Despite appearances, not all is sweet in Nunavik’s “little apple”

AUPALUK — Some Nunavimmiut jokingly call Aupaluk, Nunavik’s smallest community, “The Big Apple.”

But mini-sized Aupaluk is about as physically different from New York City, the original “Big Apple,” as any place can be. With a population of only 155, it’s actually more of a “little apple.”

Located 150 kilometres north of Kuujjuaq on Ungava Bay, Aupaluk is in fact the eastern Arctic’s smallest municipality.

Almost everyone in Aupaluk is Inuit, and you won’t hear much English or French spoken. More than 100 of its residents are under 25 years old, and 53 of them are still in school.

The town consists of around 40 houses located along two connected roads. There’s also a co-op store, an arena, an airport, a co-op-owned transit house, a school, a church, a daycare centre, a generating station and a handful of other buildings, such as a municipal office, nursing clinic and police station.

And that’s about it.

Standing near the Taqsakallak School you can take in all of Aupaluk without even moving.

From this vantage point, you might think Aupaluk looks picture-perfect, too, with everything it needs, including a spectacular view over Ungava Bay.

There’s little obvious separation between the land and the community. Recently a wolf was running around near the airport — that is, until it was shot. Caribou from the Leaf Bay herd often wander by. The surrounding lakes and rivers are full of plump, large char.

But life here also includes some things Aupalummiut could do without, and don’t like to talk about: drugs, alcohol, family violence and mental illness.

You won’t find mention of these anywhere in the statistics. According to the Kativik Regional Police, there is little if any crime in Aupaluk.

That’s because women who face beatings usually don’t call the sole cop in town. No one wants to report the bootleggers and pushers who bring in booze and drugs.

Confidentiality is an issue when everyone knows each other. As a result, problems involving youth protection almost never make it to the authorities in Kuujjuaq, either.

“They’re swept under the rug,” said one resident, who says it’s hard to go to social services or the police because nothing stays secret in the community.

No, you won’t see the downside of Aupaluk on paper, in its snowy streets, or even by looking at the well-kept houses.

But some of its problems do show up in school.

Since it opened in 1981, only two kids from Aupaluk have managed to graduate and finish Secondary Five, which is the equivalent of Grade 11 in Nunavut.

This year there are only five students studying at the secondary level. Many students from kindergarten up arrive to school late, or have trouble staying awake or concentrating. Some are depressed or even violent.

In January school principal Stéphane Doyon decided to remove seven students from classes until the Kativik School Board could find a teacher equipped to instruct them. They’re still not in school.

“I had no choice — they were stopping other students from learning,” Doyon said.

To encourage students to come to school and arrive on time, he’s developed a system of rewarding classes for good attendance records. Students in the best classes receive educational games or school supplies.

Federal stay-in-school money has also paid for a climbing wall in the gym, which kids can use before school. Breakfast is served daily at school as well.

To try and tackle the problems at home, which often follow the kids to school, a parenting class for adults is planned for later this year.

The challenge is to see how Aupaluk can become the community it should be within 10 years.

Those who know the community well say it has already come a long way since the early 1990s, when it had a reputation as a bit of a rock-and-roll place.

Some Nunavimmiut say there’s little reason to justify this tiny community’s existence. It’s far from services, and, due to its size and isolation, it will never be able to develop.

But the community shows no sign of giving up. This stubbornness is perhaps a legacy from when Aupaluk was a traditional camping place, and times were sometimes hard.

For the Quebec government, Aupaluk serves to reinforce its sovereignty over the northern coasts. Thus, provincial money continues to pour into Aupaluk, for the daycare centre and other municipal projects.