KANGIQSUALUJJUAQ also means “very large bay,” Some residents of this community are very tall; they have grown this way even though they are pure Inuit. The game —fish, caribou, seals — is abundant in the region, as are the birds during the spring migration. There are more than 500 Inuit in the community. I am not counting the Qallunaat in these figures because they just come to work in the Inuit villages and then go back home, very far away, when their work is finished. They benefit from job offers in the communities; for example, they come to build houses because Inuit don’t have the necessary training.
The Kangiqsualujjuamiut speak Inuktitut perfectly and will never forget their language as long as the current generations are alive.
The Inuit are happy to be able to eat in the traditional way. In the past, hunters from Kangiqsualujjuaq only used dogteams. Only recently did they opt for snowmobiles. Few Elders live here, unlike the rest of Nunavik and Nunatsiaq.
Kangiqsualujjuaq seems almost hidden, because the houses are built right at the foot of a mountain. When you arrive by air, you pass the village without even seeing it. Many individuals from the village have outfitting camps outside the village, where Whites go to fish and hunt caribou. Inuit serve as their guides in return for payment.
by Taamusi Qumaq (1992)
Kangiqsualujjuaq village
