The Vancouver Organizing Committee of the 2010 Games has signed a licensing agreement giving the Four Host First Nations and Nunavut Development Corporation rights to market merchandise with aboriginal themes under the Olympic brand.

The Four Host First Nations are British Columbia's Lil'wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh bands, who co-operated in the Olympic bid.

The licensing deal involves four kinds of products — aboriginal art, products featuring the logo of the Four Host First Nations, the integration of aboriginal graphics into Olympic merchandise, and a range of other items featuring aboriginal themes and icons.

One of the primary products will be the symbol of the 2010 Games, Ilanaaq — a colourful, stylized version of an inukshuk, an Inuit rock marker.

"We're getting a wonderful gift today. It's like Christmas in Nunavut," Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik said after the deal was announced Wednesday in Vancouver. Nunavut artists will supply carvings of inukshuks for marketing through the Games.

"Each will be a unique piece of Inuit art.  Today's agreement guarantees that inuit carvers will be paid a fair price," Okalik said.

Initial deal is for 3,000 inukshuks

About 600 carvers across the territory will supply the carvings, at prices ranging from $65 to $400 each, Okalik said.

The initial agreement is for 3,000 inukshuks, but Okalik said he believes orders will come for many more.

The deal presents aboriginal artists with a market keen for their work, and could help protect them from cheap knockoffs made overseas.

All the products will be identified as official Vancouver 2010 merchandise, said Vanoc CEO John Furlong.

"So, when a person decides to buy a beautiful piece of art like this which has been prepared by an artist in Nunavut, they will have a tag attached to it saying this is authentic," he said.

"It will tell them who the artist was, what the story of this piece of art is, and they'll take it home as a treasure of the Games. Every community in Nunavut, every single one, will have artists who are a part of this program, as will the Four Host First Nations and other aboriginal communities of British Columbia and other parts of Canada."

Vanoc will donate one-third of the royalties from the deal to a fund for cultural, educational and sporting opportunities for native youth.

Vanoc officials could provide no estimate of how much those royalties would be.

The 2010 Olympics are in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., from Feb. 12-28, 2010, followed by the Paralympic Winter Games from March 12-21.

"We hope the brand that we build that's attached to Vanoc and the Olympic Games itself will be a brand that lasts many years beyond the Olympic Games," said Tewanee Joseph, chief executive officer for the Four Host First Nations.