Chimo-Kuujjuaq: My Time in Kuujjuaq

This book, written in verse, tells the history of and life in the town of Kuujjuaq, then (in 2008) also known as Fort Chimo. The town has received sudden prominence as the birthplace and hometown of Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, who in 2021 became Canada’s 30th Governor General.

For three consecutive summers, I was in Kuujjuaq and assisted on a helicopter electromagnetic and magnetic survey in the Ungava area on the west side of Ungava Bay. This is where mineral deposits were known, but not yet producing (at that time). The areas we surveyed were on the west side of Ungava Bay from Kuujjuaq (then, Fort Chimo) to the villages to the north, including Tasiujaq, Aupaluk, and Kangirsuk.

Kuujjuaq, the largest town has a population of over two thousand people, though I did not get to spend much time in the town. The people of Kuujjuaq were well mannered, and many were occupied with fishing and hunting, but I did not get to know many of them. It was definitely a much different lifestyle than the farm life I had growing up in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, southeast of Montreal.