April 9, 1998

Picking Nunavut's flag and symbols: a tough choice

JIM BELL
Nunatsiaq News

Nunavut's symbol's selections commitee: Kananginak Pootoogook, Meeka Kilabuk and Thomas Ipsirak are sitting at the front; John Amagoalik, Jose Kusugak, Nick Sikkuark and Robert Watt are standing at the back.

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PHOTO BY JIM BELL

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IQALUIT - A group of seven people met in Iqaluit this week to start work on choosing the symbols Nunavut will use to express its identity to the world: a flag and a coat of arms.

Starting on Tuesday morning this week, the group gathered around a long table in the Nunavut Implementation Commission's board room in Iqaluit to talk about the criteria they'll use to pick a flag and a coat of arms for Nunavut.

They'll also wade through a pile of more than 800 submissions sent in by people all over Nunavut and Canada. Nearly every inch of wall-space inside the NIC board room was covered by samples of those submissions.

Many include drawings submitted by school children.

"Some of the drawings done by the five and six year olds are beautiful," said Meeka Kilabuk, the chair of the Nunavut's symbols selection committee.

The other members are John Amagoalik, the chief commissioner of the Nunavut Implementation Commission; Jose Kusugak, the president of Nunavut Tunngavik; Robert Watt, the chief herald of Canada; and three renowned Nunavut artists: Kananginak Pootoogook of Cape Dorset, Nick Sikkuarq of Pelly Bay, and Thomas Iksiraq of Baker Lake.

By Thursday of this week, the committee were to have selected a short-list of designs for a flag and coat of arms for Nunavut.