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Umanaqjuaq

also known to Qallunaat as Blacklead Island

Mission station and Scottish whaling station at Blacklead Island, Cumberland Gulf, 1903. 140 Ko Mission station and Scottish whaling station at Blacklead Island, Cumberland Gulf, 1903.

Umanaqjuaq was one of the most important whaling stations in Cumberland Sound. The name means like a big sea mammal's heart, and it refers to the shape of the island when seen from far away. It was traditionally a winter camp for some of the Inuit on the west side of Cumberland Sound.

Qallunaat quickly recognized that Umanaqjuaq was an excellent base because of its proximity to the floe edge where spring whaling took place. In October 1860, the crew of the American ship Black Eagle built a house on the island. The same year, Scottish whalers built their own station. At first, the ships brought Qallunaat whalers, but they soon realised they could hire Inuit instead. By the 1870s, most of the whalers were Inuit, and the ships carried mostly trade goods. When it was time for a steamship to arrive, Inuit would smell the south wind to see if they could detect smoke from the engine. Before they could see the steamships, they would see smoke on the horizon.

Whaling station Blackhead, Cumberland Gulf, Baffin Island. 74 Ko Whaling station Blackhead, Cumberland Gulf, Baffin Island.

Cumberland Sound's first Anglican missionaries, including Edmund Peck (Uqammaq), came to Umanaqjuaq in 1894. Hungry dogs ate their first church, which Inuit had made for them out of sealskins. Peck began teaching syllabics soon after his arrival. At first it was mostly women who were interested in the new religion. By 1900, many of them could read the gospels.

By the end of this decade, the mission station had become a social gathering place. Services were held several times a week. Children and young adults, including mothers with their babies, studied the Bible in the afternoons. On Wednesday nights, men came to the mission house, where they played games, smoked tobacco and looked at picture books.

A group of Inuit from Blacklead Island at Pangnirtung 188 Ko A group of Inuit from Blacklead Island at Pangnirtung

Music was a huge part of life on Umanaqjuaq. The late Nutaraq of Iqaluit recalled dancing to the sound of the accordion. After she danced, Qallunaat captains would give her treats like bread with butter or molasses. At least one Inuk played the fiddle, and many people especially women played the harmonica. The mission station also had a harmonium, a small type of organ. The German explorer Bernhard Hantzsch taught several of the women how to play it during his stay at Umanaqjuaq in 1909-1910.

Hantzsch also recorded what Umanaqjuaq looked like during his visit. The eastern part of the island was full of qammait and the Scottish trading station, the church and the mission house with two small rooms and a kitchen. These dwellings were sheltered by a hill, on top of which lay many Inuit graves. There were 168 Inuit living around Umanaqjuaq. Nineteen of them had a Qallunaaq father.

Blacklead Island whaling station Cumberland Sound, Nunavut 131 Ko Blacklead Island whaling station Cumberland Sound, Nunavut

Inuit found much to be happy about on Umanaqjuaq, but it was also a place of severe hardship in the early 1900s. It was difficult for so many people to find enough to eat. The poorer Inuit, without dog teams or qajait, could not travel to better sealing grounds, and during the fall they had to hunt dangerously from cakes of ice at the floe edge. The better-equipped hunters shared their meat, but sometimes there was not enough to go around. In 1905, during a particularly hard winter, the missionary Julian Bilby complained that Inuit were expected to trade the blubber and skin of the seals they caught even if they had no fuel for their qulliq. They did not receive enough food from the whalers, and many Inuit got sick.

During the First World War, Umanaqjuaq was cut off from the Qallunaat world. The Americans had already sold their station, and the missionaries had left, so the Scottish trader James Law was the only Qallunaaq on the island. He ran out of trade goods and was kept alive by gifts from Inuit hunters. Around this time, most families left for other camps. Many of them would spread syllabic writing and Christianity to other Inuit. The last whale at Umanaqjuaq was caught in 1921.