Nunavut — Our Land
Capital: Iqaluit · Population: approximately 40,000 · Became a territory: 1999
Nunavut is the part of Canada most southerners don't really understand exists. It's vast — 2 million square kilometres — and almost entirely beyond the road system of the country. Its 25 communities are spread across the Arctic mainland and the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, including Baffin, Ellesmere, Devon and Victoria. The territory was carved out of the Northwest Territories in 1999 as the result of decades of land-claim negotiation, and it remains the largest political division in the world that's governed primarily by Indigenous people.
Visiting Nunavut is not a casual trip. Flights are expensive (a return ticket from Ottawa to Iqaluit can cost more than a flight to Europe), accommodation is limited and basic, weather is extreme, and the culture is genuinely different from anywhere else most travellers have been. But for visitors who do make the trip, almost without exception they describe it as among the most memorable travel experiences of their lives.
A Compact History
The Inuit and their predecessor cultures (the Dorset and the Thule) have lived in the Arctic for at least 4,000 years. European contact began with Martin Frobisher's voyage to Baffin Island in 1576. The Hudson's Bay Company arrived in the 1600s. Permanent European settlement was minimal until the 20th century. The federal government's relocation of Inuit families to High Arctic communities in the 1950s — including the deeply controversial Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord relocations — was officially apologized for in 2010. The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, signed in 1993, was the largest Indigenous land claim settlement in Canadian history; it created the territory of Nunavut six years later.
Iqaluit
Iqaluit is the territorial capital, population about 7,500, and the only community in Nunavut with anything resembling typical urban infrastructure. It sits on the southern end of Baffin Island on Frobisher Bay, which has the second-highest tides in the world after the Bay of Fundy.
What's it actually like?
Smaller than visitors expect, more functional than they expect, and very expensive. The Frobisher Inn or Discovery Lodge are the main hotels — both basic but adequate. There are several restaurants serving country food (caribou, arctic char, muktuk — whale skin and blubber) alongside more conventional food. The Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum has the best small collection of Inuit art in the country. The Legislative Assembly building, opened in 1999, is open for tours when the assembly isn't sitting.
Why are prices so high?
Everything has to be shipped in — either by sealift in late summer or by air. A two-litre carton of milk in Iqaluit costs around CAD $9; a head of lettuce can be CAD $7. The federal government's Nutrition North subsidy reduces the cost of a basket of basic foods, but the territory remains by far the most expensive place to live in Canada.
How do I get to Iqaluit?
Fly. Canadian North operates daily direct flights from Ottawa (about 3 hours) and several times a week from Yellowknife and Rankin Inlet. There is no road, no rail, and only a brief sealift season in late summer that's strictly cargo.
What's the weather like?
Cold, with two important caveats. Iqaluit's winter (October through May) sees average highs of -20°C with regular -30°C cold snaps. Summer (June through August) sees highs of 8-12°C and 24-hour daylight in June. Spring (April-May) and fall (September) are short and unpredictable. Wind chills are extreme — you can lose feeling in fingers in minutes if you're not dressed for it.
Most Popular Museum: Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum
The Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum — "Our Land, Our Things" in Inuktitut — in Iqaluit is the primary cultural institution of Nunavut's capital, housed in an original Hudson's Bay Company warehouse from the early trading post era. The collection covers traditional Inuit clothing, tools, carvings, and domestic objects from across Nunavut, with particular strength in the Baffin Island material culture of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The carved bone and ivory tools — needles, ulus, fish spears, snow knives — are objects that bridge utilitarian function and aesthetic refinement in ways that European museum categories struggle to classify.
The museum's contemporary art section gives context to the Cape Dorset print tradition — the internationally collected Kinngait Studios works have their roots in the same visual culture that produced the artifacts on the other side of the gallery. Admission is by donation, and the staff — usually Inuit — provide interpretation that no signage can replicate.
Your Best 5 Days in Iqaluit
Iqaluit is a city of around 8,000 people on the southern shore of Frobisher Bay — the capital of a territory the size of Western Europe. It is expensive, remote, and genuinely fascinating: the coexistence of modern bureaucratic infrastructure and Inuit cultural life operating on the same block produces an atmosphere that is unlike anywhere else in Canada.
Arrival & Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum
Fly into YFB (Iqaluit Airport, served by Canadian North from Ottawa and Montreal). Walk Iqaluit's main commercial street and the waterfront on Frobisher Bay. Afternoon at the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum. Look for country food at the Aqsarniit Market. Dinner at the Storehouse Bar and Grill, Iqaluit's most reliable restaurant.
Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park
Walk or take a cab to Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park, 10 minutes from downtown — a river and waterfall system that empties into Koojesse Inlet with Arctic char visible in the pools in late summer and fall. The tundra here, in July, is carpeted in Arctic cotton, Labrador tea, and crowberries. Pack a lunch and spend a half-day on the trails; the hills above the falls give views back over the city and Frobisher Bay that clarify the scale of the Arctic landscape.
Apex & the Former HBC Post
Walk or drive 5 km to Apex — the oldest continuously inhabited community at Frobisher Bay, predating the current city. The hamlet retains older wooden buildings, sled dogs, and a quieter pace than central Iqaluit. The former Hudson's Bay Company post building (which now houses the museum on the main side) and the ruins of the original American DEW Line construction camp are visible at the margins of the town. Aurora viewing from the Apex headland in clear winter nights is excellent.
