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Inuvik, Northwest Territories (Canada)

1:2 image by Eugene Ipavec
Source: Canadian City Flags, Raven 18

Inuvik
Current Flag
- Design
- Symbolism
- Selection
- Designer
1986 flag
1970s flag

See also:

Inuvik

Inuvik, with a population of 3296 (as of 1996), is also spelled Inuvvik (meaning "place of man"), and was originally named East Three; it is located at 68°21'N lat. and 133°43'W long., on the East Channel of the Mackenzie River Delta. Local languages are Inuvialuktun, Gwich'i and English, and the community belongs to the electoral districts of Inuvik Boot Lake and Inuvik Twin Lakes and to the land claim areas of Inuvialuit and Gwich'in.
Antonio Martins, 27 June 2000

Current Flag

Text and image(s) from Canadian City Flags, Raven 18 (2011), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright. Image(s) by permission of Eugene Ipavec.

Design

The flag of the Town of Inuvik has a white field with a logo in the centre, nearly the full height of the flag and five-eighths its length. Within a narrow outline of light blue, with straight base and sides and two circular curves at the top, the left higher than the right, are four overlapping elements. Behind all is a partial disc in light blue, with three narrow white concentric circles toward its outer edge. In front of it in the centre is a silhouette of the roof and chimney of a house in dark green. In front of that, to the right, is a stylized teepee in light green, formed of two bars crossing at their tops, with a white triangle at its base as a door. In front of all is a stylized igloo and door formed by a white semicircle with a smaller light blue semi-disc at its centre.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Symbolism

“Inuvik” is from Inuvialuktun, an Inuit word for “Place of Man” or “Place of People”. Three main ethnic groups live in the town; each represented by a type of abode associated with them. The teepee is for the Dene (a First Nations people); the igloo is for the Inuit (Eskimo); and the house is for the non-native inhabitants of the town. Each group makes up about a third of the population. The large light blue disc symbolizes the Midnight Sun, as Inuvik is 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The three white concentric circles represent the unity of the three groups of people.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Selection

Unknown
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Designer

Ewan Cotterall, in the early 1970s. William Huff modified it in 1982, changing the field colour from light blue to white.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

1986 flag

1:2 image by Eugene Ipavec
Source: Canadian City Flags, Raven 18

Many NWT/Nunavut civic flags were designed or temporarily modified in 1985 for the Northwest Territories Exhibition Hall at Vancouver’s Expo ’86, at the initiative of heraldry enthusiast Michael Moore, then a deputy minister at the NWT Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA). The side-bar colours of these Canadian pale designs vary from dark blue, to green, to brown, and to bright red. In the Inuvik flag, the logo from the flag, with the house and teepee both green, was placed in the centre of a Canadian pale design of dark blue-white-dark blue.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Image above based on a photo of the Flag Parade, near Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, taken in May 2007.
Jens Pattke, 3 October 2013

1970s flag

1:2 image by Eugene Ipavec
Source: Canadian City Flags, Raven 18

In the early 1970s the first Inuvik flag had a light blue field with the logo on it.
Jim Croft, 23 August 2011