Okak

Okak Bay lies among the islands and inlets of northern Labrador, a coast inhabited for thousands of years by successive peoples. Inuit families gathered here to hunt and fish; at Uivak, a major winter settlement in the bay, as many as 125 people lived during the late eighteenth century. The remains of earlier dwellings and tools bear witness to the long history of life around its shores.

After exploring north from Nain aboard the sloop George, Moravian missionaries opened their second Labrador station at Okak in 1776. They hoped to reach Inuit communities farther north and traded European goods at the mission as well as preaching Christianity. The missionaries also sought to reduce the long journeys Inuit made to trade with Europeans in southern Labrador, bringing new ambitions into an established network of coastal movement.