Inuit Art Galleries
Iqaluit has several galleries selling Inuit art directly from artists and co-operatives. The Iqaluit Art Gallery on the main road and the Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts and Crafts in Cape Dorset (accessible by charter flight, one hour) sell directly. If staying in Iqaluit, local artists sometimes sell from home — hotel staff can connect visitors. Cape Dorset (Kinngait) is the apex of the Inuit print tradition; if a day trip is feasible, the Kinngait Studios itself occasionally allows visits by arrangement.
Baffin Bay & Departure
Hire a local guide for a boat or ATV tour to the outer tidal flats of Frobisher Bay — seals are common, narwhals appear in July, and polar bears cross the sea ice in spring. The Inuit guide companies operating out of Iqaluit include Arctic Kingdom and Polar Sea Adventures, both with strong safety records. Return to YFB for the evening flight south; the aerial view of Frobisher Bay's fiord arms and the Baffin Island plateau from the plane window is itself worth the trip.
Pond Inlet & Northern Baffin
Pond Inlet, on the northern tip of Baffin Island, is one of the most spectacularly situated communities in the world. The Bylot Island ice cap and the cliffs of Sirmilik National Park rise straight out of the sea ice across the bay. Narwhal, beluga, and bowhead whales pass through the strait every summer. Outfitters in Pond Inlet run floe-edge tours in May and June — you camp on the ice next to the open water and watch wildlife move through. It is one of the great wildlife experiences in North America.
Most Popular Museum: Nattilik Heritage Centre
The Nattilik Heritage Centre in Gjoa Haven (Taloyoak), on King William Island in Nunavut's Kitikmeot region, is named for the Netsilik Inuit people who have inhabited the region for thousands of years. The centre's collection covers traditional Netsilik material culture — the skin clothing, bone tools, and sleds designed for life on the sea ice — in the context of one of the most extraordinary episodes in Arctic exploration: the 1903–06 Northwest Passage navigation by Roald Amundsen, who overwintered at Gjoa Haven and recorded, with uncommon care and respect, the Netsilik way of life that sustained his expedition. The museum's interpretation of that encounter — what Amundsen learned and what the Netsilik experienced — is the most balanced account of any in Nunavut.
Your Best 5 Days in Northern Baffin
Northern Baffin Island is the most remote of Nunavut's inhabited regions — Pond Inlet (Mittimatalik) on Eclipse Sound looks north across to Devon Island, one of the world's largest uninhabited islands. Access is by charter or scheduled flight from Iqaluit; the reward is a landscape and culture that few southerners ever encounter.
Pond Inlet Arrival
Fly to Pond Inlet from Iqaluit (1 hour). The community of about 1,600 people sits on a gravel spit above Eclipse Sound with the Bylot Island mountains visible across the water in most weather. Register with the hamlet office and connect with your guide. Walk the hamlet and the shoreline; narwhals enter Eclipse Sound in summer and are often visible from shore with binoculars.
Bylot Island & Sirmilik National Park
Bylot Island, directly across from Pond Inlet, is almost entirely within Sirmilik National Park and is one of the most significant seabird nesting sites in the Arctic — thick-billed murres, black-legged kittiwakes, northern fulmars, and glaucous gulls nest in the cliff faces above the tidal flats. Boat or snowmobile tour (season-dependent) to the island; polar bears are present and guides are essential.
Narwhal Watching
Eclipse Sound is the best place in the world to observe narwhals in relatively accessible conditions. The community of Pond Inlet has been refining wildlife tourism infrastructure and guide certification for years. A boat trip into the sound in July or August, with a knowledgeable Inuit guide who can read the ice and the tidal patterns, produces encounters with narwhals at close range that are not available anywhere else.
Tununirusiq & Traditional Skills
Several Pond Inlet community organizations offer half-day or full-day traditional skills workshops — igloo construction (March), muktuk preparation, drum dance, or qajaq (kayak) paddling in summer. These are not performances but practised skills; the participants learn and the hosts share what they know. Contact the Hamlet of Pond Inlet's economic development office several weeks in advance to arrange.
Departure
Morning walk on the tidal flats as the tide retreats — the sediment patterns and the marine invertebrates visible in the shallows are the kind of detail that northern guides notice and visitors miss. Charter flight back to Iqaluit for connection south. The flight path south over the Baffin Mountains and the Meta Incognita Peninsula is extraordinary in clear weather.
Auyuittuq National Park
Auyuittuq, on the eastern coast of Baffin Island near Pangnirtung, is one of two National Parks in Nunavut and the easiest one to access. The Akshayuk Pass is a 100-kilometre traverse through some of the most dramatic granite-and-glacier mountain country on Earth — Mount Asgard and Mount Thor (which has the world's highest vertical drop, 1,250 metres) are both inside the park. Most trekkers hire an outfitter from Pangnirtung; the trek takes 8 to 12 days.
Most Popular Museum: Pangnirtung Visitor Interpretive Program
Pangnirtung ("Pang"), the gateway community to Auyuittuq National Park, has no formal museum in the conventional sense, but the Auyuittuq National Park visitor centre in Pang provides the most thorough interpretation of the park's extraordinary geology — the granite plutons of the Penny Highland, the glaciers that still cover more than a third of the park's area, and the Akshayuk Pass that has served as a travel route for Inuit hunters for thousands of years. The park's interpretive staff — some Inuit — integrate the geoscience with the oral history of the pass in ways that the Parks Canada signage alone doesn't capture.
Pangnirtung's community is also known for its print and weaving studios — the Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts and Crafts produces tapestries from Baffin Island wool and Arctic hare fur that have been exhibited in galleries across North America. Visiting the studio is itself an interpretive experience in the arts tradition that parallels Kinngait's print production.
Your Best 5 Days at Auyuittuq
Auyuittuq ("the land that never melts") is for wilderness travellers who can carry their own weight across serious terrain. The Akshayuk Pass traverse is a multi-day backpacking route through the heart of the park. These five days assume the Pang base camp approach for day hiking and a park interior day.
Pangnirtung & Fjord Approach
Fly to Pangnirtung from Iqaluit (50 minutes). Visit the park visitor centre and register. Take the community boat (seasonal, June–October) up Pangnirtung Fjord to the Overlord trailhead — the fjord transit itself, with cliffs rising 900 m from the water, is worth the trip before the trail begins. Camp at Overlord or return to Pang for accommodation.
Akshayuk Pass Day Hike
Hike the Akshayuk Pass from Overlord toward Summit Lake (30 km return if going to the lake; a shorter out-and-back gives the pass geography). The pass is flanked by Mount Asgard — the double-summited granite tower whose north face was used in a James Bond film — and Mount Thor, whose west face is the world's greatest vertical drop (1,250 m, 105 degrees off vertical). Both are visible from the pass floor.
Crater Lake & Glacier Margin
Hike to one of the glacial lake systems visible from the pass — the blue-green meltwater ponds at the glacier margins are the most photogenic elements of Auyuittuq. Glacier recession over the past 50 years has exposed new terrain annually; the parks staff know which moraines are new and can orient day hikers to the most dramatic recent changes.
Uqqurmiut Arts Centre
Return to Pangnirtung and spend the day at the Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts and Crafts — the weavers, carvers, and printmakers who work here are among the most accomplished Indigenous artists in Canada. The centre sells directly; prices are fair and the provenance is unambiguous. Walk the Pangnirtung hamlet and eat at the co-op restaurant — muktuk and bannock, if available.
Cumberland Sound & Departure
Cumberland Sound between Baffin Island and the Cumberland Peninsula is one of the most important bowhead whale habitats in the Eastern Arctic. A morning boat tour from Pang into the sound — when bowheads are present, the sight of 60-tonne animals surfacing 100 metres from a small boat is unforgettable. Charter flight back to Iqaluit for connection south.
Cambridge Bay & the Western Arctic
Cambridge Bay, on Victoria Island, is the largest community in the Kitikmeot region (Western Nunavut), population about 1,800. It's the main hub for Northwest Passage research and tourism. Cruise ships transit the passage in late August through early September; small-ship expedition cruises are increasingly the most accessible way for visitors to see this part of the territory.
Most Popular Museum: Canadian High Arctic Research Station
The Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) in Cambridge Bay, opened in 2020, is the flagship science facility of Canada's Arctic research program and the most significant new Arctic infrastructure investment in decades. While it is primarily a research institution rather than a public museum, CHARS conducts regular community open houses and educational programming that provide the best introduction to the science — permafrost monitoring, sea ice ecology, climate modelling, and marine biodiversity — that is making the Western Arctic one of the most intensively studied climate environments on Earth. The building itself, designed for Arctic conditions with passive solar design, triple-glazed curtain walls, and a biomass boiler, is an architectural achievement in its own right.
The Kitikmeot Heritage Society in Cambridge Bay maintains a community archive and cultural collection covering the Netsilik, Copper Inuit, and Inuinnait peoples of the Western Arctic — the overlapping cultural groups whose traditional territories converge around Victoria Island and the Coronation Gulf coast.
Your Best 5 Days in the Western Arctic
Cambridge Bay is the administrative and commercial hub of Nunavut's Kitikmeot region — the part of the territory that opens toward Victoria Island and the Northwest Passage. The Canadian High Arctic Research Station and the area's role in the Franklin Expedition searches make it a centre of both scientific and historical interest.
Cambridge Bay Arrival & CHARS
Fly into Cambridge Bay from Yellowknife (2 hours). Visit CHARS during its public programming hours (contact in advance). Walk the waterfront — the wreck of the Maud, Roald Amundsen's expedition ship that he used for Arctic Ocean drift research after the Northwest Passage, rests on the seafloor 200 metres offshore and is visible in clear conditions from the dock.
Freshwater Creek & Tundra Walk
Walk the Freshwater Creek trail system north of town — the Arctic tundra here, in July, is covered in Arctic poppies, purple saxifrage, and mountain avens. Musk oxen are sometimes visible on the ridges above town. The bay ice in spring (May) is particularly dramatic, with pressure ridges and melt ponds creating an abstract landscape that has no southern equivalent.
Franklin Expedition Search Sites
The waters around Cambridge Bay were the focus of decades of Franklin Expedition searches, culminating in the 2014 and 2016 discoveries of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in the central Arctic. A guided boat tour from Cambridge Bay visits the area where the expedition's last overland survivors were found — the Starvation Cove and Todd Island sites are accessible in summer by small boat. Parks Canada's Arctic Archaeology program has a seasonal presence in Cambridge Bay in July–August.
