- Inukjuak, Quebec
Inukjuak is an
Inuit settlement located onHudson Bay at the mouth of theInnuksuak River in theNunavik region of northernQuebec , Canada. Its population is 1294 (2001 census of Canada). It is not accessible by road, but by boat in summer and year-round by air throughInukjuak Airport .Inukjuak means "The Giant" in the
Inuktitut language. Alternatively, the site has also been known as Port Harrison.History
The many archeological sites near Inukjuak indicate that the area has long been inhabited by Inuit.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the
Revillon Freres company set up afur trading post in Inukjuak. In order to compete with them theHudson's Bay Company (HBC) also established a post in 1920. In the same year Revillon Freres paid forRobert J. Flaherty to film "Nanook of the North " (released 1922) in the area.The HBC bought out Revillon Freres in 1936 and continued its trade monopoly here until 1958. In 1927 an Anglican mission was established, followed by a post office and RCMP detachment in 1935, a nursing station in 1947, and a school in 1951. From this time on the Inuit started to give up their traditional
nomad ic way of life and live permanently in the community. A cooperative store was formed in 1962. Inukjuak was legally established as a municipality in 1980.In 1953, the Canadian government forcibly relocated some of the area's inhabitants to Resolute and Grise Fiord — then in the
Northwest Territories , but now part ofNunavut — as part of a plan to establish a "Canadian" presence in the High Arctic and assert itssovereignty . This caused families to be split up and relocated persons faced hardships in the much more severe conditions of the far north. See alsohuman flagpoles .References
* [http://www.nvinukjuak.ca/ Official website]
* [http://www.nunavik-tourism.com/vilinukjuak.html Nunavik Tourism, Inukjuak website]Further reading
*Melanie McGrath, "The Long Exile: A Tale of Inuit Betrayal and Survival in the High Arctic". ISBN 0-00-715796-7 (London: Fourth Estate, 2006) and ISBN 1-4000-4047-7 (New York: Random House, 2007). The story of forced removal of Inuit peoples in Canada in 1953, including Robert Flaherty's illegitimate Inuit son Joseph.
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