Abstract

Canada may be divided into six broad Aboriginal cultural areas based on major geographic regions. Tribes in the same region share a greater number of cultural affinities than tribes from different regions. However only in the Arctic do the lines of geography, language and culture coincide so closely. Nunavut’s boundary strongly reflects that of the cultural zone of the Aboriginal people of the Eastern Arctic. The Inuit are descendants of the Thule, who came from Asia and lived in the Arctic for thousands of years. Their language, Inuktitut, is spoken by most of the population.