Naujaat

Photo: CBC News

Overview

Naujaat is a community of about 1,225 people (2021 census) located on the south end of the Melville Peninsula in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut.

Naujaat is in the Central Standard time zone along with Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The hamlet is a 1-hour and 15-minute flight from Rankin Inlet. From southern Canada, you can fly to Rankin Inlet directly from Winnipeg (a 2.5-hour flight) or from Ottawa via Iqaluit with a total flying time of about 5 hours.

Highlights

Naujaat is Inuktitut meaning "nesting place for seagulls." Nesting grounds are located on cliffs 5 km north of the community, where thousands of seagulls and other birds can be found.

Naujaat is known for its abundant narwhal population. An annual narwhal hunt is attended by Inuit from surrounding communities in the mid-summer when the sun shines for almost 24 hours in the day.

The community is also well known for its carvers who make realist animal sculptures in bone, ivory, antler, and stone. Notable carvers include Madeleine Isserkut Kringayak and Cecillia Angmadlok Angutialuk, whose work is both in collections at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and National Gallery of Canada. One of Kringayak's soapstone sculptures was featured in the third Canada Post Inuit series of stamps, which also includes fellow Naujaat artist Jean Mapsalak.

Weather and landscape

Naujaat is the only North American community located directly on the Arctic Circle, the line that delineates the points on the Earth's surface where the sun is above the horizon for 24 hours on the summer solstice and below the horizon for 24 hours on the winter solstice. This means that the midnight sun is visible on the summer solstice, where the sun sets and rises at the same moment.

Summer temperatures in Naujaat range for 10°C to 25°C, with temperatures dropping in the winter to -45°C. Naujaat has a record low temperature of -66.3°C. The average wind speed is 17 km/h but gusts can reach up to 100 km/h.

Naujaat has beautiful rolling hills, bird cliffs with nesting seagulls, tundra flats, and various small lakes. It is located 145 km from Ukkusiksalik National Park, which surrounds Wager Bay - containing a reversing waterfall, hundreds of archaeological sites, and a vast array of wildlife.

Photo: Nunatsiaq News