Kangiqsujuaq, Quebec

Kangiqsujuaq (formerly Wakeham Bay) is an Inuit settlement in the region Nunavik, administrative region of Nord -du -Québec, with about 550 inhabitants. Kangiqsujuaq means " Great Bay "; the place is located about 10 kilometers south of Hudson Strait on the southeast shore of Wakeham Bay.

In the region of relics from the time of the Dorset culture were (from before about 1200 years ) and the Thule culture (of around 800 years ago ) have been found.

With the aim to establish a trade route through the Hudson Bay to Europe, which is part of the Canadian Hudson Bay Expedition steam ship " Neptune " reached 1884, the area of today's settlement, and immediately afterwards was at the nearby Stupart Bay ( called by the Inuit Aniuvarjuaq, " place where there is plenty of snow to the hot water" ) is a ice and weather observation station built. Soon after, there was a lively bartering between the Inuit and the working at the station Südkanadiern.

The original name Wakeham Bay was the bay by Captain William Wakeham, 1897 with an expedition came here to check the safety of navigation of the Hudson Strait. Out were the Provincial Government of the settlement in 1961, the former French name of Sainte -Anne -de- Maricourt until the collection of the settlement to the rank of a municipality the final name Kangiqsujuaq has been set.

From 1910 to 1936 here entertained the French trading company Révillon Frères trading post. Opened in 1914, the Hudson's Bay Company, a competing branch and installed in 1928, a fox farm, but she gave up twelve years later ( 1940) again. 1936 directed Oblate Fathers, a Roman Catholic mission station. As of 1955, the present settlement was established. 1960 took the first school on their operation. 1963 an Anglican mission station was built. End of the 1960s, the Inuit founded an association and opened in 1970 a " Co -op Store."

Of general economic interest, the rich mineral deposits in the region around Kangiqsujuaq. The search for deposits began - at first irregularly - in the 1950s. In the 1970s and 1980s, asbestos was mined in Purnituq. Currently, one in possession of the " Société minière Raglan du Québec " contained copper and nickel mine in operation; about 15 % of their workforce come from Nunavik communities. In addition, the resident Inuit yields in winter under skilful use of tidal mussel occurrence in Wakeham Bay from.

About 88 kilometers southwest of Kangiqsujuaq and close to the Raglan mine is through the impact of a meteorite before 1.4 million years ago caused the crater, called by the Inuit as Pingualuit. In 2004, the area was collected around the crater for the first Provincial Park of Nunavik and thus removed from the exploration for mineral resources.