Foxe Basin Kivalliq North Sapujiyiit/
Guardians of the Sea Society
Our name refers to the Foxe Basin region of Hudson Bay and the three communities incorporated are the northern most in the Kivalliq region. The word Sapujiyiit is Inuktitut for Guardians of the Sea. We are an incorporated Society under the Government of Nunavut as of November 2021.
We are an Inuit-led organization that incorporates the communities of Chesterfield Inlet (Igluligaarjuk), Coral Harbour (Salliq), and Naujaat. We were formed to support the health of communities and wildlife in the Foxe Basin and northern Kivalliq region.
Community-based monitoring and research is our passion!
Originally formed to monitor climate and shipping impacts on marine mammals.
We have expanded our work to include many research topics and collaborations to meet these communities’ needs and support efforts to improve health for mammals and Inuit.
With gratitude to our generous supporters and partners
We are currently working on launching our monitoring program!
Despite several delays, we are excited to tour all three communities to launch our organization and monitoring program. This will involve hiring local Guardians, collecting community concerns to focus our research, and establish the details of how we will collaborate with each community’s HTO members.
What are Guardians?
The foundation of our organization is the Guardians of the Sea. These are the local community hunters who we are working to hire who have had experience volunteering with Search and Rescue. Did you know that in Nunavut, Search and Rescue is not a paid job – community members volunteer their time and equipment to respond to those stranded on the land with some government funding for gas money. Our Guardians will be part of changing this norm by using our Sapujiyiit Society equipment to respond as part of their roles with our organization. Between calls they will be monitoring and recording observations about climate changes, safety on the land, shipping activity, marine mammal behaviour and health, and others based on community concerns.