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Baker Lake, Nunavut (Canada)

Qamani'tuaq / ᖃᒪᓂᑦᑐᐊᖅ

[Baker Lake, Nunavut Territory (Canada) coat of arms]

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

Baker Lake
Current Flag
- Design
- Symbolism
- Selection
- Designer

See also:

Baker Lake

Baker Lake is the 4th largest active settlement Nunavut Territory. The hamlet is located in mainland Canada. Baker Lake flag is a dark red, white, dark red vertical triband with hamlet logo centered. Special thanks to A. Steven Hannah, CED Director, Hamlet Office.
No hamlet website found
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Lake,_Nunavut
John S. Johnson, 29 November 2010

In 1762, Captain William Christopher of the Hudson’s Bay Company sailed up Chesterfield Inlet and named the lake for Sir William Baker, an HBC governor. With Nunavut’s territorial autonomy in 1999, Inuit-language place names have been given to municipalities and geographic sites. Some municipalities have officially changed to Inuktikut names, while for others they remain secondary appellations. Qamani’tuaq means “Where the river widens”, denoting where Chesterfield Inlet broadens out into a “lake”.
Mark S. Ritzenhein, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

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 Hamlet of Baker Lake (Qamani’tuaq) is a Canadian pale design of red-white-red with a circular device in the centre, three-fourths the height of the flag, in black and white. A rope-like ring encloses a central disc of white on which is a complex line drawing in black. Four geometrical objects project from the centre, their faces lined with horizontal hatching, each bearing an object in white silhouette. At the upper left a rectangle bears a human figure; at the upper right an irregular pentagon bears the head of a caribou; at the lower left a semicircle bears a fish; and at the lower right a triangle bears a hammer. Above and overlapping the upper two objects is a circle with twelve short rectangular rays emanating from it and an upraised arm and fist inside.
Mark S. Ritzenhein, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Symbolism

The central device is a circular version of the village’s ovoid logo. Its features are a potpourri of local importance, depicting “Man in his Relationship to his Environment” (as described by Mike Mullen, Baker Lake settlement secretary). The figure of a standing man, arms down at his sides, represents “Man”. The head of a male caribou with full antlers represents the large herd of Thelon caribou (Rangifer tarandus)—the main reason for existence of what most consider the only inland Inuit community. The fish represents the Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus), an important subsistence fish. The chisel-point rock hammer represents local mining, primarily for gold—which brought employment to many Inuit subsistence hunters, who thereby earned a new living in an industrialized society. The creatures that live upon the land stand symbolically above the fish in the water and the precious rocks underneath the soil. Above all is the shining, bold-rayed sun, enclosing a clenched fist representing the strength and autonomy of the Inuit. The outer circle also recalls the sun.
Mark S. Ritzenhein, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Selection

Unknown.
All such NWT/Nunavut civic flags were designed or 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. The ovoid civic logo of Baker Lake is likely derived from a Canadian Community Newspaper Association logo, awarded in 1983 to News North, the primary newspaper of the entire Canadian Arctic, and printed on its masthead for many years.
Mark S. Ritzenhein, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Designer

Unknown, but within the community. The lozenge-shaped civic logo was altered to fit the central square by Rob Butler, graphic artist at Inkit Graphics in Yellowknife, NWT.
Mark S. Ritzenhein, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011