The Isaruit Logo was first conceived as a composite digital drawing by Marie Lee Signorie Trempe, a talented young Inuit artist who grew up in the Ottawa area. While taking a parka-making course at Isaruit in February, 2020, Marie Lee learned to appreciate the meaning behind the name “Isaruit” (in English, wings) of the Inuit Women’s Sewing Group in Ottawa.
One thing she learned at the parka making course was how the wings of geese were used as saniutik or brooms to clean the floors of tents and iglus. Thinking about this, and the great significance of sewing and making things in the Inuit way as giving ‘lift’ to life, Marie Lee began to explore the shape of wings, and how they might be incorporated into a logo. She also noticed how an ulu knife has wing-like blades on either side, and that the handle, if held downward could look like geese feet. Isaruit’s founding Board members tasked Marie-Lee to finish her digital drawing, and unanimously approved its final version as the logo for the organization.
Professional artists working for Beat Studios refined Marie Lee’s original drawing and colour palette to give it the professional style it presently has. Note that the smaller, solid brown wing at the bottom can be seen to represent Inuit Elders who ground the knowledge of Isaruit artists. The red wing second from the bottom can be seen as representing the men whose arts of tool making etcetera help bring the women’s sewing arts into being, represented by the wing that is of a deeper plum colour; and the largest wing on top represents the children and the youth who will eventually take flight as a result of the arts of the adults supporting them.
