#kativik

Camping in the far north.

Kativik, Quebec

Mehmet Yayla, November 2019

Travelling to Nunavik, just like travelling to Nunavut, is not easy for us mortals... Unless you are among the lucky 0.1 % of the population that can afford a 3000+ $ round-trip personally without ruining your annual budget. Locals can have an important discount (but it is still expensive) for a limited number of travels by air transport. Otherwise, like in my case, the travel can be paid by the organization you work for. In any case, travelling to the “Grand Nord” is almost a privilege.

There is no land road (neither highway nor railroad) to any one of the Inuit towns, and the sea transport is practically restricted to products and to some 4-5 months in the year. There is no sea transport when the Hudson Bay freezes (Mid-November to mid-June). So the airway is the only option.

My first travel to Nunavik region was at the beginning of November and with Air Inuit. I enjoyed seeing the company name logotyped in Inuktitut syllabics on the plane.

Even though I will give a picture of the Inuktitut alphabet (or rather, syllabic) on a different post, let me say that the first symbol stands for “i”, and the following ones are “nu”; “i” again and the syllable “ta” as a superscript adds the consonant “t” at the end: “Inuit”

The plane stops at almost all of the villages on its way. So, a flight to Salluit for example, the northernmost Nunavik village, should be done in at least 6 steps and takes more than 7-8 hours. Also the engine needs to take fuel several times during its journey.

My flight had two stops, first in Kuujjuarapik ( “Little great river” in Inuttitut), the southernmost Nunavik town and the only one located south of the tree line. There are around 1200 inhabitants nowadays. The ancestors of the Inuit, as well as Cree, have occupied the area for roughly 2800 years. To my surprise, there was no snow yet at this town at the beginning of November. The sun was at a good angle to catch the shadow of the airplane while landing:

It is hardly visible from the video: the runway is covered with gravel and not by asphalt, typical to the North.

The next stop was Umiujaq (meaning ”which looks like a boat” in Inuttitut). It’s a village of around 400 inhabitants, established in 1986. 

After another 1 hour and a total of around 5 hours trip since Montreal, we land in Inukjuak ( Inuttitut word for ”The Giant”, around 1800 inhabitants):

After a long journey from Montreal to Inukjuak, I am happy to reach my destination. A colleague from the Kativik School Board welcomes me at the Inukjuak airport, and kindly gives me a lift to the house I will stay: