50 Fun Facts About Nunavut

Canada and Denmark spent decades leaving each other bottles of liquor on which islet off Nunavut?

Hans Island was the prize of the so-called Whisky War, in which Canadians left whisky and Danes left schnapps. The two countries agreed in 2022 to split the island roughly in half.

Nunavut's licence plates are famous for being cut into the shape of which Arctic animal?

A polar bear has shaped licence plates in Canada's North since 1970, and Nunavut kept the design when it became a territory. After a spell of rectangular plates, the bear shape returned in 2025.

What does the name Nunavut mean in the language of the Inuit, who make up most of its people?

Our land is the meaning of Nunavut, and the territory's motto builds on it: Nunavut Sannginivut, or 'our land, our strength'.

Which city, whose name means 'place of many fish', is the capital of Nunavut?

Iqaluit is Canada's smallest capital by population, with only 7,429 residents at the 2021 census. Voters picked it as capital in 1995, four years before the territory existed.

The amauti, a parka worn by Inuit women in Nunavut, has a built-in pouch for carrying what?

A baby rides in the pouch, called the amaut, just below the hood and against the mother's back until about two years of age.

St. Jude's Anglican Cathedral in the capital of Nunavut is famously built in the shape of what?

An igloo is the shape of the white cathedral, which opened in 2012 after an arson fire destroyed the first igloo-shaped church on the site.

Which British ship, whose timbers became the Oval Office desk, gave its name to a Nunavut hamlet?

HMS Resolute was abandoned in Arctic ice in 1854, found adrift by an American whaler and returned to Queen Victoria. The hamlet of Resolute, founded in 1953, carries its name.

Nunavut has only about 40,000 people, yet its land mass is almost as large as which country?

Mexico is only a little larger than Nunavut's 1.8 million square kilometres of land, yet Mexico is home to about 130 million people.

Which animal, known to Inuit as the qimmiq, did Nunavut adopt as its official animal in 2000?

A sled dog, the Canadian Inuit Dog, became Nunavut's animal symbol on May 1, 2000. Inuit worked the dogs as sled teams and as hunters able to track a seal's breathing hole from far away.

Nunavut's Tanya Tagaq is famous for which vocal art, traditionally a contest between two women?

Throat singing, or katajjaq, is a duet in which each singer tries to outlast the other. Tagaq, who is from Cambridge Bay, broke with tradition by performing it solo.

Whose doomed 1845 Arctic expedition left three crewmen buried on Nunavut's Beechey Island?

John Franklin lost both of his ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, and all 129 men in the ice. The wrecks lay undiscovered off Nunavut until 2014 and 2016.

Until Nunavut split from the Northwest Territories in 1999, it was governed from which capital city?

Yellowknife had been capital of the undivided Northwest Territories since 1967. A 1982 plebiscite backed division, and the new territory finally began on April 1, 1999.

Which island, the largest in Canada and fifth-largest on Earth, holds the capital of Nunavut?

Baffin Island covers more than 500,000 square kilometres but had only 13,039 residents at the 2021 census, most of them in the capital.

Which Nunavut outpost, 817 km from the North Pole, is the northernmost inhabited place on Earth?

Alert has no permanent residents, but military and scientific staff have kept it continuously inhabited since April 1950. It is named after HMS Alert, a ship that wintered nearby in 1875–76.

Which Inuit symbol stands in red at the centre of the flag of Nunavut, beside a blue star?

Inuksuk is the word for the stone markers Inuit built to guide travellers and mark sacred sites. The flag's blue star is Niqirtsuituq, the North Star.

Nunavut is even more sparsely populated than which neighbouring island of about the same area?

Greenland has about 57,000 people to Nunavut's roughly 40,000, on a similar area. That leaves Nunavut the least densely populated major region on Earth outside Antarctica.

Which explorer spent two winters at Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, while first sailing the Northwest Passage?

