Kuujjuaraapik finds lost Hudson’s Bay trading post

Kuujjuaraapik finds lost Hudson’s Bay trading post

Harpoon discovered on site of future parking lot for cultural centre

By Sarah Rogers

The Northern Village of Kuujjuaraapik was about to construct a parking lot next to its cultural centre this spring when a resident made a surprising find — a six-inch harpoon head.

“[It had] some ivory and a metal head,” said Kuujjuaraapik Mayor Anthony Ittoshat. “He brought it to my office because it was a particularly interesting find.”

The harpoon was discovered after a wind storm — known to kick up the dust and sand dunes for which Kuujjuaraapik is famous.

The municipality called in archeologists from Nunavik’s Avataq Cultural Institute to have a look at the site before the municipality went ahead with any work.

Avataq archeologist Elsa Cencig helped lead the fieldwork, considered a preventive dig, typically done before a major construction project.

Her team discovered other tools: ceramic pipe pieces and forged nails — the kinds of items that the Hudson’s Bay Company would have sold 100 years ago.

The harpoon head, made of metal and tusk, was most likely used for beluga hunting, she said.

Cencig believes the artifacts may point to a bigger discovery — the community’s historical Hudson’s Bay trading post, its exact location previously lost to history.

“The site corresponds to the Great Whale trading post, which first opened in the early 1800s, and through until the 1940s,” Cencig said.

“That site is documented in archives, but no one has ever recorded it.”

The Hudson’s Bay Company established one of its first trading posts in the region in the Richmond Gulf area in the early 1800s, roughly 100 kilometres north of Kuujjuaraapik. The HBC then moved that post to the current-day Kuujjuaraapik town site in 1878, which was then an established whaling station.

The municipality is already working with Avataq to restore Kuujjuaraapik’s historical Anglican church, a boarded-up building known simply as “the old church.” The community plans to turn it into an interpretation centre, Ittoshat said.

“We’re just going to extract all the things we can [from the site] and try and preserve them,” he said.

“Our goal is to move those artifacts to the interpretation centre, once it opens.”

The Hudson’s Bay Company played a role in the colonization of the region, Ittoshat said, and though that legacy isn’t always a positive one, he said it’s important for the community to be able to document its own past.

“It reignited our thirst for history, our desire to know where we came from,” he said. “And it reminded us that we were a whaling community.”

‘It really opens up the mind to the past occupation of that area’

Avataq archeologists led two other preventive archeology projects in Nunavik earlier this summer.

One was along the road to Innavik, the hydroelectric project currently under construction in Inukjuak.

Archeologists documented a few sites in the area, including a small Tuniit or Dorset camp, where they found tent rings, microblades, soapstone vessel fragments and end-scrapers.

Another project was in Kuujjuaq, on the site where the new Isuarsivik treatment centre will be constructed.

Evidence of historical occupation in that area came to light much the same way it did in Kuujjuaraapik —a resident discovered micro tools while walking through the site.

Allen Gordon, the executive director of the Nunavik Tourism Association, first flagged the area to Avataq in 2016 after a friend found a bunch of stone flakes in a spot previously used for picnics.

“We located about 11 concentrations of artifacts or finding spots,” said Avataq’s Cencig. “It’s an Archaic site, which is very interesting. It’s a very large timeline; its occupation is estimated between 5,000-3,500 BC, according to the elevation and the artifacts that we found.”

Documented Archaic sites in Quebec are mostly concentrated around the James Bay region, and farther south along the St. Lawrence River, but not very common to Nunavik, Cencig said. There have been some sites found northeast of Kuujjuaq, closer to Aupaluk.

In these cases, archeologists aren’t sure which peoples occupied the sites, Cencig said, but they would have been nomadic groups who lived part of the year in tents and used stone tools, similar to pre-Dorset peoples.

“We can’t say much about them — we don’t have much data,” she said.

The items found at the Isuarsivik site will be preserved and eventually put on display in the new treatment centre, which is slated to open in 2022.

Cencig said this summer’s preventive digs were all requested and led by the communities, which are the projects she enjoys the most.

Gordon said the sprawling expansion of communities like Kuujjuaq has prompted a need for local governments to check on sites before they go ahead with building new roadways, housing or gravel pits.

“I’m absolutely happy that it’s being done,” he said. “Otherwise, it’s gone forever. It really opens up the mind to the past occupation of that area.”