Victoria Island Day Trip
Victoria Island, directly north of Cambridge Bay across the strait, is the world's eighth-largest island and one of the least-visited landmasses in Canada. A charter ATV or boat trip to the nearest Victoria Island shoreline gives access to musk oxen, Arctic fox, and the distinctive copper-bearing mineral outcrops that gave the Copper Inuit their name — the copper tools they fashioned from float copper deposits found on the island's beaches.
Kitikmeot Arts & Departure
The Kitikmeot Heritage Society's cultural office connects visitors with local carvers and artisans working in the Copper Inuit tradition — the distinctive style using copper, soapstone, and bone. Morning at the community cultural centre, then charter or scheduled flight west to Yellowknife or east to Iqaluit for connections south.
Nunavut FAQs
What's Inuktitut?
The primary Inuit language of Nunavut, spoken by about 70 percent of residents. It's an official language of the territory alongside English and Inuinnaqtun (a related Inuit language) and French. Government services are available in all four. The writing system uses syllabics — a series of geometric symbols that may be unfamiliar to southern visitors but is taught in every Nunavut school.
Will I see polar bears?
Possibly, but it's not as predictable as Churchill, Manitoba. Polar bears are present across the territory but at lower densities than the Hudson Bay coast. Outfitters out of Pond Inlet, Resolute, and Arctic Bay run dedicated bear-viewing trips that have a high success rate.
How safe is travel in Nunavut?
From the perspective of crime against visitors, very safe — communities are tight-knit and crime against outsiders is extremely rare. From the perspective of weather and isolation, you need to take it seriously. Always travel with a local guide outside community limits. Polar bears are a real risk in many places.
Is Nunavut suitable for casual tourists?
It's not a casual destination. Costs are high, distances are long, infrastructure is limited, and self-guided travel is risky. Most successful visits are organized through specialized northern operators (Adventure Canada, Arctic Kingdom, Black Feather, and a number of community-based outfitters). Plan a year ahead.
What's a sealift?
The annual cargo ship that brings most of the year's bulky supplies (vehicles, building materials, non-perishable food, fuel) to each Nunavut community when the sea ice retreats in late summer. Anything not on the sealift has to come by air at much higher cost. Communities track sealift schedules the way southern cities track weather.
Education & Post-Secondary Institutions
Canada's newest territory, Nunavut has a developing post-secondary system focused on making higher education accessible in a territory where communities are separated by vast distances and accessible only by air. Emphasis is placed on Inuit language, culture, and northern-relevant skills.
Nunavut Arctic College (NAC)
Nunavut's primary post-secondary institution, offering certificate and diploma programs in teacher education, nursing, social work, business, trades, and Inuit studies. NAC's Nunavut Teacher Education Program (NTEP) trains Inuit teachers for the territory's schools. The Pirurvik Centre in Iqaluit focuses on Inuktitut language revitalization.
Nunavut Law Program
A partnership between Nunavut Arctic College, the University of Saskatchewan, and Dalhousie University, this program trains lawyers in Nunavut with an emphasis on northern and Indigenous law. It is a critical response to Nunavut's severe shortage of legal professionals.
Distance Learning Partnerships
Many Nunavummiut pursue degrees through Athabasca University, the University of Manitoba, and other institutions offering strong distance programs. The territorial government provides scholarships and bursaries to support residents pursuing post-secondary education in the south or via distance.
Pirurvik Centre & Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtiit (IUT)
The Pirurvik Centre is Nunavut's leading institution for Inuktitut language revitalization, offering immersive language courses for Inuit and non-Inuit residents alike. The Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtiit (the Inuit Language Authority) oversees the standardization and promotion of Inuktut across all its dialects — Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, and others — and is a crucial institution for preserving the linguistic heritage of Canada's Arctic peoples.
Nunavut faces some of the most acute educational challenges of any jurisdiction in Canada. Graduation rates from high school remain significantly below the national average; the territory has one of the lowest post-secondary attainment rates in the country. The causes are structural — poverty, overcrowded housing, food insecurity, community trauma — and the solutions require not just educational investment but a broader commitment to Inuit well-being. The territorial government's Inuusiqataujubamut (Education Act, 2008) set an ambitious target for Inuktut instruction in schools; implementation has been slower than the legislation envisioned, but the direction is clear. Education in Nunavut is inseparable from the larger project of Inuit self-determination.
Sports Teams & Athletic Culture
Nunavut is the only Canadian jurisdiction where Inuit traditional games are the primary sporting tradition. The Arctic Winter Games and community-level competitions sustain an athletic culture rooted in practical Arctic skills.
INUIT GMS
Inuit Traditional Games
The Inuit traditional games — one-foot and two-foot high kicks, kneel jump, blanket toss, arm pull — were developed over centuries as tests of strength and agility needed for Arctic survival. They are practiced today as both sport and living cultural preservation.
AWG NU
Nunavut at the Arctic Winter Games
Nunavut sends athletes to the biennial Arctic Winter Games to compete against Alaska, NWT, Yukon and other circumpolar jurisdictions. Nunavut competitors have won in traditional Arctic events, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
COMM HCKY
Community Hockey in Nunavut
Every hamlet large enough to support a rink has a hockey culture. The Nunavut government has funded arena construction across the territory. Jordin Tootoo, from Rankin Inlet, was the first Inuk to play in the NHL — a fact of enormous cultural significance here.
