Aivitok

Aivitok, 'place of the walrus' in Labrador Inuttitut, is the name of the great inlet on Labrador's coast known to English navigators as Hamilton Inlet. Its bays and channels reach inland towards Lake Melville, between wooded hills and rocky shores. Inuit families used the inlet as a wintering place, travelling along the coast in kayaks and larger skin boats.

The waters brought Inuit into contact with European visitors. In 1586 an encounter with John Davis's expedition ended in violence, with two members of his party killed. Nearly two centuries later, the trader George Cartwright recorded families arriving from Aivitok in a whaling boat and several kayaks. The many spellings of the name in European accounts preserve an older Inuit geography of this coast.