Bathurst Inlet, Nunavut

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Bathurst Inlet from the air with the old mission visible

Bathhurst Inlet, (Inuinnaqtun: Qingaun or Qingaut, Inuktitut: ᑭᖓᐅᓐ), is a small Inuit community located in Bathurst Inlet in the Kitikmeot Region of Canada's Nunavut Territory. It is the smallest community recognized as such by the Government of Nunavut who put the population at 19.

The Inuit name for the community is Kingaun (old orthography) or Qingaut (new orthography), meaning nose mountain, which refers to a hill close to the community. Thus, the people of the area are referred to as "Kingaunmiut" (miut - people of).

The traditional language of the area was Inuinnaqtun and is written using the Latin alphabet rather than the syllabics of the Inuktitut writing system. Like Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay and Umingmaktok syllabics are rarely seen and used mainly by the Government of Nunavut.

The first Europeans known to have visited the area was during the first expedition of John Franklin in 1821. There was little outside contact until 1936 when both the Roman Catholic church and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) arrived. Although, the Hudson's Bay Company abandoned the site in 1964 (for Umingmaktok) the Inuit decided to remain in the area and continue the traditional lifestyle.

Looking towards Bathurst Inlet from the landing strip

During the early 1960s the area was visited by Glen Warner, a Sergeant with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Warner, along with his wife Trish, purchased both the mission house and the HBC post which they turned into the "Bathurst Inlet Lodge". It is operated today as a joint venture between the Warner's and the local Inuit and is open during the short Arctic summer.

The lodge is a popular destination for tourists who wish to see a more traditional type Inuit lifestyle and wildlife such as foxes, seals, Barren-ground Caribou, arctic char and musx ox. Also in the area is the Wilberforce Falls, the highest waterfall above the Arctic Circle.

Like other communities in Nunavut the only access is by aircraft. Although most tourists arrive from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, it is possible to charter an aircraft from Cambridge Bay. The community has no local phone service and contact with the outside world is maintained by satellite phone.

Like its sister community Umingmaktok, schooling is provided by flying the students to Cambridge Bay and returning them for Christmas and the summer.