Culture, Arts & Identity
Nunavut was created on April 1, 1999, carved out of the Northwest Territories as the result of two decades of Inuit political organizing. The territory is Inuit-governed in a way that no other Indigenous jurisdiction in Canada matches at the territorial level. Inuktitut is a co-official language alongside English and French, and the territorial government conducts its business in Inuktitut.
Inuit Art
Nunavut is home to one of the great traditions of contemporary Indigenous art in the world. Printmaking began in Cape Dorset (Kinngait) in the late 1950s when James Houston introduced the technique to local Inuit artists. The work produced there — by Kenojuak Ashevak, Pitseolak Ashoona, Pitaloosie Saila and dozens of others — is now in museums on every continent. The Inuit sculpture tradition, in stone, bone and antler, was already centuries old when it entered the international art market. Nunavut's artists continue to produce work of extraordinary power.
Language and Identity
Inuktitut is spoken by roughly 65 percent of Nunavut's population as a first language — the highest rate of Indigenous language use of any Canadian jurisdiction. The language has its own writing system: Inuktitut syllabics, developed by missionary James Evans and adapted for Inuktitut, are still used in print media, signage and government documents. Language revitalization is an ongoing political issue as younger generations navigate schooling in English.
The Land
In Nunavut the relationship to the land is not nostalgic or recreational — it is immediate and ongoing. Many families in smaller communities still hunt, fish and harvest on the land for a significant portion of their food. The harvesting of country food — narwhal, caribou, arctic char, ringed seal, beluga — is both economic necessity and cultural practice. Inuit land knowledge, accumulated over thousands of years, is one of the most detailed bodies of ecological observation in the world.
Nunavut's Hall of Icons
Nunavut's hall of fame is shaped by Inuit cultural revival, by the founding generation of the territory itself, and by an extraordinary art tradition that has put a tiny territorial population onto walls of museums in Tokyo, London and New York.
Kenojuak Ashevak
Probably the most internationally recognized Inuit artist of the 20th century. Her print The Enchanted Owl (1960) appeared on a Canadian postage stamp and remains one of the most-reproduced images in Canadian art. Companion of the Order of Canada and the only artist to grace a Canadian postage stamp during her lifetime.
Paul Okalik
Nunavut's first premier (1999–2008) and the architect of the territory's earliest legislation. Okalik was the first Inuk to be admitted to the Nunavut Bar and remained a leading voice in northern political life for decades.
Susan Aglukark
The first Inuk recording artist to win a Juno Award (1995, for "O Siem"). Aglukark's career spans more than three decades and combines English-language pop with Inuktitut songs about her childhood in Arviat. Officer of the Order of Canada.
Zacharias Kunuk
Director of Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001), the first feature film made entirely in Inuktitut. The film won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes and was named the greatest Canadian film of all time in a 2015 TIFF poll. His Igloolik-based Isuma TV is a cornerstone of Indigenous media in Canada.
John Amagoalik
The political organizer most credited with leading the negotiations that created Nunavut. Amagoalik served as President of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada and as Chief Commissioner of the Nunavut Implementation Commission. The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement bears his fingerprints throughout.
Jordin Tootoo
The first Inuk to play in the NHL. Tootoo's career with the Nashville Predators, Detroit Red Wings, New Jersey Devils and Chicago Blackhawks made him a hero in Nunavut. His memoir All the Way is also one of the most candid Canadian sports autobiographies of the past decade.
Pitseolak Ashoona
Matriarch of one of the most extraordinary artistic dynasties in Canadian history. Ashoona's prints and drawings of traditional Inuit life have been collected by every major Canadian museum. Her granddaughter Annie Pootoogook continued the tradition before her death in 2016.
Tanya Tagaq
Inuk throat singer who has reinvented the form for a global audience. Polaris Music Prize winner (2014, for Animism) and a fierce political voice on Indigenous-rights issues. Her live performances have been described as among the most intense in contemporary music.
Regional Cuisine: What Nunavut Actually Eats
Nunavut's food culture is the country-food tradition of the Inuit, layered with the imported food brought in by ship and plane. The high cost of imported groceries (a single watermelon can cost CAD $50 in Iqaluit) makes country food not just culturally important but economically essential. Many Iqalummiut still harvest a significant share of their diet from the land and sea.
Arctic Char
The defining fish of the territory. Pulled from rivers and inland lakes, eaten fresh, smoked, dried as pipsi (jerky), or made into chowder. The flesh is deep coral. Order it at the Discovery Lodge in Iqaluit or the Frobisher Inn dining room.
Caribou (Tuktu)
The land mammal most central to Inuit life. Roasted, stewed, dried, or eaten raw and frozen as quaq. Caribou tongue is a delicacy. The harvest is regulated and tied to the cyclical caribou herd populations.
Bannock
Brought north by the Hudson's Bay Company traders and now an Inuit staple. Fried in seal fat or rendered caribou fat for the most traditional version, or in butter for a daily-bread substitute. Often served alongside fish or stew.
Maktaaq (Whale Skin)
The skin and underlying blubber of beluga or narwhal whale, eaten raw and frozen, lightly chewed. Rich in vitamin C and a traditional source of nutrition during the long winter. Harvested under Inuit-community quotas and not exported.
Ringed Seal
Hunted year-round, prepared every way imaginable. Seal liver is a cultural delicacy; seal flipper soup is comfort food. The seal hunt is also a contested international issue; in Inuit communities, it is non-negotiable cultural practice.
