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| Kuujjuaraapik on a partly foggy day |
The nearest hospital to Kuujjuaraapik was Fort George where I was born.
The community of Fort George no longer exists itself but is now called Chisasibi, a Cree village located on the James Bay.
When the dam projects were in effect, the water level rose and the community had to evacuate and relocate to Chisasibi.
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| At the Kuujjuaraapik rapids |
Kuujjuaraapk is an Inuit and a Cree community of about 1400 people located
on the Hudson Bay. It is the first accessible Inuit community in the North and can only be reached by plane. It is distinct
in that it has four names in four languages. Whapmagoostui, which means ‘where there are whales’, is the Cree
name, Great Whale River in English, Poste de la Baleine in French and of course Kuujjuaraapik which means little-big river
in Inuktitut.
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| Isabelle and I at second point (view of Hudson Bay) |
It is also rare in the fact that there are two different cultures living
and cohabitating in the same community with completely separate and different governments operating within. When our people
were nomadic, moving from place to place following the caribou and travelling with the season, Kuujjuaraapik was an excellent
spot to situate as it was plentiful with beluga whales. There ‘the people’ could fill and build their reserves
up on muqtuq (whale blubber) and prepare for the cold winters.
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| Looking for beluga |
In the 1940’s the Americans set up a military base there as post
for radar surveilance and watch. The army is no longer there, only remnants of buildings, equipment, oil barrels etc.
Kuujjuaraapik is one of the largest communities in Nunavik and is one of
the more beautiful ones as it has white sandy beaches, large sand dunes, large islands and incredible atsanik (northern lights).
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