Kinngait (

Inuktitut Inuktitut ( ; , Inuktitut syllabics, syllabics ), also known as Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the North American tree line, including parts of the provinces of ...

meaning 'high mountain' or 'where the hills are'; Syllabics: ᑭᙵᐃᑦ), known as Cape Dorset until 27 February 2020, is an

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

hamlet located on Dorset Island near

Foxe Peninsula Foxe Peninsula is a peninsula found at the southern end of Baffin Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It juts out from the southern end of the island in a southwestern direction, dividing Foxe Basin and Hudson Strait. Its wester ...

at the southern tip of

Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada, the second-largest island in the Americas (behind Greenland), and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is (slightly smal ...

in the

Qikiqtaaluk Region The Qikiqtaaluk Region, Qikiqtani Region (Inuktitut syllabics: ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ ) or the Baffin Region is the easternmost, northernmost, and southernmost administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. Qikiqtaaluk is the traditional Inuktitut nam ...

Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

, Canada.

History

Kinngait, previously Cape Dorset and Sikusiilaq before that is where the remains of the

Thule Thule ( ; also spelled as ''Thylē'') is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. First written of by the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, France) in about 320 BC, i ...

(Early Inuit) and pre-Inuit

Dorset people The Dorset was a Paleo-Eskimo culture, lasting from to between and , that followed the Pre-Dorset and preceded the Thule people (proto-Inuit) in the North American Arctic. The culture and people are named after Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) ...

(Tuniit) were discovered, who lived between 1000 BCE and 1100 CE. The European name of Cape Dorset was given by Captain Luke Foxe after

Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset Order of the Garter, KG (159117 July 1652) was an English courtier, soldier and politician. He sat in the House of Commons of England, House of Commons from 1621 to 1622 and became Earl of Dorset in 1624. He ...

, on 24 September 1631. The Inuit originally called the inlet ''Sikusiilaq'', after the area of sea ocean nearby that remains ice-free all winter.

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

set up a trading post here in 1913, where they traded furs and skins for supplies such as tobacco, ammunition, flour, gas, tea and sugar. In December 2019, the residents of Cape Dorset voted in favour of a request to officially rename the hamlet to its Inuktitut name of Kinngait. Voters chose between Kinngait, Sikusiilaq, and the English name of Cape Dorset.

Art

Since the 1950s, Kinngait, which calls itself the "Capital of Inuit Art", has been a centre for drawing,

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

, and

carving Carving is the act of using tools to shape something from a material by scraping away portions of that material. The technique can be applied to any material that is solid enough to hold a form even when pieces have been removed from it, and y ...

. In the 21st century, printmaking and carving continue to be the community's main economic activities. Each year, Kinngait Studios issues an annual print collection. Kinngait has been hailed as the most artistic community in Canada, with some 22% of the labour force employed in the arts. In 1957, James Archibald Houston created a graphic arts workshop in Kinngait, in a program sponsored by the

Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military * Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

. It was considered a way for the community to generate income by adapting traditional art forms to contemporary techniques.Hessel, Ingo. ''Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum.'' Phoenix:

Heard Museum The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...

, 2006. . Houston collected drawings from community artists and encouraged local Inuit stone carvers to apply their skills to stone-block printing, in order to create art that might be more widely sold and distributed. The print program was modelled after Japanese

ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock printing, woodblock prints and Nikuhitsu-ga, paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes ...

workshops. Other cooperative print shops were established in nearby communities, but the Kinngait workshop has remained the most successful. The artists have experimented with

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

, and

silkscreen Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen in a "flood stroke" ...

. Known as the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative, or the Kinngait Co-operative, they produce annual catalogues advertising the limited edition prints. Between the years of 1959 and 1974, Kinngait artists produced more than 48,000 prints. Well-known artists of Kinngait include Pitseolak Ashoona, Nuna Parr, Pudlo Pudlat, Angotigolu Teevee, Alashua Aningmiuq, Kiugak Ashoona, Ulayu Pingwartok, Oopik Pitsuilak, Innukjuakju Pudlat, Mary Qayuaryuk, Anirnik Oshuitoq, and Kenojuak Ashevak. Parr's carvings are internationally recognized and his work is exhibited in the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

. Ashevak's drawings of owls have been chosen to appear on Canadian stamps as well as a Canadian quarter. Inuk carver, artist, photographer and author Peter Pitseolak spent several years living in Kinngait. The local junior-senior high school was named for him. Below is a list of some of the artists from Kinngait, according to the Inuit Art Foundation.

