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Nunavut's flag, coat-of-arms a product of long deliberation

Governor General Romeo Leblanc unveiled Nunavut's heraldic symbols on April 1.

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

Governor General Romeo Leblanc unveiling Nunavut's flag April 1 with two Junior Rangers.

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(AFP POOL PHOTO)

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IQALUIT — The creators of Nunavut's new heraldic symbols drew heavily on the rich heritage of Inuit culture for their artistic inspiration.

But the new flag and coat of arms, unveiled last week, are also the products of rigorous deliberation by elders, officials and Inuit political leaders.

"It's a creative effort that involved a significant number of people at key stages and from every part of the territory," said Robert Watt, Canada's chief herald said.

"I feel so privileged to have had an opportunity to be part of it."

In rendering final designs for the official symbols of Canada's newest territory, Watt said the Heraldic Authority strove to harmonize Inuit artistic sensibilities with the rigid technical standards of the national honour system.

Inuit navigation symbols dominate the territorial flag, which sports a massive blood-red Inukshuk in the aspect of a crucifix, separating a sky of brilliant yellow from a star-embedded field of snowy white.

Symbols of food, light, warmth and beauty adorn the coat of arms — a circular shield supported on the left by a caribou standing on its hind legs, and on the right, by a kneeling narwhal.

The shield is crested with an igloo and underscored by the motto, "Nunavut Our Strength," written in syllabics.

Romeo Leblanc signs Nunavut's new flag.

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(VIDEO CAPTURE)

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Governor General Romeo Leblanc formally granted the symbols to the people of Nunavut last Thursday by penning his name to a vice-regal warrant during April 1 inaugural ceremonies held in Iqaluit.

Approved by Queen

The document enshrines the grant of the flag and coat of arms on behalf of the Queen of England, who gave her personal approval to the symbols last October.

"There's only one of these documents and it will remain to be part of the official records of the territory," Watt said.

In addition to English and French, the rich heraldic language of the vice-regal warrant can also be read in the official Inuit languages of Nunavut — Inuktitut in syllabics, and Innuinaqtun, in Roman orthographic text.

Blandina Tulugarjuk of Iqaluit wrote the Inuktitut text, while Henry Ohokannoak of Cambridge Bay translated the document into Innuiaqtun.

"They literally created all sorts of new words in the two languages to be the equivalent of the technical language of heraldry in French and English," Watt said.

Governor General Leblanc paid tribute to Nunavut's first peoples in a short speech dedicating the heraldic insignia, which will be used to identify the property and services of the Government of Nunavut from now on.

"Through courage, sharing and ingenuity, the Inuit have prevailed in the harshest land on earth. And your new coat of arms reflects your history," Gov. Gen. Leblanc said during the April 1 dedication ceremony.

Andrew Qappik played major role

Designing and selecting official symbols for the new territory was a process guided and shaped by elders, leaders and artists from across Nunavut.

The Pangnirtung artist Andrew Qappik, whose initial drawings helped inspire draft versions of the flag and coat of arms, also played a crucial role rendering technically correct versions of the insignia.

Qappik's contributions to the creation of the new territorial insignia marked the first time that an aboriginal artist has been so intimately involved in the development of Canadian heraldry.

The artist himself remained very modest about his role, though.

"There were a lot of people who had a say in it," Qappik said. "I'm just one of them."

Chaired by Meeka Kilabuk, the symbols committee of the Nunavut Implementation Commission (NIC) was established in 1995.

Members included Bill Lyall from Cambridge Bay, George Qulaut from Igloolik and Rankin Inlet's Peter Ernerk, now serving as Nunavut's Deputy Minister of Culture, Languages, Elders and Youth.

Between May, 1997 and February, 1998 a nationwide contest sponsored by the NIC's symbols committee attracted more than 300 coat-of-arms proposals and more than 500 flag design proposals from all over Canada.

The submissions were reviewed a year ago by Kilabuk, NIC chairman John Amagoalik, NTI president Jose Kusugak, and the chief herald.

In addition, representatives from each of the three regions of Nunavut were brought to Iqaluit to participate in the selection.

Kanaginak Pootoogook of Cape Dorset, Thomas Iksiraq of Baker Lake and Nick Sikkuarq of Pelly Bay spent four days poring over the public submissions, helping to narrow down the number of possible flag and coat-of-arms designs.

"That review was very comprehensive and involved an item-by item review of all 800 submissions," Watt said. "Every single one was examined and discussed, and was part of the review."

Emerging from their work in mid-April, the symbols review committee announced that 10 finalists in each category had been selected.

Images submitted by Andrew Qappik made the shortlist.

The symbols review committee further refined their selection by drawing upon elements and colours submitted by the finalists to draft five different possible designs for a Nunavut coat-of-arms and territorial flag.

"They were the ones looking at the public submissions and effect distilling out from those public submissions the colours and elements that they considered to be most important and most representative of Nunavut," Watt said.

All along, the Canadian Heraldic Authority, led by Chief Herald Robert Watt, provided technical expertise and support to the symbols committee, whose main objectives were to ensure strong public input, and to try to ensure that Inuit artists and elders were involved as much as possible.

Qappik was invited to Ottawa twice in the course of the summer of 1998 to work alongside Kathy Bursey-Sabourin, Canada's official artist, or Frasier Herald.

"We had a lot of work where things had to be organized is some ways," Qappik recalled. "There were all kinds of drawings put together to portray Nunavut."

"There was a lot of playing around with different drawings."

At their June 25 meeting in Rankin Inlet last summer, the Nunavut Implementation Commission made their final selection from among the five draft designs and the 10 finalists who had made the symbol committee's original shortlist.

"I can say that the artists and the people at large did choose very well on the images," said Qappik, who travelled a second time to Ottawa in July 1998 to work with Bursey-Sabourin on the final rendering of the symbols chosen by the NIC.

In late September last year, the Nunavut Implementation Commission accepted the final renderings of the flag and coat-of-arms designs.

Representations of the symbols in painting form were presented to Governor General Leblanc for his approval in October. He in turn recommended them to Buckingham Palace.

"I do feel from the perspective of the creation of Nunavut it is a wonderful story," Chief Herald Watt said, "because at the core of it there is this determination to involve the talents, the knowledge of the elders and the skills of the artists in the North to produce these very special things, which are going to be seen so widely, not only in Nunavut, but across Canada and beyond."

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