Roald Amundsen named the harbour after his ship, the Gjøa. The Arctic skills he learned there from the local Netsilik Inuit later helped him reach the South Pole.

Nunavut's creation was the first major change to Canada's map since which province joined in 1949?

Newfoundland, renamed Newfoundland and Labrador in 2001, was the last province to join Canada. Nunavut's borders were drawn in 1993, six years before the territory began.

Which sea mammal stands opposite a caribou as a supporter on the coat of arms of Nunavut?

Narwhal and caribou stand for the food and resources of sea and land. In Nunavut waters, narwhals have been filmed using their tusks to stun small fish.

The Belcher Islands, home to Nunavut's southernmost community, lie in which huge body of water?

Hudson Bay touches Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, yet the Belchers and most other islands in it belong to Nunavut. Most Belcher islanders live in the hamlet of Sanikiluaq.

Which Elizabethan explorer shipped tons of worthless Nunavut ore to England, thinking it was gold?

Martin Frobisher carried about 1,350 tons of ore back to England before it was found to be worthless. His 1576 account is also the earliest written record of the region.

In 1831 James Clark Ross became the first to reach which spot, on Nunavut's Boothia Peninsula?

The North Magnetic Pole is where a compass needle would point straight down. It has since drifted out of Nunavut and is moving across the Arctic Ocean toward Siberia.

Which language, written mostly in syllabics, is the mother tongue of most people in Nunavut?

Inuktitut was the mother tongue of about 63% of respondents in the 2016 census. It shares official status in Nunavut with Inuinnaqtun, English and French.

Barbeau Peak, the highest point in Nunavut, rises on which island, the northernmost in Canada?

Ellesmere is Canada's third-largest island, and its northern tip, Cape Columbia, is less than 800 km from the North Pole. Barbeau Peak stands 2,616 metres high.

Scientists rehearse Mars missions on which Nunavut island, the largest uninhabited one on Earth?

Devon Island has no permanent residents, and its Haughton impact crater looks so much like Mars that NASA's Haughton–Mars Project spends its summers there.

Which Nunavut peak, named for a Norse god, features the greatest vertical drop on Earth?

Mount Thor has a cliff that drops about 1,200 metres and overhangs at an average of 15 degrees past vertical. Glaciers carved it along the Akshayuk Pass.

Canada's four-corners point joins Nunavut, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and which province?

Saskatchewan's corner is marked by a one-metre aluminium obelisk whose cap threatens five years in prison for removing it. The spot is hundreds of kilometres from any road.

Akimiski Island belongs to Nunavut even though it lies in which bay between Ontario and Quebec?

James Bay's largest island, uninhabited Akimiski, sits close to the Ontario shore, yet it is administered as part of Nunavut's Qikiqtaaluk Region far to the north.

Nunavut's legislature governs by consensus because members are elected without belonging to what?

Political parties are absent from Nunavut's assembly, so every member is elected as an individual. About two weeks after an election, the members themselves choose the premier and cabinet.

Which Nunavut hamlet, founded in 1953 by relocated Inuit, is Canada's northernmost civilian community?

Grise Fiord began when Ottawa moved eight Inuit families from Inukjuak, Quebec, promising homes and game that they did not find. The government formally apologised in 2010.

Which ancestors of today's Inuit spread from Alaska into Nunavut and replaced the Dorset culture?

Thule hunters began moving east from Alaska in the 11th century and had settled most of modern Nunavut by 1300. They hunted bowhead whales from umiaks, large skin-covered boats.

When two candidates tie exactly in a Nunavut vote, as in 2008 and 2013, what decides the seat?

A new by-election is held instead of settling the tie by chance. Exact ties are a real risk because each district has only a few hundred voters.

Which bird, which turns white in winter and stays all year, did Nunavut adopt as its official bird?

Rock ptarmigan, known in Nunavut as aqiggiq, moult from winter white to grey and brown for summer camouflage. The territory adopted the bird as an emblem in 2000.

