Akpatok Island

Akpatok is the largest island in Ungava Bay, lying off northern Quebec but within the Canadian Arctic archipelago. Its limestone mass rises from the sea in cliffs of roughly 150 to 250 metres, broken by ravines that lead onto a broad, flat plateau. The Inuktitut name Akpat comes from the thick-billed murre, the bird that colonies the ledges in great numbers.

The surrounding water long shaped human use. A Dorset settlement stood at the island’s southern end, and its inhabitants lived by taking birds, seals and other marine animals from a coast without a permanent village or easy agricultural base. No village sustained a year-round population on the island. Even after that occupation ended, the cliffs and narrow landing places continued to determine when people could reach the island and what they could harvest.

For travellers in the eastern Arctic, Akpatok was less a place to settle than a landmark amid ice, tides and currents. Its walls rise suddenly from Ungava Bay and shelter seabird colonies, while walrus and seals gather in the nearby waters. The island’s importance lies in this concentration of animal life and in the routes that crossed the cold sea around it.