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IKALUKTUTIAK (pop.1413) - the "fair fishing place" - formerly known as Cambridge Bay , lies to the north of the Arctic Circle on the barren southern shore of Victoria Island , which at a monster 212,688 square kilometres is Canada's second largest island. As ever in the high Arctic, you need a special reason to come here, for accommodation, food and flights are all hideously expensive. Today it's the regional centre for the Kitikmeot communities and an important staging point for visitors making tours or heading still deeper into the hinterland. Once Nunavut is up and running , it will also operate as the administrative focus for the region's western lands, despite a location a full 1300km from Nunavut's capital at Iqaluit. Over the centuries the region was a summer gathering place for the Copper Inuit (so called by the whites because they made many of their tools and weapons from copper), attracted here by the abundance of good hunting, notably seals, caribou and arctic char. The last two are local staples to this day, and still provide work and income, Kitikmeot Meats processing caribou and musk for export, Ikaluktutiak Co-op running a fishery that supplies arctic char nationwide (both concerns are open to the public for direct sales). The Hudson's Bay Company arrived in 1921, late by Canadian standards, and purchased the Maud , explorer Roald Amundsen's schooner, for use as a supplies and trading ship. This little piece of Arctic history was used for years before being left to sink into disrepair and ultimately into the harbour, where its hulk can still be seen in the bay.
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