Kangiqsujuaq () is a northern village (

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 ...

community) in

Nunavik Nunavik (; ; ) is an area in Canada which comprises the northern third of the province of Quebec, part of the Nord-du-Québec region and nearly coterminous with Kativik. Covering a land area of north of the 55th parallel, it is the homelan ...

Nord-du-Québec Nord-du-Québec (; ) is the largest, but the least populous, of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada. Spread over nearly 14 degrees of latitude, north of the 49th parallel, the region covers on the Labrador Peninsula, making ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. It had a population of 837 in the

Canada 2021 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 ...

. The community has also been known as Wakeham Bay. The name "Kangiqsujuaq" means "the large

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

" in

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 ...

. It is located on the

Ungava Peninsula The Ungava Peninsula (), officially (), is the far northwestern part of the Labrador Peninsula of the province of Quebec, Canada. Bounded by Hudson Bay to the west, Hudson Strait to the north, and Ungava Bay to the east, it covers about . Its ...

, on the Cap du Prince-de-Galles on 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 ...

. It is served by the small

Kangiqsujuaq Airport Kangiqsujuaq (Wakeham Bay) Airport is located southeast of Kangiqsujuaq, Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders w ...

. During winter, when the tides are extremely low, local Inuit sometimes climb beneath the shifting sea ice to gather

blue mussel The blue mussel (''Mytilus edulis''), also known as the common mussel, is a medium-sized edible marine bivalve mollusc in the family Mytilidae, the only extant family in the order Mytilida, known as "true mussels". Blue mussels are subject to ...

s. They break holes in the ice and then can walk for a short time on the exposed sea bed and collect this food. This risky way of gathering the mussels goes back for generations. As the other villages of the Kativik region, the

Kativik Regional Police Force The Nunavik Police Service (NPS; , ) delivers regular policing services in the 14 remote northern villages of the Kativik Region. The headquarters of the NPS are in Kuujjuaq, and detachments operate in each community. The service was formerly cal ...

provides police services in Kangiqsujuaq. Kangiqsujuaq is the closest community to the

Qajartalik Qajartalik (Inuktitut for "where there is a kayak") is a petroglyph site located on the Qajartalik peninsula of Qikertaaluk Island, Nunavut, approximately 40 km southeast of Kangiqsujuaq, Quebec. The site consists of over 150 carvings of fa ...

archaeological site, a site featuring

petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

created by the

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 ...

. In 2017, it was announced that the Qajartalik would be added to Canada's tentative list for nomination to the

UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

list.

History

The first semi-permanent post in the area by Europeans was in 1910, when the French company

Révillon Frères Révillon () is a former commune in the department of Aisne in northern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune Les Septvallons.Hudson Bay Company replicated it 4 years later in 1914. The area, rich in, copper and nickel started to be mined in the 1950s. The very first church in the area was established in 1963 and it was an Anglican church. Revillon Freres Kangiqsujuaq 1909

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the 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%, which is sli ...

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 ...

, Kangiqsujuaq had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Education

The

Kativik School Board The Kativik School Board (KSB; , Kativik Ilisarniliriniq) is a school district with territory in Nunavik in northern Quebec; it has an office in the Saint-Laurent area of Montreal and one in Kuujjuaq. While most Quebec school boards are categor ...

operates the Arsaniq School.

In the media

* KANGIQSUJUAQ (1961 et 1966) - A 41 minutes film, directed by B. Saladin d’Anglure about the village in the 1960s.

References

External links

Official Site (English version)

the Weather Permits'', a documentary about life in Kangiqsujuaq.
Inuit communities in Quebec Road-inaccessible communities of Quebec {{Quebec-geo-stub