You may have noticed that our web site and letterhead display "a little stone man", and as you enter the campus of Trent University, a similar stone figure, an INUKSHUK (pronounced IN-OOK-SHOOK) greets you.

Inukshuk is an Inuit word meaning "in the image of man". These life-like figures made of rocks erected by the Inuit stand along Canada's most Northern shores. Inuksuit had several purposes, to serve as directional markers on the treeless horizons for those who follow, or to mark a place of importance.

Earlier in Biblical times figure-like "stone cairns" were used to mark routes through the Sinai wilderness. Without markers like these, a traveller might soon lose his way in the trackless desert or Northern barrens.

When you see an Inukshuk in the future, you will know they stand as symbols of the importance of friendship and remind us all of our dependence on one another.