Arctic Bay, Baffin Island - North Canada

Arctic Bay

Longitude: -85.15° Latitude: 73.03°

Arctic Bay (pop. 700) is an Inuit hamlet located on the northern shore of Adams Sound, on northern Baffin Island, in the region of Nunavut, Canada.

The Arctic Bay area has been occupied for nearly 5000 years by Inuit nomads migrating from the west. In 1872, a European whaling ship, the Arctic passed through and gave the area its English name. The Inuit name for Arctic Bay is "Ikpiarjuk" which means "the pocket" in English. This name describes the high hills (1300 m) that surround the almost landlocked bay.

The community is serviced by a school, Inuujaq School, that has an enrollment around 200 students. There is also an Arctic College host.

The All Saints Anglican church (1965)

Arctic Bayis home to some 700 people. Most of them are Inuit, half of them are children. The town was built in the 1960s, around an existing Hudson 's Bay Company store.

Besides fishing and hunting, there are some other activities, like carvers, selling fabrics and home made clothing. Skins are a decreasing business, but still the basic resource for clothing and boots.

Marble carvings, ivory sculptures and other arts and crafts are an increasingly popular among talented local artists.

Hunter in Qayaq - Caribou antler, Seal Skin & wood, by Jutanee Attagutaluk of Arctic Bay.

Baffin Island is quite large, the 5th largest island in the world, with magnificent landscapes, a National Park and several inuit settlements - a true New World to discover !

The coastlines are characterized by a multitude of long narrow fiords, inlets and bays:

http://www.qtcommission.com/actions/GetPage.php?pageId=17&communityId=11