Wow, I can’t believe it’s already June 3oth! Where has this month gone?! Time really does fly by when you’re having fun, and there were lots of games and activities happening here at the MIA.
To celebrate National Aboriginal History Month and National Aboriginal Day, we gave out freebies like puzzles, temporary tattoos, “crunchers” (or “cootie catchers”), colouring pages, and build-an-inuksuk crafts. They were supposed to be for visitors, but once our staff unpacked them we just had to test them ourselves. You know, just to make sure they all worked properly…
Our celebrations also went digital. All month we had been posting Tweets and Facebook updates where one word or phrase was selected in the various dialects of Inuit language. Some of these words related to family members like ᐊᑖᑕ or ataata for “father” and Arctic animals like ᓇᓄᖅ or nanuq for “polar bear” but we also posted some less obvious words like “coffee” and “cabin” to poke fun at some of my intern-antics.
We also created some challenges on SCVNGR for visitors to play and earn points. After completing a few activities and answering some trivia questions, museum visitors can redeem points for a free membership!
And as of a few moments ago, MIA launched our official Instagram account! Now visitors can connect with us through the photos they’ve taken themselves. We’re really curious to see some of the great artsy shots people take our of collection. Find us on there – our username is “miamuseum.”
Sneaky side note: These two new smart phone additions may or may not be good practice for another awesome tech addition MIA will be rolling out next month. But more on that later…
Now that National Aboriginal History Month is drawing to a close, and people are gearing up for the Canada Day long weekend, everyone at MIA wanted to say a giant ᓇᑯᕐᒦᒻᒪᕆᐊᓗᒃ (nakurmiimmarialuk /thank you very much) for celebrating with us. We hope you had a great month, and we’ll see you again in a year!
– Posted by: Brittany Holliss, MIA’s Educational Assistant
Museum of Inuit Art Blog 