Kuujjuarapik (also spelled Kuujjuaraapik; little great river) is the southernmost northern village (Inuit community) at the mouth of the Great Whale River () on the coast of Hudson Bay in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada. Almost 1000 people, mostly Cree, live in the adjacent village of Whapmagoostui. The community is only accessible by air, Kuujjuarapik Airport and, in late summer, by boat. The nearest Inuit village is Umiujaq, about north-northeast of Kuujjuarapik. The police services in Kuujjuaraapik are provided by the Nunavik Police Service, formerly the Kativik Regional Police Force. Like most other northern villages in Quebec, there is an Inuit reserved land of the same name, Kuujjuarapik. However, unlike most other Inuit reserved lands, the Inuit reserved land of Kuujjuarapik is not adjacent to its eponymous northern village; rather, it is located considerably farther north and in fact borders on the Inuit reserved land of Umiujaq.
Although the permanent cohabitation of Inuit and Cree at the mouth of the Great Whale River only goes back to the year 1950, the two Indigenous peoples were rubbing shoulders in this area for a very long time: Inuit close to the coast and the Cree more in the interior lands.
History
While the Inuit have hunted and fished along the Hudson Bay coast long before the arrival of Europeans, it was not until 1820 when a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) trading post was built there, known variously as Great Whale River House, Great Whale River or just Great Whale. On maps of 1851 and 1854, the post is called Whale River House and Whale House.
Protestant and Catholic missions settled there in the 1880s. In 1895, a weather station was set up by the Federal Government. Medical and police services began to be offered in the first half of the 20th century, yet it was not settled permanently and only used as a summer encampment. The official 1901 census count for Great Whale River numbers 216, making note of all the Inuit and their families who lived in the surrounding area and who came to trade at Great Whale River over the course of several months. However, the census taker notes of this official number: "I should say it does not represent one-third of the Eskimos, but I am sending on as many (names) as I could obtain."
In the late 1930s, the Inuit were forced to give up their nomadic way of life and settled in the village. In 1940, the American army opened a military air base here, using Inuit and Cree workers. In 1941, the HBC post closed. After the Second World War in 1948, the military base was transferred to the Canadian government and in 1955, it began operating a Mid-Canada Line radar station called RCAF Station Great Whale River. Though the radar station was not operational for long and closed in 1965, it established the village permanently.
In 1961, when the Quebec Government decided to give French names to Nordic places, the name Great Whale River was replaced with Grande-Baleine which itself was replaced a year later with Poste-de-la-Baleine. When the village was incorporated, it officially adopted its current name, a name the Inuit had already been using for some time to designate this place.
Fearing the impact of planned large-scale hydroelectric works on the Great Whale River, a referendum was held in 1982 in which the Inuit decided to relocate to a new village (Umiujaq) some to the north. A large portion of the Inuit moved there in 1986, causing the population of Kuujjuarapik to drop significantly.
Climate
Predictably, given its northern latitude, Kuujjuarapik has a subarctic climate (Dfc) under the Köppen climate classification, but strongly modified by its location on the southeastern (predominantly windward) shore of Hudson Bay, particularly from May/June through November, the primary season when Hudson Bay's surface is unfrozen, i.e. open water. Winters are long and cold; summers are cool, strongly influenced by the chilly open waters of Hudson Bay, with August (the warmest month, on average) mustering an average monthly high temperature of only . Freezing conditions () have occurred every month of the year, although the moderating effect of Hudson Bay may hold off the first fall freeze as late as the second week of October in an occasional year, as in 2015. Year-round, climatic conditions are influenced strongly by Hudson Bay's freeze-thaw cycle. January is the coldest month on average; August, the warmest.