Hudson’s Bay Rallies Behind Team Canada as They Gear up to compete on the World Stage in Tokyo

TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Team Canada’s official Flag Bearers took proud, confident strides in bringing our country together as they marched in the Parade of Nation’s representing all of Team Canada at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. Dressed in the official Opening Ceremony uniform, designed by Hudson’s Bay, the Flag Bearers, Miranda Ayim and Nathan Hirayama, represented the thread weaving the fabric of Team Canada’s spirit together in the highly anticipated ceremony that introduced Canada on the Olympic world stage for the first time in three years.

“The Opening Ceremony sets the stage for Canadian athletes as they embark on their journey to gold and as the Official Outfitter of Team Canada, we’ve designed a uniform that ignites a strong and unapologetic sense of Canadian pride for both athletes competing and for everyone cheering them on from back home,” says Iain Nairn President and CEO of Hudson’s Bay. “We are rallying behind Team Canada and wish every athlete the best of luck as competitions commence.”

Each Team Canada athlete received a complete clothing kit consisting of jackets, t-shirts, tank tops, lightweight track pants and shorts, tailored denim, baseball and bucket hats, and other accessories including a hip pack, sweatbands, a backpack, and luggage. The 26-piece Team Canada kit collection includes full outfits for the Opening and Closing ceremonies, Podium Presentations and village wear, all designed with performance, comfort and bold artistic motifs that pay tribute to the street style aesthetic from Japan, and modern Canadian-cool style.

Canadians can show their pride and support of Team Canada athletes by sporting the Olympic replica collection pieces available exclusively at Hudson’s Bay, the Hudson’s Bay App and on thebay.com.

Opening Ceremony Outfit

Closing Ceremony Outfit

Instagram: @HudsonsBay

Facebook: @HudsonsBay

Twitter: @HudsonsBay

ABOUT HUDSON’S BAY

Hudson’s Bay is a digital-first purpose-driven retailer helping Canadians live their best style of life. As one of the country’s most iconic brands, Hudson’s Bay operates 87 full-line locations and thebay.com featuring Marketplace – the 5th largest e-commerce business in Canada. Hudson’s Bay has established a reputation for quality and style through an unrivalled assortment including fashion, designer, home, beauty, food concepts and more. The Hudson’s Bay Rewards program is ranked second in department store loyalty programs in Canada.

Hudson’s Bay operates under the HBC brand portfolio. Founded in 1670, HBC is North America’s oldest company. The signature stripes are a registered trademark of HBC.

Black lawyer finds herself in Hudson’s Bay diversity campaign without her permission

TORONTO – A prominent Black lawyer and diversity consultant from Toronto is speaking out after the Hudson’s Bay Company used her image without her permission for the Charter for Change campaign, which supports the “education, employment and empowerment” of racial minorities.

On Monday, Hadiya Roderique got a call from a friend.

“She said, ‘I didn’t know you’d being doing work for The Bay,’” Roderique told CTV News. “And I said, ‘I didn’t know I was doing work for The Bay either.' So that’s how I found out.”

Roderique tweeted a photo later that day of of a display at Hudson’s Bay for “Hudson’s Bay Charter for Change,” along with directions to scan the image for information on how to donate to empower “Indigenous peoples, Black People and People of Colour across the Country.”

The sign also had a photo of Roderique displayed prominently beside the text.

“I was pissed,” Roderique said.

Her image had been used in a national advertising campaign, without her permission, and without her even knowing about it. The photographer who took the photo was also not consulted or aware, Roderique revealed in a follow-up tweet.

“It clearly suggests that within the Hudson’s Bay communications department, there are some people who are missing the message here,” Clive Veroni, a marketing strategist, told CTV News.

The retailer wanted to amplify the voices of racialized Canadians, but ended up using a photo mock-up in the final ad instead of images of people they’ve profiled.

“To make a rookie error like this, to take an image from a mock-up and use it in public is absolutely unforgiveable,” Veroni said.

In a statement to CTV News, The Bay admited Roderique’s image was used “by mistake,” adding “we deeply regret the error.”

Roderique is a lawyer and diversity consultant, so she is careful about who and what she publicly supports.

“I didn’t want to be associated with a campaign that I didn’t know anything about,” she said.

At more than 350 years old, Hudson’s Bay is Canada’s oldest company and its beginnings are tied to the exploitation of Indigenous communities.

On the company’s website, it says it is “working to reconcile its past and is committed to change for a more equitable future for all.”

The Charter for Change is an initiative seeking to “accelerate racial equality” by investing in Black and Indigenous communities, as well as other racial minorities, the company says.

“Mistakes are certainly not unusual as corporations, individuals endeavour on a journey to equity, diversity inclusion,” said Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto.

The retailer has pulled Roderique’s images from its campaign and apologized to her as well. The two will talk again to discuss any next steps that need to be taken.