Repulse Bay, Nunavut
Encyclopedia
Repulse Bay is an Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...

 hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 located on the shore of Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay , sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area, about , that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota,...

, Kivalliq Region, in Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

Location and wildlife

The hamlet is located exactly on the Arctic Circle
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....

, on the north shore of Repulse Bay and on the south shore of the Rae Isthmus. Transport to the community is provided primarily by air and by an annual sealift
Sealift
Sealift is a term used predominantly in military logistics and refers to the use of cargo ships for the deployment of military assets, such as weaponry, vehicles, military personnel, and supplies...

. Naujaat is home to a wide variety of animals including polar bears, caribou, seals
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...

, whales, and walrus
Walrus
The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...

. There are also approximately one hundred species of birds in the area, including gyrfalcons and peregrine falcons.

History

Naujaat is translated into English variously as "seagull fledgling," "seagull resting place" or "seagulls' nesting place," named after a cliff five kilometres to the north, where seagulls, migrating from the south each June, make their nests. Naujaat was first visited by Europeans in the 1740s, and by the late 1800s it became a popular whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 ground for American and Scottish whalers
Whalers
Whalers may refer to:* Danbury Whalers,US ice-hockey team in the Federal Hockey League* Eden Whalers, Australian Rules Football team* Hartford Whalers, former US ice-hockey team* New Bedford Whalers, name of three US soccer teams...

. Many Naujaat Inuit residents worked on board these whaling vessels from the south. Although there are various theories as to the origin of the English name "Repulse Bay," many attribute the name to Christopher Middleton
Christopher Middleton (navigator)
Christopher Middleton was an English naval officer and navigator. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 7 April 1737....

, who when searching for the Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...

 in 1742 discovered that the bay was not a route out of Hudson Bay, but rather a cul-de-sac. He is claimed to have called it the “Bay of Repulse, the bay where I was pushed away”. Others believe that the name comes from an eighteenth-century English vessel named "Repulse"
HMS Repulse
Twelve ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Repulse.*Repulse was a 50-gun galleon also known as Due Repulse, launched in 1595 and in the records until 1645.*HMS Repulse was a 32-gun fifth-rate, originally the French ship Bellone...

which visited the area. The Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...

 opened a post in Repulse Bay about 1916 and in 1923 a rival fur trading company, Revillon Freres
Revillon Freres
Révillon Frères was a French fur and luxury goods company, founded in 1723.At the end of the 19th century, Revillon had stores in Paris, London, New York, and Montreal. -Fur trading operation:...

, opened a post. A Roman Catholic Mission
Mission (Christian)
Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...

 was built in 1932. Naujaat was formerly part of the District of Keewatin
District of Keewatin
The District of Keewatin was a territory of Canada and later an administrative district of the Northwest Territories.The name "Keewatin" comes from Algonquian roots—either kīwēhtin in Cree or giiwedin in Ojibwe—both of which mean north wind in their respective languages...

 and the Keewatin Region
Keewatin Region, Northwest Territories
The Keewatin Region was a region of the Northwest Territories, in use as an administrative and statistical division until the creation of Nunavut in 1999...

; in 1999 the area became part of the Kivalliq Region.

Naujaat (Repulse Bay) today

As of the 2006 census
Canada 2006 Census
The Canada 2006 Census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 16, 2006. The next census following will be the 2011 Census. Canada's total population enumerated by the 2006 census was 31,612,897...

, the population was 748, an increase of 22.2% from the 2001 census
Canada 2001 Census
The Canada 2001 Census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 15, 2001. On that day, Statistics Canada attempted to count every person in Canada. The total population count of Canada was 30,007,094. This was a 4% increase over 1996 Census of 28,846,761. In...

. The Naujaat community continues to rely on traditional sealing, fishing, hunting, trapping, and carving for their livelihood, together with tourism. Naujaat is known for its Inuit artists, especially carvers (typically creating small realist animal sculptures of ivory, soapstone, marble and antler), as well as jewellery and crafts. Its people are the 'Aivilingmiut
Aivilingmiut
The Aivilingmiut are an Inuit people who traditionally have resided north of Hudson Bay in Canada, near Naujaat , Chesterfield Inlet, Southampton Island, and Cape Fullerton. They are descendants of the Thule people and are considered a southern subgroup of the Iglulik Inuit...

'.

See also

  • Jack Anawak
    Jack Anawak
    Jack Iyerak Anawak is a Canadian politician. He represented the electoral district of Nunatsiaq in the Canadian House of Commons from 1988 to 1997. He sat in the house as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada...

  • Peter Irniq
    Peter Irniq
    Peter Taqtu Irniq is an Inuk politician in Canada, who served as the second Commissioner of Nunavut from April 2000 to April 2005.-Biography:...

  • Jose Kusugak
    Jose Kusugak
    Jose Kusugak was an Inuk politician from Repulse Bay, Nunavut, Canada. He moved, along with his family, to Rankin Inlet in 1960....

  • Michael Kusugak
    Michael Kusugak
    Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak And stays in Vancouver Island in the winter. He is a Canadian children's writer and storyteller, who writes about Arctic and Inuit culture...

  • Steve Mapsalak
    Steve Mapsalak
    Steve Mapsalak is a Canadian politician, who has served as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for the electoral district of Akulliq in the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut. He won the seat in the 2004 Nunavut election.According to preliminary results, he was narrowly defeated by John Ningark...

  • Repulse Bay Airport
    Repulse Bay Airport
    Repulse Bay Airport is located at Repulse Bay, Nunavut, Canada, and is operated by the government of Nunavut.-Airlines and destinations:...

  • Ukkusiksalik National Park
    Ukkusiksalik National Park
    Ukkusiksalik National Park is a national park in Nunavut, Canada.Ukkusiksalik National Park is a tundra and coastal mudflat region extending south of the Arctic Circle and the hamlet of Repulse Bay, from Hudson Bay's Roes Welcome Sound towards the western Barrenlands and the source of Brown River....



External links

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