The activities of hunting, fishing and collection of resources from the land and sea are of central importance to the health of Inuit in Nunavik. For approximately twenty years now, confidence in these resources and Inuit access to them have been threatened by reports of environmental contaminants in wildlife, social and economic trends influencing the time available to hunt and fish, and more recently, reports of climate change and variability and influences on the availability and accessibility of wildlife resources. This summary focuses on the information on these issues contained in the Nunavik Inuit Health Survey 2004.
Country foods, and the activities (hunting and fishing) to collect, distribute and prepare them for consumption, are still important aspects of everyday life in Nunavik communities today. They are important for their social and cultural value, formal and informal economic worth, and what they represent in terms of their contributions to physical, social…