Kuujjuarapik is the southernmost northern village at the mouth of the Great Whale River on the coast of Hudson Bay in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada. Almost 1000 people, mostly Cree, live in the adjacent village of Whapmagoostui. The community is only accessible by air, Kuujjuarapik Airport and, in late summer, by boat. The nearest Inuit village is Umiujaq, about 160 km (99 mi) north-northeast of Kuujjuarapik. The police services in Kuujjuaraapik are provided by the Nunavik Police Service, formerly the Kativik Regional Police Force.
Like most other northern villages in Quebec, there is an Inuit reserved land of the same name, Kuujjuarapik. However, unlike most other Inuit reserved lands, the Inuit reserved land of Kuujjuarapik is not adjacent to its eponymous northern village; rather, it is located considerably farther north and in fact borders on the Inuit reserved land of Umiujaq.
Partial view of the village, as seen from the hills to the east
Inuit are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of North America, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon (traditionally), Alaska, and Chukotsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. Inuit languages are part of the Eskimo–Aleut languages, also known as Inuit-Yupik-Unangan, and also as Eskaleut. Inuit Sign Language is a critically endangered language isolate used in Nunavut.
Iglulingmiut Inuit women and child in traditional parkas (1999)
A European ship coming into contact with Inuit in the ice of Hudson Bay in 1697
An anonymous 1578 illustration believed to show Kalicho (left), and Arnaq and Nutaaq (right)
Hudson's Bay Company Ships bartering with Inuit off the Upper Savage Islands, Hudson Strait, 1819