Iqaluit's Two Restaurants
The capital has limited public dining. The Discovery Lodge dining room and the Frobisher Inn's Granite Room are the two main sit-down restaurants. Both serve Arctic char and caribou alongside southern-style menus. Country-food meals are mostly enjoyed at home or at community feasts.
Whose Land Are You On?
Nunavut is the largest Indigenous-governed jurisdiction in North America. Created on April 1, 1999, the territory is the result of the largest Indigenous land-claim settlement in Canadian history. About 85 percent of the population is Inuit, and Inuktut is a co-official language alongside English and French.
The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement
The 1993 NLCA is the largest Indigenous land claim in Canadian history. It transferred title of more than 350,000 km² of land directly to the Inuit, established harvesting rights across the entire territory, and created Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. as the body that administers the agreement. The territory of Nunavut, created six years later, was a separate but related political achievement.
The Three Regions
Nunavut divides administratively into three regions: the Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin) Region, including Iqaluit; the Kivalliq Region on the western shore of Hudson Bay; and the Kitikmeot Region in the central Arctic. Each has a regional Inuit organization and a distinct cultural and dialect tradition.
Inuktut as a Living Language
About two-thirds of Nunavut's population speaks Inuktut as a first language — the highest rate of Indigenous-language use of any Canadian jurisdiction. The territory's syllabic writing system appears on every government document, road sign and CBC broadcast. Inuktut education in schools is in active expansion through the Nunavut Education Act.
Country Food and Cultural Continuity
For most Nunavummiut, country food is daily life. Hunting and harvesting are not recreations — they are how families eat, how cultural knowledge is transmitted, and how communities express themselves. Visitors should understand that respect for these practices is essential to engaging with the territory.
Your Best 5-Day Stay in Nunavut
Nunavut is the most remote and most expensive Canadian travel destination. Five days is the right amount of time to experience Iqaluit and either Sirmilik or Auyuittuq National Park, weather permitting. The itinerary assumes flying into Iqaluit (YFB) and treating the trip as a cultural-and-wilderness experience rather than a checklist.
Iqaluit — Arrival, Cultural Centre, Town Walk
Fly into Iqaluit. The flight from Ottawa is three hours. Drop bags at the Frobisher Inn or the Discovery Lodge — book months in advance, the city has limited beds. Walk the town: the Legislative Assembly building (with its narwhal-tusk mace), the Anglican Cathedral St. Jude's (built in the shape of an igloo), and the Nunavut Court of Justice building.
Visit the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum for an introduction to Inuit history and culture. Lunch at the Storehouse Bar. Dinner at the Discovery Lodge — order the Arctic char.
Iqaluit — Sylvia Grinnell & Apex
Walk or drive to Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park on the edge of town. The Sylvia Grinnell River, the cliff hike up to the inukshuk, and the views over the Frobisher Bay are the city's outdoor backdrop. Bring layers and a windbreaker.
Afternoon: walk to Apex, the small community 4 km southeast of Iqaluit, with the Hudson's Bay Company building still standing. Evening: an Inuit cultural performance at the Inuksuk High School — drum dancing, throat singing, bannock. Check the territorial cultural calendar in advance.
Day Trip — Pangnirtung or Kimmirut
The day trip out of Iqaluit is the second flight of the visit. Pangnirtung (Pang), 300 km north on Cumberland Sound, is the most accessible second community: a fjord-lined hamlet with a deep printmaking tradition. Visit the Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts and Crafts, lunch at the Auyuittuq Lodge, and walk along the boardwalk over the Pangnirtung Fjord.
Alternatively: Kimmirut on the southern Baffin coast, a smaller community with a strong sculpture tradition. Either flight is weather-dependent.
National Park Adventure — Auyuittuq or Sirmilik
For travellers willing to go further: a guided trip into Auyuittuq National Park (out of Pangnirtung) or Sirmilik (out of Pond Inlet, in summer). Either requires a Parks Canada–licensed Inuit guide and a multi-day commitment.
For travellers based in Iqaluit, this is the day for a snowmobile or dogsled tour to a traditional iglu camp on the sea ice — an Inuit-led experience offered by Inukpak Outfitting and others. The cost is high. The experience is irreplaceable.
Iqaluit — Last Walks, Last Conversations
Spend the morning at the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit gift shop and the artist co-ops — the original-print and small-sculpture market is the most-cited reason for many visitors' trips. Take the long walk along the Frobisher Bay shore one more time.
Lunch at the Granite Room. Catch the afternoon flight back to Ottawa. The territory will have rearranged your sense of distance and the country.
Five Days in Iqaluit
Most visitors to Nunavut never leave the capital, and it's not a failing — Iqaluit, on the north shore of Frobisher Bay, holds nearly a quarter of the territory's population, two of its three best museums, the legislative chamber, the largest Inuit art co-op in the country, and a tundra coast that begins at the end of the runway. Five days is enough to soak in the rhythm of the place: short days or no nights depending on the season, the constant Inuktitut on the radio, the price of a head of lettuce that brings home what "remote" really means. Book accommodation months ahead — the Frobisher Inn, the Aqsarniit Hotel and the Capital Suites are essentially the only options.
Arrival, Sylvia Grinnell & the Bay
Land at YFB on the late-morning flight from Ottawa. Iqaluit's airport — the bright yellow terminal, sometimes called "the yellow submarine" — is the warmest first impression in Canada. Drop your bags at the Frobisher Inn (the dining room there is the unofficial town hall, and you'll be back). Walk into Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park, a fifteen-minute stroll from downtown, where the river drops over a series of rapids into the bay and the tundra begins immediately at your feet.
