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(just in case you didn't catch this story)
Monday ? July 8 ? 2002
Inukshuk honours four fallen Canadians
Icon in Afghanistan
Chris Wattie
National Post
Monday, July 08, 2002
The Canadian Press
Canadian troops in Afghanistan have erected a marker for four soldiers killed by U.S. bombs.
Canada's largest Inuit group says it was an "honourable gesture" for Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan to erect an Inukshuk in memory of four fallen comrades and a sign that the traditional Inuit stone marker has become as much a Canadian symbol as the maple leaf.
"The soldiers view it as a truly Canadian symbol. To us, that's a very moving thing to hear," said Jose Kusugak, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national organization for Canada's 42,000 Inuit.
"It's heartwarming to think that a stone Inukshuk will be a monument to soldiers in Afghanistan and symbolically, perhaps, mark a different path representing values we all hold dear, such as freedom, peace, democracy and justice," he said.
Mr. Kusugak said it was also a sign the Inukshuk -- which means "likeness of a person" in Inuktitut -- has become a truly Canadian symbol.
"When the Inuit of Canada recently submitted illustrations for a new logo for our national Inuit organization, many of the designs included the maple leaf as a national symbol," he said.
"So if a national symbol for the soldiers is an Inukshuk, and a national symbol for Inuit is a maple leaf, I think we're on the same wavelength."
Inukshuit (the plural of Inukshuk) were traditionally set up to serve as markers or signposts to help guide Inuit across the Arctic tundra, pointing out paths, waterways, hunting and fishing sites. They may also have been used to herd caribou toward Inuit hunters or to mark the location of campsites or caches of food.
But the rough stone sculptures have since been adopted by Canadians living far from the Arctic. Dr. Liss Jeffrey, a professor at the University of Toronto's McLuhan Program, says they are fast becoming Canadian icons.
"I don't think the public recognition of them is quite up there with the maple leaf, but it's growing," she said.
"Somehow the Inukshuk has really captured the Canadian imagination."
Artists have crafted Inukshuit from exotic materials such as glass or jade, and they have been featured on stamps and fashioned into jewellery.
They have appeared on everything from beer labels to Web sites, and there is even an Internet firm named after the Inukshuk. They are also popular as garden ornaments and have been popping up across southern Canada.
A 10-metre-tall Inukshuk was recently erected in Toronto's Battery Park, near the Lake Ontario shoreline, to mark World Youth Day. There is one in the lobby of the Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C., and another overlooking Edmonton's downtown Jasper Avenue. An Inukshuk graces an outcrop at Vancouver's English Bay, a gift from the people of the Northwest Territories after Expo '86.
"I've seen people building their own versions all over the place," Dr. Jeffrey said. "It's a powerful icon, and people have really adopted it as their own. It's a symbol of the human being out in the wilderness ... it says human beings have passed this way, Canadians have passed this way."
Canadian infantrymen and engineers have been building the Inuit cairn, made out of local black slate, at the coalition base in Kandahar as a monument to coalition soldiers who have died in the war against terrorism.
But the Inukshuk has special meaning as a memorial to the four members of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry who were killed when a U.S. fighter jet mission mistook them for enemy troops on a training exercise in April.
The soldiers said they chose the Inuit marker because of its uniquely Canadian heritage. "An Inukshuk is one of the few things that's truly a Canadian icon," said Master Corporal David Bibby, one of the soldiers building the monument.
The stone was salvaged from slabs of slate found beneath a building and from a stone pile at a nearby farm. It took three soldiers and a jackhammer to cut the stone slabs to size and add holes for reinforcement bars to hold the stones in place.
The PPCLI will also install three polished granite slabs near the Inukshuk to commemorate the dead coalition troops, the four Canadians and to explain the origins of the Inuit marker.
It will read in part: "Certain Inukshuk had spiritual connotations, and were objects of veneration, often marking the threshold of the spiritual landscape, or in other words, sacred ground. We hope that this place will remain sacred and that the spirits of our fallen comrades will find their way home to peace and rest."
Captain Paul Doucette, a spokesman for Operation Apollo, which includes the troops in Kandahar, said yesterday the Inukshuk is almost completed.
"They are just putting the finishing touches on it," he said. It will be formally recognized at a ceremony next week, he said.
The soldiers also want to build another Inukshuk in Edmonton, the home base of 3rd Battalion, PPCLI.
