A puppet-naming contest in Nunatsiavut aims to inspire kids on Labrador's coast to speak Inuttitut.

Shirley Jararuse of the Nunatsiavut government's Department of Culture, Tourism and Recreation, said the contest was inspired by a CBC story online.

"The article was called 'Two Women Accidentally Start a Puppet Factory in Hay River, N.W.T.' — and as soon as I saw that article I knew it would be perfect for here in Nunatsiavut," Jararuse said.

Daycares in Nain, Hopedale, Rigolet, Postville and Makkovik — as well as two language nests in Nain and Hopedale — will receive two puppets each. A language nest is a language-revitalization method through immersion in early childhood education.

"They look like Inuit and their purpose is to speak in Inuttitut to the children, for the daycares and for the language nests in Nunatsiavut," she said.

"They're pretty big, actually. I think they're almost three feet. They look like Inuit people — they're dressed in Inuit clothing and they look like those puppets you see on APTN," she said.

The Department of Culture, Tourism and Recreation is working to make learning Inuttitut fun to keep the language — a dialect of Inuktitut — alive, she said.

They'll need a hand to get up and running…

"We're hoping to get them to speak only in Inuttitut to the children, and hopefully get the children to speak only in Inuttitut to [the puppets]."

Finding Inuttitut speakers to operate the puppets is next on the list to get the show up and running.

"We're hoping to put out an expression of interest to have somebody to do a little puppet show for National Indigenous People's Day," she said.

"We're going to call them the atâtsiak and anânsiak … which means 'grandma' and 'grandpa' puppet, so they're going to be acting like grandparents," she said.

The contest is to give them traditional Inuit names or traditional local names.

"It could be like Silpa for the grandmother or Paulus for the grandfather, like those kind of traditional local names," Jararuse said.

The contest will be open until Indigenous People's Day, June 21.

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