For a first dinner, the Granite Room at the Frobisher is the safe pick — Arctic char, muskox stew, and a wine list that includes the only Inuit-language tasting notes you'll ever read. Walk back along the Road to Nowhere afterward; in summer you'll have light until midnight, in winter you may catch your first auroras over the bay.
Nunatta Sunakkutaangit, Igloo Church & the Co-op
Mornings start slow in Iqaluit and there's no point fighting it. After coffee at Black Heart Café, head to the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum — the territory's small but extraordinary holding of Inuit prints, sculpture and historical photographs. The St. Jude's Anglican Cathedral next door is the famous "igloo church," rebuilt after a 2005 fire and one of the most photographed buildings in the Arctic.
Spend the afternoon at the Carvings Nunavut and Northern Country Arts co-ops downtown — these are the studios of working Inuit artists and the place to buy original soapstone, serpentinite and antler pieces straight from the carvers. Dinner at Big Racks BBQ (the Texas brisket-meets-tundra hybrid surprises everyone who tries it).
Apex, the Hudson's Bay Buildings & the Beach
Walk or taxi to Apex, the smaller settlement five kilometres east of Iqaluit's downtown. The white-and-red Hudson's Bay Company buildings on the beach are some of the oldest standing structures in the eastern Arctic — they predate the modern townsite and now serve as a tiny historic park. The walk back along the shore at low tide takes about an hour and threads between bowhead-bone middens and quiet fishing shacks.
Afternoon: a stop at the Legislative Assembly, where the chamber's mace is carved from Arctic narwhal tusk and the seating is arranged in a circle rather than across an aisle. Tours run on weekday afternoons in summer. Dinner at the Storehouse Bar & Grill — the wings are local lore and the post-work crowd is half the legislature.
Land Day — Snowmobile, Dogsled or Boat
The land day is the day to splurge. In winter (October through May), book a half-day snowmobile or dogsled excursion with Inukpak Outfitting or NorthWinds Expeditions out onto the sea ice; the route to the floe edge or to Qaummaarviit Territorial Park (a 600-year-old Thule whale-bone village on a small island offshore) is the trip you'll remember. In summer, swap snowmobile for a Zodiac to the same site or out to the bird cliffs on Mallikjuaq Island.
Either way, expect to be out four to six hours, dressed for one weather class colder than you think, and back in town with frostbitten cheeks and the world's best appetite. Dinner at Mavericks at the Aqsarniit Hotel, the dining room with the floor-to-ceiling view of the bay.
Last Walk, Last Carving, Departure
One more morning to do what you missed. Many visitors come back to the carvings — the second visit is when you actually buy. The Unikkaarvik Visitor Centre near the airport has free Inuit-led talks most afternoons; if your flight is late, this is the place to wait. The Granite Room does a tundra brunch on weekends — Arctic char gravlax, bannock French toast — that nobody tells visitors about.
YFB is small but slow at security; aim for ninety minutes ahead of departure. The first leg back south is normally to Ottawa. As you climb out, look down — the patchwork of frozen lakes, the snow-track patterns, the tiny fan of road that is Iqaluit, and beyond it nothing but tundra all the way to the pole.
Commerce & Industry
Nunavut is not an economy in the conventional sense. It is a vast territory — larger than Western Europe — with a population of fewer than 40,000 people, almost entirely Inuit, scattered in 25 communities that have no road connections to each other or to the south. Everything comes in by air or, in the brief summer season, by sealift. The cost of living is staggering: a bag of chips in Grise Fiord costs what a full grocery order costs in Toronto. Understanding the economic framework of Nunavut requires setting aside southern assumptions about markets, logistics, and what self-sufficiency means at the top of the world.
1. Mining — Gold & Silver
Agnico Eagle Mines has transformed Nunavut's formal economy with two major gold operations: the Meadowbank complex near Baker Lake and the Meliadine mine near Rankin Inlet. Together they make Nunavut one of Canada's most productive gold-mining territories and Agnico Eagle one of the most visible corporate presences in the region. The mines operate on fly-in fly-out rosters, employ hundreds of Inuit workers, and have generated Impact and Benefit Agreements with regional Inuit organizations that fund community programs. Additional deposits — Hope Bay among them — promise further development. Nunavut's mineral potential, across gold, silver, iron, lead, zinc, and rare earths, is among the least-explored on the planet.
2. Government & Public Sector
The Government of Nunavut (GN), created with Nunavut itself in 1999, is by far the largest employer in every community in the territory. Federal departments — Indigenous Services Canada, Canada Post, RCMP, Transport Canada, and the Canadian Armed Forces at 1 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group — add to the public sector footprint. Because no other employer can function at commercial scale across 25 isolated communities, the public sector is not merely dominant but foundational. The goal of increasing Inuit representation in the public service from its still-low proportion toward a level that reflects the 85-percent Inuit population is a stated priority of every territorial government.
3. Construction
Nunavut has a housing crisis of a severity that is genuinely difficult for southern Canadians to comprehend. More than 40 percent of the territory's housing stock is overcrowded by southern standards; many homes house two or three families. Federal and territorial housing investment programs generate significant construction employment — but the logistics of building in remote Arctic communities, where materials arrive by sealift once a year, make construction costs ten to twenty times what they would be in southern Ontario. Infrastructure investment — water treatment, sewage, warming shelters, youth centres, schools — is the largest single capital sector.
