Nunavut Guide

Home to only around 26,500 people, the new Nunavut territory covers a fifth of Canada's land surface, or 2.1 million square kilometres, an area five times the size of California, stretching west from Hudson Bay then north through the great Barrenlands of the interior to the Arctic islands in the north. This is the land of vast caribou migrations, musk oxen, polar bears and endless empty kilometres of fish-filled lakes and rivers. Most of the region's communities are formed of indigenous Inuit people and lie on the arc of Hudson Bay's western coast, from Arviat in the south through Whale Cove (Tikirarjuaq - long point), Rankin Inlet (Kangiqtinq - deep bay) - the area's main transport and administrative centre - to Chesterfield Inlet (Igluligaarjuk - place with a few igloos) and Coral Harbour (Salliq - large flat island) in the north. In all of these you will find an almost unchanged way of life - the local arts and handicrafts are outstanding, and in places you can hear the old drummers and throat singers traditionally responsible for handing down the stories and myths of the Inuit. The entire region has just 21km of highway, with the capital at Iqaluit on Baffin Island serving as home to nearly one-fifth of the province's population.

Long an amorphous political entity administered not as a semi-autonomous province but by the federal government, the Northwest Territories was formally superseded on April 1, 1999 by a land treaty which divided the old territories in two and created a new central and eastern Arctic territory called Nunavut (meaning Our Land in the Inuit language). A preliminary division took place as far back as January 1, 1996, and Nunavut is now firmly established as a political and physical entity, with the new region putting out its own heavyweight brochure, the Arctic Traveller Nunavut Vacation Planner , full of all the information you are likely to need for casual visits or fully fledged expeditions with tour operators and outfitters (all of whom are listed). The new land deal - the largest in Canadian history - gave their homeland (valued at $1.15-billion) back to the Inuit, who in return renounced their claim to the remainder of the NWT. The deal followed fifteen years of low-profile but effective negotiating and campaigning.

Exploring this region is hugely rewarding - but far from easy. The landscapes are sublime - huge expanses of flower-filled tundra, ice fields, open sea, frozen sea, deep valleys and beautiful vast horizons - but often inhospitable. Access is invariably by plane and therefore expensive, and often the best way to see the region - whatever your chosen interest or activity - is with a tour company, of which there are many. Besides breathtaking landscapes, there's also wildlife, fishing, whale-watching and a plethora of often exotic or high-adventure outdoor activities, not to mention a wide spectrum of cultural interests - anything from Inuit printmakers and carvers to traditional drummers and throat singers.

The region's two major centres are covered in this section, but it's as well to know rough flight details and where accommodation is available in the smaller communities. Note that hotel prices in the north are invariably per person, not per room, so double all rates if you are two people sharing a double room. Rates sometimes include meals, so are not as steep as they first appear. Coral Harbour (pop. 759), the only settlement on Southampton Island is one of the best places to see walrus (on nearby Goats Island), as well as the beautiful Kirchoffer Falls and Thule archeological sites at Native Point.

Some 260km west of Rankin Inlet at the mouth of the Thelon River lies Qamanit'uaq (formerly Baker Lake), population 1453, the Arctic's only inland Inuit community ( Qamanit'uaq means far inland or huge widening of a river), which marks both Canada's geographic centre - it has long been a meeting place for members of different Inuit groups - and provides a point of access into the tundra that characterizes the vastness of the region. This is a subtle landscape that's worth more than its Barrenland label suggests, particularly in summer, when the thaw brings to life thousands of tiny streams and lakes, and some three hundred species of wild flowers amidst the lichens and grasses that provide fodder for huge herds of musk ox and caribou. Millions of wildfowl can also be seen, and the huge skies and flat horizons are also one of the best places in Canada to see the aurora borealis. Also be sure to take in the Traditional Inuit Camp, a demonstration by Inuit families of the activities, such as hunting, trapping and weaving, that might have taken place in a Caribou Inuit camp.

Although you'll find an old way of life and sublime Arctic scenery in the region, don't expect much in the way of prettiness in the villages: communities are often poor, roads pitted, houses strung out and battered, and the streets festooned with telephone and electric cables. The region currently has just one paved road - from the airport at Kangiqtinq (pop.2189) to the settlement's downtown. And remember that villages often aren't communities at all in the accepted sense: Rankin Inlet, for example, was only founded in 1955 when the North Rankin Nickel Mine opened. Three years later the government, shocked at conditions of local Inuit, moved people here from their nomadic homes in the wilderness: the resulting settlement, Itivia (now all but vanished), a kilometre from Rankin, was a disaster, that was made worse by the closure of the nickel mine in 1962. Only a craft-producing initiative and recent tourism saved the day. Things to see and do include trails, fishing and bird-watching in the Ijiraliq (Meliadine) river valley 5km from the settlement, and a Thule site with stone tent rings, meat caches, kayak racks and underground winter houses.