History

Unaaq Men’s Association of Inukjuak began in 2001 with a group of men that got together to work on youth issues and to try and promote Inuit heritage within the community. The men and elders realized that there was a need to provide care and mentoring of the younger men and boys that are growing into this world, through the community.

Considering the need to support the youth, to close the gap between the older and younger generations as well as the need to actively promote Inuit cultural heritage, the group of men got organized and created an association. The association was registered on July 31, 2006. The group of men then became official board of directors, applying for funding support from various regional organizations, independently aiming to support the youth and actively promoting Inuit cultural heritage within the community of Inukjuak.

To date, the Association has been donated a large building from the Municipality, which has been renovated thanks to the Kativik School Board Pigiursavik Adult Education Faculty and their students. Heavy-duty wood working equipment has also been donated by Makivik Corporation as well as some wood supplies and some tools from the Kativik Regional Government to continue the Kayak Project that will become a part of the Association’s activities and traditional lessons through-out the year.

The Association has grown over the years from providing basic excursions on the land in the beginning to kayak-making, emergency shelter making and ski-doo or dog sled making.

Now, Unaaq’s goals include providing small engine repair services and limited recycling of engine parts to encourage re-using parts that would otherwise be discarded. The youth will realize some form of small engine repair and maintenance training inside the recently acquired, used-buildings while the community also realizes limited recycling as well as low cost repair services of their personal all terrain vehicles, ski-doo’s, outboards and other small engines.

With these services and training, the Association will keep the community busy and help clean up some of the left-over vehicles that are no longer used, and keep an inventory of used parts for the general public.

Future plans include some form of video productions in various areas such as survival training on the land, dog team training, biographies and cultural carpentry. Other areas maybe of interest to the Association such as small cultural educational toy manufacturing in partnership with the Federation of Cooperatives of Northern Quebec (FCNQ) as well as tourism, since our community is rich in history and natural resources that would be of interest to tourists.

The Association has created jobs in the community, targeting youth and elders to provide employment opportunities and to have the generations work closer together.