Abitibi — Baie-James — Nunavik — Eeyou, qc

The known history of settlement in Nunavik goes back nearly 4,500 years. The Paleo-Eskimo lived along the eastern coast of Hudson Bay for 1,500 years and then mysteriously disappeared. The earliest Thule sites discovered so far in Nunavik date back to 1300 AD. Nunavik later became part of Rupert’s Land, with control in the hands of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Eventually the territory and the Inuit – descendants of the Thule – became part of the Northwest Territories. In 1912, the region was handed over to the Quebec government.

One of Quebec’s oldest working artists, Raoul Duguay, was born in Val d’Or and has extensively chronicled the Abitibi region in his poems, song and political activism on behalf of Quebec sovereignty.