Monday ? July 8 ? 2002
Inukshuk honours four fallen Canadians
Icon in Afghanistan
Chris Wattie
National Post
Monday, July 08, 2002
The Canadian Press
Canadian troops in Afghanistan have erected a marker for four soldiers killed by U.S. bombs.
Canada's largest Inuit group says it was an "honourable gesture" for Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan to erect an Inukshuk in memory of four fallen comrades and a sign that the traditional Inuit stone marker has become as much a Canadian symbol as the maple leaf.
"The soldiers view it as a truly Canadian symbol. To us, that's a very moving thing to hear," said Jose Kusugak, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national organization for Canada's 42,000 Inuit.
"It's heartwarming to think that a stone Inukshuk will be a monument to soldiers in Afghanistan and symbolically, perhaps, mark a different path representing values we all hold dear, such as freedom, peace, democracy and justice," he said.
Mr. Kusugak said it was also a sign the Inukshuk -- which means "likeness of a person" in Inuktitut -- has become a truly Canadian symbol.
"When the Inuit of Canada recently submitted illustrations for a new logo for our national Inuit organization, many of the designs included the maple leaf as a national symbol," he said.
"So if a national symbol for the soldiers is an Inukshuk, and a national symbol for Inuit is a maple leaf, I think we're on the same wavelength."
Inukshuit (the plural of Inukshuk) were traditionally set up to serve as markers or signposts to help guide Inuit across the Arctic tundra, pointing out paths, waterways, hunting and fishing sites. They may also have been used to herd caribou toward Inuit hunters or to mark the location of campsites or caches of food.
But the rough stone sculptures have since been adopted by Canadians living far from the Arctic. Dr. Liss Jeffrey, a professor at the University of Toronto's McLuhan Program, says they are fast becoming Canadian icons.
"I don't think the public recognition of them is quite up there with the maple leaf, but it's growing," she said.
"Somehow the Inukshuk has really captured the Canadian imagination."
Artists have crafted Inukshuit from exotic materials such as glass or jade, and they have been featured on stamps and fashioned into jewellery.
They have appeared on everything from beer labels to Web sites, and there is even an Internet firm named after the Inukshuk. They are also popular as garden ornaments and have been popping up across southern Canada.
A 10-metre-tall Inukshuk was recently erected in Toronto's Battery Park, near the Lake Ontario shoreline, to mark World Youth Day. There is one in the lobby of the Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C., and another overlooking Edmonton's downtown Jasper Avenue. An Inukshuk graces an outcrop at Vancouver's English Bay, a gift from the people of the Northwest Territories after Expo '86.
"I've seen people building their own versions all over the place," Dr. Jeffrey said. "It's a powerful icon, and people have really adopted it as their own. It's a symbol of the human being out in the wilderness ... it says human beings have passed this way, Canadians have passed this way."
Canadian infantrymen and engineers have been building the Inuit cairn, made out of local black slate, at the coalition base in Kandahar as a monument to coalition soldiers who have died in the war against terrorism.
But the Inukshuk has special meaning as a memorial to the four members of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry who were killed when a U.S. fighter jet mission mistook them for enemy troops on a training exercise in April.
The soldiers said they chose the Inuit marker because of its uniquely Canadian heritage. "An Inukshuk is one of the few things that's truly a Canadian icon," said Master Corporal David Bibby, one of the soldiers building the monument.
The stone was salvaged from slabs of slate found beneath a building and from a stone pile at a nearby farm. It took three soldiers and a jackhammer to cut the stone slabs to size and add holes for reinforcement bars to hold the stones in place.
The PPCLI will also install three polished granite slabs near the Inukshuk to commemorate the dead coalition troops, the four Canadians and to explain the origins of the Inuit marker.
It will read in part: "Certain Inukshuk had spiritual connotations, and were objects of veneration, often marking the threshold of the spiritual landscape, or in other words, sacred ground. We hope that this place will remain sacred and that the spirits of our fallen comrades will find their way home to peace and rest."
Captain Paul Doucette, a spokesman for Operation Apollo, which includes the troops in Kandahar, said yesterday the Inukshuk is almost completed.
"They are just putting the finishing touches on it," he said. It will be formally recognized at a ceremony next week, he said.
The soldiers also want to build another Inukshuk in Edmonton, the home base of 3rd Battalion, PPCLI.