Nunavut's mainland border with the Northwest Territories roughly follows which natural boundary?

The tree line marks where forest gives way to tundra, and almost all of Nunavut lies beyond it. With so little timber, Inuit made tools and sled frames from driftwood, bone and antler.

Which Nunavut film of 2001 was the first feature made entirely in the Inuit language?

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner retells an Inuit legend and won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes, a first for a Canadian film. Director Zacharias Kunuk co-founded its production company, Isuma, in 1990.

Which Nunavut-raised hockey player became the NHL's first Inuit player with Nashville in 2003?

Jordin Tootoo wore number 22 as a play on his surname and went on to play 723 NHL games before retiring in 2018.

Which singer raised in Arviat, Nunavut, topped Canadian charts in 1995 with the song O Siem?

Susan Aglukark took O Siem to number one on Canada's adult contemporary and country charts, which made her the first Inuit performer with a Top 40 hit.

The qulliq, shown on Nunavut's coat of arms, is what kind of traditional Inuit object?

An oil lamp carved from soapstone, the qulliq burned seal oil or blubber to light and heat homes in a land with no wood. Today it is lit mainly at ceremonies.

Which demonym does the Government of Nunavut use for the people who live in the territory?

Nunavummiut is the plural form, and a single resident is a Nunavummiuq. About 84% of them identified as Inuit in the 2021 census.

Which community, the second-largest in Nunavut, lost the 1995 vote to become territorial capital?

Rankin Inlet took about 40% of the vote and remains the hub of the Kivalliq Region. The town was founded in 1957 by the owners of a nickel mine.

Which metal comes from Nunavut's Mary River Mine, in ore so pure that it ships without processing?

Iron ore at Mary River grades between 65% and 70%. The mine accounted for 23 per cent of Nunavut's economic activity in 2019.

What is the singular form of Inuit, the word for one person in Nunavut and across the Arctic?

Inuk means one person and Inuuk means two, while Inuit, the plural, translates as 'the people'.

Which Nunavut hamlet, known until 2020 as Cape Dorset, calls itself the Capital of Inuit Art?

Kinngait artists produced more than 48,000 prints between 1959 and 1974, in a print shop modelled on Japanese ukiyo-e workshops.

Which lawyer, called to the bar that same year, became the first premier of Nunavut in 1999?

Paul Okalik was the first Inuit lawyer in the territory's history. As premier he set up a council of eleven elders to bring traditional Inuit knowledge into government decisions.

Which flower, one of the first to bloom in the Arctic spring, is the official flower of Nunavut?

Purple saxifrage has edible petals, which are eaten in parts of Nunavut where berries are scarce. It also grows on one of the northernmost patches of land on Earth.

Which national park in Nunavut has a name that means 'the land that never melts'?

Auyuittuq lies mostly inside the Arctic Circle and holds the 6,000-square-kilometre Penny Ice Cap, a leftover of the ice sheet that covered most of Canada in the last ice age.

Cambridge Bay is the regional centre of which of Nunavut's three administrative regions?

Kitikmeot holds the only two communities that voted against creating Nunavut in the 1982 plebiscite: Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk.

The capital of Nunavut is the only capital city in Canada not linked to another settlement by what?

A highway has never reached the city, which sits on an island far from Canada's road network. People and freight arrive by aircraft or, when the ice allows, by boat.

Nunavut's communities rely mainly on which fuel to run their generators and heat their homes?

Diesel powers and heats the territory's 25 communities, each of which runs its own plant because no grid or road links them. The fuel comes north by ship during the short ice-free summer.

Which Nunavut hamlet, known for its woven tapestries, is nicknamed the Switzerland of the Arctic?

Pangnirtung, or Pang for short, has had a weaving studio since 1970, and its tapestries sell around the world. It is the nearest town to a national park of peaks and glaciers.