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• Park Program
  • People and Places
  • Risks, Challenges & Opportunities
  • Benefits of Parks & Special Places
• Park Establishment
  • Feasibility
  • Planning
  • Establishment
  • Operations
• Park Projects
  • Coral Harbour
  • Kugaaruk
  • Clyde River
  • Hall Beach
  • Kekerten
  • Sylvia Grinnell
• Land Claims
  • Parks and the NLCA
  • Parks and the IIBA
• Publications
  • Nunavut Parks
  • Planning Studies
  • Technical Reports

People and Places

For 4,000 years, Inuit and their ancestors have survived in a place that others perceive to be one of the world’s harshest and most desolate environments – the treeless Arctic. In reality, at more than two million square kilometres, Nunavut’s landscape is stunningly varied – vast tundra, wide seas, wild rivers and small, friendly communities.

For Inuit, this Arctic landscape is home, its lands and waters the source of life and tradition. Far from being “inhospitable” or “desolate”, the region provides the plants and animals that give food, shelter, culture, and clothing. The traditional relationship between people and our environment places us as part of the landscape, not apart from it. Nunavut’s landscapes are places that have value and meaning for people – for cultural or archaeological values, as parts of our home or their hunting grounds, favorite places to camp, sites with outstanding landscape features, or places we value for their role in providing habitat for wildlife.

These places are also important parts of our experience on the land. Many value their relationship to the land in the same way we value relationships with other people – the places that are important to us help convey a sense of who we are. Developing an awareness of these places can help build respect for the landscape and its resources; increase our knowledge and understanding of its parts; and foster responsible behaviour and stewardship.