Demographics

In the

2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, whic ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Kinngait had a population of 1,396 living in 362 of its 416 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 1,441. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Transportation

A handful of unnamed dirt/gravel roads (unpaved because of winter conditions) cross the village but do not connect beyond Kinngait. Cars and trucks are the main means of transportation and supplemented by snowmobiles and ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) during the winter. The people use boats and ships for seasonal travel to and from Kinngait when the

Hudson Strait Hudson Strait () in Nunavut links the Atlantic Ocean and the Labrador Sea to Hudson Bay in Canada. This strait lies between Baffin Island and Nunavik, with its eastern entrance marked by Cape Chidley in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nunavut ...

is ice-free. The area is serviced by the Kinngait Airport with connections only within Nunavut. Travel outside Nunavut can be made via connections through Iqaluit Airport.

Education

The only secondary school in town, Peter Pitseolak School (PPS), was destroyed by fire set by three youths in September 2015."RCMP lay charges in fire that destroyed school in Nunavut"
''City News'', 8 September 2015 In summer 2019, the school opened a printmaking studio workshop space for children, through the Embassy of Imagination program. Sam Pudlat School is the community's only elementary school; it has enrolment of 227 students. Attendance is good at the elementary school but quite poor at the high school. Post-secondary education is available in a limited number of areas in Kinngait at the Community Learning Centre. Nunavut Arctic College, based in

Iqaluit Iqaluit is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is the territory's largest community and its only city, and the northernmost city in Canada. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on ...

, periodically offers community-based programs in Kinngait at the Community Learning Centre.

Community services

The

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

has a detachment staffed by six officers and sometimes number as many as 10 officers with one sergeant and one corporal. The Fire Department is staffed by 25 volunteers and a pumper at a single fire hall. There is a lack of fire hydrants in the town, so each run has to be filled up at the water station. Medical facilities are basic at the Cape Dorset Health Centre. Advanced medical care requires an airlift to the 35-bed Qikiqtani General Hospital in

. There is no ambulance in the town. Qualified doctors visit only occasionally. There is a taxi service but it is not consistently reliable.

Broadband communications

The community has been served by the Qiniq network since 2005. The Qiniq network is designed and operated by SSi Canada. In 2017, the network was upgraded to 4G LTE technology, and 2G-GSM for mobile voice.

Housing

Like the rest of Nunavut, houses are overcrowded, with a 2006 report saying that up to 12 people were living in a two-bedroom unit. Tuberculosis is active in the town. This is made more acutely dangerous as the overcrowding continues. However, the Nunavut Housing Corporation plans to build 5 new housing units in the town by late 2022 or early 2023.

Food insecurity

The cost of basic food staples like milk, cheese, flour, and butter is 65-75% higher than in Ottawa or Montreal, which has led to high rates of food insecurity in Kinngait, as well as in the rest of Nunavut.

Tourism

Spanning both Dorset Island and Mallik Island, Mallikjuaq Territorial Park is notable for archaeological sites revealing Thule culture,

Dorset culture The Dorset was a Paleo-Eskimo culture, lasting from to between and , that followed the Pre-Dorset and preceded the Thule people (proto-Inuit) in the North American Arctic. The culture and people are named after Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) in ...

, and

history. The park is reachable by foot from Kinngait at low tide, or by boat. A cairn was raised in memory of the ship, RMS ''Nascopie'', a supply ship to the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

, that hit a rock and sank in 1947. Although the cargo was lost, the passengers and crew were saved. In September 2018, the Kenojuak Cultural Centre and Print Shop opened. The centre is named after local artist and Inuit art pioneer Kenojuak Ashevak who died in 2013. The centre serves a community facility, art studio and exhibition space for local artists. There are outfitters that provide numerous

dog sled A dog sled or dog sleigh is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow, a practice known as mushing. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for Sled dog racing, dog sl ...

ding, camping, and hiking to parks tours.

Gallery

File:Cape_Dorset_Summertime_2002-08-04.jpg File:Cape_Dorset_WBEC_2002-08-04.jpg File:Cape_dorset_sept2010.jpg File:Cape_dorset_shore_sept2010.jpg File:Cape Dorset.jpg

Climate

Kinngait has a

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. It is classified as ET according to the Köppen climate classification. It is a climate which at least one month has an average temperature high enough ...

( ET) with short but cool summers and long cold winters.

References

External links

Cape Dorset homepage
from the Library and Archives of Canada
Archives: Finding Aids: Kinngait
from the Inuit Art Foundation
"A Family of Artists Creates a Portrait of Inuk Life Across Three Generations"
from Hyperallergic {{Authority control Landforms of Baffin Island Hudson's Bay Company trading posts in Nunavut Hamlets in the Qikiqtaaluk Region Road-inaccessible communities of Nunavut Populated places in Baffin Island

History

Art

Demographics

Transportation

Education

Community services

Broadband communications

Housing

Food insecurity

Tourism

Gallery

Climate

See also

References

Further reading

External links