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Inuit — Inuktitut for “the people” — are an Indigenous people, the majority of whom inhabit the northern regions of Canada. An Inuit person is known as an Inuk. The Inuit homeland is known as Inuit Nunangat, which refers to the land, water and ice contained in the Arctic region.

The term Arctic peoples in Canada generally refers to the Inuit population. The Inuit are descendants of the Thule people, who lived in the Arctic from 400 to 1,000 years ago. The Inuit refer to their homeland as Inuit Nunangat. In 2021, there were 70,545 Inuit in Canada. According to that census, 69 per cent of all Inuit lived in Inuit Nunangat.

Based on archaeological evidence, the earliest permanent human habitation in the Eastern North American Arctic began roughly 5,000 years ago. These first humans of the North American Arctic are referred to as the “Palaeo-Inuit.” They likely crossed the Bering Strait from Chukotka (northeastern Siberia). Inuit oral histories call the earliest people of the Arctic “Tuniit”. The Palaeo-Inuit lived for thousands of years until roughly 700 years ago. They are culturally and genetically distinct from early Inuit. Early Inuit are sometimes called “Thule” and are direct ancestors of modern Inuit. However, research on the Palaeo-Inuit and Inuit is ongoing and may change.

In 1970, the federal government undertook a program, known as Project Surname, to assign last names to Inuit in northern Canada. These surnames were to replace the personal disc numbers (see Inuit Disc Numbers) that Inuit had been given by the Canadian government in the 1940s. Some Inuit and non-Inuit viewed Project Surname as a more effective and politically correct system of identification. Others saw it as another instrument of paternalism.

Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada is a national not-for-profit organization that has been a leading advocate for Inuit women since 1984. It represents all Inuit women living in Inuit Nunangat (the Arctic homeland of the Inuit), and in southern urban centres across Canada. Pauktuutit supports and promotes Inuit women, their culture, values and language. It advocates for social, economic and political improvements that benefit women, their families and communities. It works with community leaders, Inuit organizations, as well as territorial and federal levels of government, to improve the lives of Inuit women and children. Pauktuutit helps build safe, healthy communities.

Inuit mythology is a repository of Inuit culture, passed down by elders through generations to enrich and enlighten.

Inuit mythology is the repository of Inuit culture, passed down by elders through generations to enrich and enlighten.

The history of Inuit cultures and the art of the various regions and times can only be understood if the myth of a homogeneous Inuit culture is discarded altogether. Though it has not been possible to determine the exact origin(s) of the Inuit, nor of the various Inuit cultures, five distinct cultures have been established in the Canadian area: Pre-Dorset , Dorset , Thule, Historic and Contemporary.

While carving is a viable enterprise in most Inuit communities, printmaking requires special skills and sophisticated equipment to compete in an international market.

Sadlermiut were the inhabitants of three islands in Hudson Bay: Southampton (Salliq), Coats and Walrus. The original Sadlermiut were annihilated by disease in 1902-03.

Early Inuit groups from northern Alaska moved into the Eastern North American Arctic (i.e., Canada and Greenland) around 800 years ago (ca. 1200 CE). In roughly a century, some of these early Inuit groups rapidly migrated across what’s now the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Greenland. By roughly the 15th century CE, early Inuit groups lived throughout the Eastern Arctic. The early Inuit are distinct from the Dorset and Pre-Dorset. Although where they lived slightly changed throughout time, these early Inuit represent the direct ancestors of Inuit today.

Sinnisiak (d c 1930) and Uluksuk (d 1924), Inuit hunters from the Coppermine region of the NWT, were the first Inuit to be tried for murder under Canadian law.

For over 2,000 years, the Inuit have used kayaks for traveling and hunting expeditions, except for the most northerly polar Inuit. Essentially a one-person, closed-deck hunting craft, it was employed occasionally for the transport of goods. Although kayaks are rarely used today for hunting, the kayak remains an important part of Inuit culture and heritage.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (formerly known as the Eskimo Brotherhood of Canada) is a national advocacy organization that promotes awareness about political, social, cultural and environmental issues that impact Inuit communities, from the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Northwest Territories, to Nunavut, Nunavik in Northern Québec, Nunatsiavut in Northern Labrador and land claims regions.

Alikomiak (also spelled Alekámiaq) and Tatimagana, Inuit hunters from the central Arctic, were the first Inuit to be condemned and executed for murder under Canadian law on 1 February 1924. The trials of Alikomiak and Tatimagana have been described as demonstrations of federal authority over the Inuit as well as of Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic.

Baffin Island Inuit (also known as Nunatsiarmiut) are Indigenous peoples who live on Baffin Island, the largest island in the Arctic Archipelago and in the territory of Nunavut. According to the 2016 census, the total Inuit population in the Baffin region was 14,875.

The Canadian Inuit dog (Canis familiaris borealis) is one of five dog breeds recognized by the Canadian Kennel Club as uniquely Canadian (see also Dogs in Canada). While the Canadian Kennel Club refers to this breed as the “Canadian Eskimo dog,” the Government of Nunavut calls it the Canadian Inuit dog and made it the territory’s official animal. In the Eastern Baffin dialect of Inuktitut the dog is called qimmiq (spelled Kimmik in other dialects). For hundreds of years, these dogs were used by the Inuit and their ancestors to pull sleds as a means of transportation. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other government officials killed thousands of sled dogs, rendering the breed extinct. Since then a revitalization program has helped re-establish the Canadian Inuit dog. As of 2018, there are approximately 300 Canadian Inuit dogs registered with the Canadian Kennel Club.

Peter Pitseolak, photographer, artist, writer (b on Nottingham I, NWT Nov 1902; d at Cape Dorset, NWT 30 Sept 1973). A camp leader, he recognized early that traditional Inuit life was disappearing and strove to record its passing, writing diaries, notes and manuscripts, drawing Inuit customs and legends, and photographing the life around him.

The word Eskimo is an offensive term that has been used historically to describe the Inuit throughout their homeland, Inuit Nunangat, in the arctic regions of Alaska, Greenland and Canada, as well as the Yupik of Alaska and northeastern Russia, and the Inupiat of Alaska. Considered derogatory in Canada, the term was once used extensively in popular culture and by researchers, writers and the general public throughout the world. ( See also Arctic Indigenous Peoples and Inuit.)