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Nunavik Tourism

Nunavik, formally known as Nouveau Quebec or Ungava, encompasses 660,000 square kilometers of territory north of Quebec's 55th parallel. This region, bordered on the east by Hudson's Bay, the north of Hudson's straight and the northeast by Ungava Bay and the upper Labrador peninsula, is home to approximately 10,000 descendants of some of the very first inhabitants of North America.

The predecessors to the Inuit first arrived some four thousand years ago, migrating eastward from Siberia over a period of approximately four hundred years. The earliest arrivals to Nunavik occupied the east coast of Hudson's Bay near Kuujjuaraapik. Subsequent groups eventually inhabited much of the coastal regions of Nunavik and Labrador.

Although Inuit have experienced intermittent contact with other peoples for approximately 300 years, it was only very recently, in the 1950's, when schools and other government infrastructures were first brought north, that permanent communities were formed in Nunavik. Prior to this time, whalers, missionaries and fur traders played a role in influencing the lifestyle of Inuit – an interdependent relationship with these first newcomers was formed that continues to have an impact on the lives of the people today: with the establishment of church missions and company trading posts, Inuit were encouraged to become more sedentary.

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