit traditions on display at Tuugaalik High School
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
NAUJAAT/REPULSE BAY
Students and staff members spent a fun-filled day highlighting Inuit heritage and tradition at Tuugaalik High School in Naujaat earlier this month.
Neevie Kidlapik helps Jack Kopak make a cast of his hand in art class while preparing for Heritage Day activities at THS. |
The school has been hosting the annual event for about a decade now and this year's May 18 activities featured six stations of various themes for the students to visit, learn from and have fun at.
Teacher Elsa Pinkohs was the head organizer for this year's Heritage Day activities and she said the event went very well.
Pinkohs said the stations included sewing, Inuit games, dogsledding, traditional tattooing, cooking and skin practice.
She said this was the first year for the Heritage Day activities to include both traditional tattooing and dogsledding.
"We were excited to give the two new stations a try this year and see how they were received," said Pinkohs.
"There are some people with traditional tattoos in the community right now.
"There's not a whole lot of people with them yet, but it seems to be slowly catching on.
"I don't really know a lot about it, but it seems to be very interesting and we had a teacher (Jolene Itkilik) join us from Tusarvik School to help at the station because she has a traditional tattoo."
There were six groups of students who visited each of the six stations on Heritage Day, with each group spending about 20 or 25 minutes at each stop before switching to the next station.
The format allowed the students to visit every station and have an equal amount of time participating at each one.
Pinkohs said the groups were a mix of students from different grades, and this year each group also had three or four students from British Columbia, who were in Naujaat as part of a cadet exchange program.
She said the B.C. cadets enjoyed the activities and learned a good deal while participating at each of the six stations.
"The B.C. cadets were really willing to help," Pinkohs said, "and their chaperones were pretty excited about it all, too - they were taking a lot of pictures and you could tell they were happy to be part of the day - and you could sense a certain amount of pride from our students to have them here learning so much about Inuit heritage, culture and tradition."
"We had a feast after all the stations were done, followed by people coming in to drum dance and then a square dance, which the B.C. students really, really enjoyed taking part in."
Pinkohs said a lot of the people the school invites to the activities are role models for the community and important people.
She said for them to show pride in the heritage event sets a good example for the younger students.
"Carrying traditions forward is so important because we're walking in two worlds and the traditional part of Inuit culture is so coveted and important.
"But we also have a lot of southern influences in some ways, so it's important to showcase the culture, especially when you have language concerns. The language, Inuktitut, is pretty strong here, so it's chance to bring all the elements of culture, language and tradition forward together."
