WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MURAL?

           On May 31 I wrote a post about a special mural in Stringer Hall, Inuvik. 

           Steve Steve from Shadows and Light asked a question that opened a can of worms. Steve wanted to know what happened to the mural. Many things happened before the residence was destroyed. 

          Here's the brief history.

          Around 1950 the government decided that they would build a school system to educate northern kids. Their plan was to build one huge school and bring all the kids to one place. The kids would leave their local settlements and parents and live in a huge residence called Stringer Hall. It didn't take long before the people realized that this was a terrible system. The kids  lived away from family so there was no family life. The kids lost their relationship with their own community and family

            The people also realized that their kids needed and education. . 

                    Grade  three children whose classroom was an annex

                      Boys playing dog team 

                      Boys playing hopscotch in January

                            More hopscotch

            These little guys did not get home for Christmas or Easter . They stayed the whole schoolyear. 

 There were many sad stories from this system. Children were literally taken from their parents to the big school and hostels in Inuvik. Some parents did not know where their children were. 

      A campaign grew to have kids educated in their local community. Sometime in the early 70's the big school which held a thousand kids and student residences were not being used and closed. Stringer Hall which held 300 kids remained closed for a few years and when they couldn't find a use for it, it was torn down. 

     Today no matter how small a community is, there is a school. Kids are able to complete their high school with only two or three kids in the high school. You see grad photos with only two or three kids.

      I'm not sure what happened to the mural but I hope that somehow it was saved. 

MURAL

         A few weeks ago I showed some of our wedding photos as it was our anniversary. Everybody's wedding is extremely important. The surroundings and events are not forgotten.

         The venue for our wedding was different. The wedding was held in a place called Stinger Hall Chapel. Inuvik had a 1000 student school. Kids were brought in from up to 1000 miles away and kept in two hostels. Stringer hall was a residence that held about 300 kids. 

         The chapel was for all the kids in the residence.

         Inuvik was a special Arctic settlement planned and built after the Second World war. Construction was officially finished in 1957 but some of it still continued. Stringer Hall was finished long before the Hotel was built. Travelers stayed in the student hostel. A pilot stayed there on a regular basis. He was a bit of an artist so painted the large mural behind the alter  during his stops in Inuvik.

      The mural shows a picture of children coming to Christ. The big thing in this mural is that the children are aboriginal. 

       I'm not sure if the idea comes from a biblical quotation. Far Side will be able to cover that Chap and verse if there is one. 

     So I've always considered this an interesting mural as well as the story behind it.