Puvirnituq, Quebec

Puvirnituq, with about 1,200 inhabitants, is the third largest Inuit settlement in the region of Nunavik, administrative region of Nord- du- Québec. The Inuktitut name " Puvirnituq " means "place with smell of rotten meat " (for which there are different, partly legendary justifications ); the former, influenced by the English spelling of the name was Povungnituk settlement (or " Pov "). The village lies on the east coast of Hudson Bay on the west side of Ungava Peninsula, about 4 kilometers from the Puvirnituq Bay on a major river of the same name ( Rivière de Puvirnituq ).

1921 established the Hudson 's Bay Company ( HBC) trading post. At that time, the Inuit still lived in camps located far away and had to take a long walk on if they wanted to trade their furs for goods from the South. Thirty years later, in 1951, joined the HBC on their Qikiqtarjuaq (literally " Big Island", Cape Smith near Akulivik ) and located at Kangirsuruaq trading post and summed with the construction of a larger warehouse to all activities in Puvirnituq together. As a result, the living in remote Inuit camps had no other choice than to move to the center of the settlement Puvirnituq. 1956 a Roman Catholic mission station was built in Puvirnituq. Two years later, suggested the Oblate Father André Steinman, the Inuit should form a club of stone sculptures - Carver ( Carver ' Association of Povungnituk ); it soon created a cooperative that still exemplary today, " Co-operative Association of Puvirnituq ".

Together with the residents of Ivujivik and 49 % of the population of Salluit refused the Inuit of Puvirnituq, 1975, to sign the agreement of the Baie- James and the Quebec North, with which the other Inuit of Nunavik certain land claims and rights acquired in return for the provincial government helped to carry out the ambitious James Bay hydroelectric project. They formed instead a separate community of interest ( " Inuit Tungavinga Nunamini ").

Nowadays Puvirnituq forms the center with all necessary facilities such as schools, churches and health center for the people living on the Hudson Bay Coast Inuit, and its airport is the starting point for flights to smaller and remote communities. An important economic role for Puvirnituq still the Inuit art.

Sons and daughters

Commonly known were, inter alia, the artists Aisa Qupirualu Alasua (* 1916), Davidialuk Alasua Amittu ( 1910-1976 ), Mattiusie Iyaituk (* 1950), Nutaraaluk Vilia Iyaituk (* 1943), Johnny Angutigulu Novalinga " Pov " ( 1908-1978 ) Josie Pamiutu Papialuk, " Puppy " (1918-1996), Levi Qumaluk (1919-1997), Joe Talirunili ( 1899-1976 ).