Ikpiarjuk, or Arctic Bay, is an Inuit hamlet of over 800 people. At 73°North, it is over 3,000km from the populous areas of Canada and located in the northern part of the Borden Peninsula on Baffin Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. The predominant languages are Inuktitut and English. 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 initial settlement was on the headland where there are Thule remains and people gathered to welcome these guests. The hamlet is now in the bay, where the Hudson's Bay Company established a store and trading post.
Mean daily temperatures are below 0°C for up to 10 months of the year. The remarkable resilience and skill of the Inuit have allowed people to settle here for thousands of years, living off the plentiful resources of the sea and ice. Thank you to the present residents for welcoming visitors so warmly!
Soundtrack: Coast - Valley high, valley low.
