Nunavut

Nunavut's history is the history of the Inuit, who have lived in the Arctic for millennia, and of their long journey to a homeland of their own within Canada.

For thousands of years the Arctic has been home to the Inuit and their ancestors, who developed an extraordinary way of life suited to one of the harshest environments on Earth, hunting seals, whales, and caribou and travelling by dog sled and kayak. Their skill and knowledge, from the building of the snow house, or igloo, to the reading of the land and ice, allowed them to thrive where few others could.

Through the twentieth century the Inuit pressed for control over their homeland, and after decades of negotiation their land claim led to the creation of Nunavut on the first of April 1999, carved out of the eastern Northwest Territories. It was a historic act of reconciliation, giving the Inuit a territory in which they form the great majority and can shape their own future.

Nunavut is immense, by far the largest territory, stretching across the Canadian Arctic from the treeline to the North Pole and taking in most of the Arctic Archipelago, including Baffin Island, the largest island in Canada. It is a land almost entirely of treeless tundra, rock, and ice, frozen for much of the year, with a scattering of communities along its coasts. Home to polar bears, seals, whales, and caribou, and lit by the midnight sun in summer and the long polar night in winter, it is one of the last great wildernesses on Earth.

Nunavut's economy combines a traditional Inuit way of life, in which hunting and fishing still put food on many tables, with a modern wage economy centred on government and resource development. Rich deposits of gold, iron, and other minerals have brought mines to the tundra, an important but debated source of jobs and income. The territory faces great challenges, from the extreme cost of shipping goods to remote communities to high rates of poverty, and it works to build an economy that supports its people while honouring their culture.

Nunavut is a territory whose powers are delegated by the federal government, and, like the Northwest Territories, it governs itself by consensus rather than through political parties, a system rooted in Inuit tradition. The members of its Legislative Assembly in the capital, Iqaluit, are elected as independents and together choose a premier and cabinet. As of 2026 the premier is John Main, chosen after the 2025 territorial election, and the commissioner, who represents the federal Crown, is Eva Aariak. The government works closely with Inuit organisations that hold rights under the land claim that created the territory.

Nunavut is the heartland of Inuit culture in Canada, and Inuktitut is spoken by most of its people alongside English and French, one of the few Indigenous languages in the Americas with a strong and official footing. Inuit traditions remain vibrant, from throat singing and drum dancing to carving and the making of the stone figures known as inuksuit, and the knowledge of hunting and the land is passed down the generations. This living culture, set against the challenges of the modern world, is the soul of the territory.

Nunavut has a population of around 40,000 people, about 85 percent of them Inuit, the highest proportion of Indigenous people anywhere in Canada. They live in some twenty-five small communities scattered across an enormous territory, none connected to each other or to the south by road, so that almost all travel is by air. The largest community by far is the capital, Iqaluit, on Baffin Island. Young, fast-growing, and deeply rooted in Inuit identity, Nunavut's people sustain their culture across one of the most remote regions on Earth.