NunatuKavut

NunatuKavut
Proposed Autonomous area
The village of Red Bay, Labrador, in NunatuKavut
Country	Canada
Province	Newfoundland and Labrador
Capital	Vâli, Labrador
Government
• Type	Proposed parliamentary democracy within the parliamentary system of Canada
• President	Todd Russell (since 2012)
Population (2007)
• Total	6,000
Time zone	AST (UTC-04)
Postal code prefix	A0P
ISO 3166 code	NL
Federal riding	Labrador (electoral district)
Provincial riding	Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair and Lake Melville
Website	NunatuKavut.ca

NunatuKavut is an unrecognized Inuit territory in Labrador. The NunatuKavut people (also called Inuit-Metis or Labrador Metis) are the direct descendants of the Inuit that lived south of the Churchill or Grand River prior to European contact, with European influence from Basque and French whalers.

Nunatuĸavut or NunatuKavut [ˈnuːnətuːhəvuːt] means "Our ancient land" in the ancestral Inuttut dialect of the NunatuKavummuit people. The Nunatuĸavut region encompasses Southern Labrador, from the Grand River south to Lodge Bay and west to the extent of the official border between Quebec and Labrador. However, the land use area is much more extensive.

In 1652, an Inuit community was recorded in what is now the Côte-Nord region of Quebec. In 1659, Jacques Fremin described an Inuit community at Cape St. Charles. Louis Fornel named the area from Alexis Bay to Hamilton Inlet the "Coste des Eskimaux" in 1743 and claimed there was Inuit living around St. Michael's Bay ("Baye des Meniques"), Hawke Bay, Martin Bay and Hamilton Inlet.

In 1763 Labrador was ceded to the Colony of Newfoundland. It included coastal area between the St. John's River and Cape Chidley and was meant as extra fishing grounds for Newfoundland fishermen. Labrador has been created using territory from the French colony of New France and the British colony of Rupert's Land. The inland boundary of Labrador was undefined until 1927 so the Dominion of Canada claimed the interior of Labrador as part of Quebec and the Northwest Territories while Newfoundland claimed that Labrador extended far inland. Labrador was ceded back to New France (now Lower Canada) and Rupert's Land in 1791 but then in 1809 it rejoined Newfoundland. In 1825 Blanc-Sablon and territory to the west was ceded to Lower Canada however this region (Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality) remains culturally close to NunatuKavut.