Former Inuvialuit community member honoured with carving

An Inuvialuit community member is being honoured with a new carving unveiled in Inuvik earlier this month — seven years after his death.

Roy Ipana was known to many as the longtime host of Inuvik's Muskrat Jamboree, as well as a hunter, trapper, and tireless advocate for arctic sport and community recreation in the Beaufort Delta region.   

Roy died in 2009 from complications due to diabetes. Shortly after the Inuvik hockey arena in the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex was re-named the Roy Sugloo Ipana Arena.

Capturing his personality

"I think it really captures his personality," said Inuvik's Vince Sharpe.

Sharpe commissioned Tuktoyaktuk carver Eli Nasogaluak to create the carving of Roy and his mother, which was unveiled at this year's Muskrat Jamboree.

"The expression on Roy's face was taken from a YouTube video after he had just won at tug of war," said Sharpe.

The carving, which is made out of Italian marble, will sit permanently in the foyer of the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex, outside the rink that bears his name.

Moved to tears

The sculpture came as a surprise to all of Roy's family members — who were moved to tears.

Ipana's wife, Sandra, said the monument was "very beautiful and very unexpected."

"I could hear [his children] crying, and of course me I'm swallowing and swallowing," Sandra Ipana said of the unveiling.

"Sometimes I think only I still miss him.  But when I heard all those people go up there and say all those nice things about him, I thought oh, it's not only me"  

Ipana said it's particularly significant that Roy's mother is included in the carving.

"His mom was the person behind the the way he turned out... [She] was the person who brought him to where he was, and he's very lucky to be remembered in this way," Ipana said. 

"To put a monument there to remind us of what he's done and where he's brought us, and of all the things that he really, really pushed for."