4. Tourism
Adventure tourism in Nunavut is a niche market, but it is growing. Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island — with its granite towers, ice fields, and the famous Akshayuk Pass — draws experienced trekkers and climbers from around the world. Sirmilik and Quttinirpaaq National Parks are among the most remote protected areas on Earth. Polar bear viewing on Baffin Island's tundra, narwhal watching in the Admiralty Inlet, and cultural tours in communities like Pond Inlet and Kimmirut are the building blocks of a tourism economy that the territory is carefully developing without wanting to overwhelm communities that have limited hosting capacity.
5. Commercial Fisheries
Arctic char from the Sylvia Grinnell and other rivers near Iqaluit, turbot from the waters off Baffin Island, and shrimp from the waters of Baffin Bay and Hudson Strait are the main commercial fisheries. The Baffin Fisheries Coalition, an Inuit-owned entity, has expanded its participation in the turbot and shrimp quota since the 1990s. The commercial fishery is small in absolute terms but significant to food security and community employment.
6. Arts & Crafts — Kinngait Studios
The Kinngait Studios (formerly the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative) in Cape Dorset is one of the most celebrated Indigenous arts organizations in the world. Its annual print collection — produced by Inuit artists using stone-cut, stencil, and etching techniques — is collected by major galleries from the AGO to the Smithsonian. Inuit sculptures in soapstone, whalebone, and caribou antler are sold through co-operatives across the territory. The arts sector provides income in communities where formal employment alternatives are limited and where the artistic tradition is deep and culturally continuous.
7. Military & Security Operations
Alert, on Ellesmere Island, is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world — a signals intelligence station operated jointly by Canadian and American forces. Resolute Bay serves as a logistical hub for high-Arctic military operations and scientific expeditions. Canadian Ranger patrols — primarily Inuit volunteers — conduct sovereignty patrols across the territory. As Arctic sovereignty debates intensify with climate change opening previously ice-locked routes, Nunavut's military significance is growing.
8. Traditional Economy
Hunting caribou, ringed seal, beluga, polar bear, walrus, and migratory birds; fishing for Arctic char and lake trout; gathering berries and plants in season — this is not a supplementary activity for most Nunavut Inuit families. It is the foundation of food security in communities where a single airline flight carries imported groceries at prices that can eat an entire paycheque. Country food is nutritionally superior to the packaged alternatives, culturally central, and economically essential. It simply does not show up in GDP statistics.
9. Telecommunications Infrastructure
The absence of terrestrial broadband across most of the territory has made satellite communication and wireless infrastructure investment a significant economic activity. Telesat's LEO satellite network, Xplornet, and Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation are all working to improve connectivity in communities where reliable internet has historically been unavailable or unaffordable. The stakes are high: improved connectivity enables telehealth, distance education, e-commerce, and government services delivery that can reduce the cost and logistical burden of serving remote communities.
10. Research & Climate Science
Nunavut hosts research stations operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Polar Continental Shelf Project, and various universities studying permafrost dynamics, sea ice extent, marine mammal ecology, and Arctic atmospheric chemistry. The scientific community's presence in communities like Resolute, Cambridge Bay (home of the Canadian High Arctic Research Station opened in 2020), and Pond Inlet provides some employment and considerable international visibility to a territory that the rest of the world is finally paying attention to.
Politics
Nunavut, like the Northwest Territories, operates under a consensus government system without political parties. All MLAs are elected as independents; the premier is chosen by the 22-seat Legislative Assembly after each election. This system was written into the territory's governance structure from its creation in 1999 as a reflection of Inuit consensus-building traditions — the idea that qimmiq (sled dog) teams pull together, as the saying goes, rather than competing against each other. In practice, consensus government has produced more coalition-building and less ideological paralysis than critics predicted, though it has also produced slower legislative change than some reformers desired.
Consensus Government & Premier P.J. Akeeagok
P.J. Akeeagok of Qausuittuq (Resolute Bay) became Premier in November 2021, succeeding Joe Savikataaq. Akeeagok — previously deputy minister of Finance and a senior official in the Government of Nunavut — brought a managerial and fiscal expertise to the role at a time when the territory's finances had been strained by COVID-related spending and the perpetual challenge of delivering services in the world's most remote and dispersed jurisdiction.
The priorities of the Akeeagok government centre on the three crises that have defined Nunavut since its founding: housing, food security, and mental health and addictions. The territory has the highest per-capita suicide rate in Canada — a statistic that reflects colonialism's intergenerational trauma as much as any specific policy failure, and that no government has yet found a coherent strategy to address. Housing remains chronically underfunded relative to need; the federal government has committed to accelerating housing investment, but construction costs in the Arctic mean that promises measured in units achieved are progress measured in steps too slow for a problem measured in decades of backlog.
The relationship between Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI) — the Inuit organization that holds the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and represents Inuit rights — and the Government of Nunavut is the central political dynamic of the territory. NTI is not the government, but it holds significant rights and resources under the Land Claims Agreement that the government cannot ignore. When the two institutions are aligned, things move; when they disagree — on devolution of federal powers, on resource development priorities, on the pace of Inuktitut language revitalization in the public service — the territory's governance slows to a friction of overlapping jurisdictions. Getting that relationship right is the defining political task of any Nunavut government.