In pictures: What does northern food mean to you?

Egg shells, fish scales, cranberry juice and plasticized biscuits are just some materials students at Yellowknife’s École Sir John Franklin High School used to create fascinating pieces of art.

The project, in collaboration with the NWT Agrifood Association, was a way for students to express what northern food meant to them in recognition of Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month.

On Wednesday, the artwork was put on display in the school lobby.

Grade 11 student Sagan Power-Theriault oil-painted hands holding berries over a canvas filled with receipts from different restaurants and grocery stories in the city.

“The idea behind it was to juxtapose buying food at the grocery store with picking your own food,” she told Cabin Radio. “The theme is northern food and what’s more northern than food that grows here?”

According to teacher and artist Robyn Scott, just under 50 students worked on the project for the past three weeks. The challenge was to incorporate at least one unconventional material in each piece.

Despite their limited technical knowledge of art, Scott said, she was “blown away” by the thought the students put into the designs.

She said many students are looking to pursue creative fields after high school and participating in the project became an opportunity for them to showcase their work.

“I think that bringing art and schoolwork into real-world contexts is really important,” she said.

“We had a culture fair at the school where students were learning how to carve and clean fish. We swooped out there and took all of their whitefish scales. We learnt how to wash, clean and preserve those, so we have a few projects here that are using fish scales.”

One project features a giant clementine covered in multiple “30 percent off” stickers. The sculpture used plastic bandages and egg shells to give the fruit a dried-up texture – a way to comment on how most imported food is often unfit for human consumption.

Artist and Grade 12 student Chelsey Bartlett, wrote in a description of the sculpture: “This piece represents the travel of an imported good to the North. Most produce can’t be grown in the North so we must import from other parts of the world.

“This piece also represents the way large corporations tend to exploit this for their own gain, neglecting many northern food needs.”

Nina Slagter created an acrylic painting based on a childhood photograph of herself. A fond memory for her was spending time with her family in the community garden.

“I chose this piece because it’s important to be self-sufficient with food in the North, just because of how much food insecurity there is up here,” she said. “An important part of NWT food is community and having access to your own food.”

Beatrice Henry used cranberry juice for the base of her painting. The art depicts a person picking cranberries against a backdrop of the sun, which represents energy.

“My grandmother grew up in the North and keeping on the tradition of cranberry-picking is really important to me,” she said.

Anna Curran said fish is one of the most important staples of northern cuisine. She embedded fish scales into her work to represent the patterns and movement of water.

“We’re so lucky to be surrounded by so many bodies of water. Fish is food for a lot of people who live here,” she said.