By Elsa Cencig
Last winter, Avataq Cultural Institute re-launched Nunatop, a place name project that began in the 1980’s. In collaboration with Makivik Corporation, the team from the Institute travelled to 11 communities to work with Nunavimmiut and talk about traditional place names. The interviews were lead by Nicolas Pirti-Duplessis and Elsa Cencig, assisted by Gwilym Lucas Eades (Strata 360). Starting with topographic maps, Inuit talked about the land, place names and stories related. Another goal of the interviews were to confirm and collect the Nunavik island names, to help Makivik Corporation with the NILCA agreement. The Institute is aiming to publish topographic maps with place names in Inuktitut. Maps will be available for all Nunavimmiut by 2014.