Quaqtaq ( iu, ᖁᐊᕐᑕᖅ) is a northern village (

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, ...

community) in

Nunavik Nunavik (; ; iu, ᓄᓇᕕᒃ) 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 homeland of the I ...

, northern

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

, Canada. Its population was 453 in the

Canada 2021 Census 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 ...

. The village is one of the northernmost inhabited places in Quebec, located on the eastern shore of Diana Bay (Tuvaaluk in the

Inuktitut Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...

language), on a peninsula which protrudes into the

Hudson Strait Hudson Strait (french: Détroit d'Hudson) links the Atlantic Ocean and 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 an ...

where it meets Ungava Bay. The name Quaqtaq signifies

tapeworm Eucestoda, commonly referred to as tapeworms, is the larger of the two subclasses of flatworms in the class Cestoda (the other subclass is Cestodaria). Larvae have six posterior hooks on the scolex (head), in contrast to the ten-hooked Cestod ...

. According to local

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, r ...

, this name derives from a man who once came to the area to hunt beluga and found live parasites in his feces. His hunting companions began to call the place Quaqtaq. Inaccessible by road, Quaqtaq is served by the small

Quaqtaq Airport Quaqtaq Airport is located near Quaqtaq, Quebec, Canada. Due to the landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest a ...

History

Archaeological evidence indicates that people have occupied the area around Quaqtaq for about 3500 years.

Thule people The Thule (, , ) or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by the year 1000 and expanded eastward across northern Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people o ...

, the ancestors of today's Inuit, arrived around 1400 or 1500 AD. In 1947, a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

mission opened in Quaqtaq. The present-day settlement was established after a trading post first established in 1927 at Iggiajaaq, a few kilometres south-west, was finally closed in 1950. After a measles

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious d ...

killed 11 adults in 1952, the Canadian government began delivering basic services to the community. A nursing station was built in 1963. In the 1960s, the Quebec government opened a store and a post office equipped with a radio-telephone. In 1974, the store became a co-operative and, in 1978, Quaqtaq was legally established as a Northern village. Since 1996, policing is provided by the Kativik Regional Police Force.

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, Quaqtaq 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. Population trend: * Population in 2021: 453 (2016 to 2021 population change: 12.4%) * Population in 2016: 403 * Population in 2011: 376 * Population in 2006: 315 * Population in 2001: 305 * Population in 1996: 257 * Population in 1981: 150 Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 144 (total dwellings: 173)

Education

The

Kativik School Board The Kativik School Board (KSB; french: Commission scolaire Kativik, iu, ᑲᑎᕕᒃ ᐃᓕᓴᕐᓂᓕᕆᓂᖅ Kativik Ilisarniliriniq) is a school district with territory in Nunavik in northern Quebec; it has an office in the Saint-Laurent are ...

operates the Isummasaqvik School.Our Schools
"

. Retrieved on September 23, 2017.

People

Notable people from the community include musicians

Beatrice Deer Beatrice Deer (born 1985) is a Canadian Inuk- Mohawk singer and actress from Quaqtaq, Nunavik, Quebec. She released her debut album, ''Just Bea'', in 2005, and won a Canadian Aboriginal Music Award for Best Inuit/Cultural Album. In 2010, she releas ...

and Jaaji Uppik.

References

External links

Website of the village of Quaqtaq
{{Authority control Inuit communities in Quebec Road-inaccessible communities of Quebec