Old Blubber Station: Pangnurtung

In terms of outside impacts, the major interaction with the Inuit of Pangnurtung was, first through Scottish whalers, then later through the RCMP and Christian missionaries - primarily the Anglican church. The Hamlet of Pangnurtung has a lovely little museum/heritage building which details the story of the the Inuit people. It also has an old Hudson Bay Company Blubber Station - where the Scottish whalers worked with the Inuit to cut up the whales and prepare the blubber to be shipped overseas. Some was boiled down in huge vats, and others were simply cut into strips and packed in brine barrels. The two boats in the picture are actual whaling boats in which the Inuit would go out, with harpoon mounted on the front, to shoot whales.