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Ikaahuk

Sachs Harbour

Ikaahuk (Sachs Harbour), 2014. Photo credit: Beth Compton.

Our community is called Ikaahuk in Innuinaqtun or Ikaariaq in Sallirmiutun, meaning “place where one crosses”. We also know it as Sachs Harbour in English. We are located on the southwestern coast of Banks Island, which is also known as Ikaahuk/Ikaariaq. About 100 people live in our community. It has been the only permanent settlement on Banks Island since 1925, when three Inuvialuit families settled here to make a living trapping white fox. For many years our community was known as the “White Fox Capital” because of the large numbers of foxes harvested here. Our island is also known for its large populations of muskoxen, snow geese and polar bears. Many families in our community look forward to the spring goose hunt every year and are active hunters and fishers.

Sachs Harbour history & Muskox Harvest pt1 - Tamapta 04 01

On the Land Again Dennis Allen visits Sachs Harbour in the spring - Suaangan 05 12

Sachs Harbour Elders Alexandrea Elias, William Kuptana, Michael Amos - Tamapta 04 04

Frank Kudlak on life in Sachs Harbour - Tamapta 04 01

Edith Haogak Alexandrea Elias - Tamapta 93 05

Climate Change: A Banks Island Perspective

Our Community Today

Community Quotes

We live on an island and we love each other.

– Grade 5 student
Inualthuyak School, 2025

The white people have banks, but Eskimos in Sachs Harbour, our bank is our land. That’s our bank.

– Mary Elias, Ikaahuk, 1976, Berger Inquiry Transcripts

People come here long before our time, people had learned to come this way…from generations that came before them. There was…a man by the name of Allanaq, who came to this area many years ago, and then he heard the sound of the birds in one area and he went over to see, and it was those snow goose… there was many geese and eggs here that you could look some distance and you couldn’t see the end of the flock.

– Susie Tiktalik, Ikaahuk, 1976, Berger Inquiry Transcripts

Our community has different families that are all connected. Our children are special. This is a traditional community where the children learn from their families how to live off the land.

– Donna Keogak
November 2025

It’s so beautiful. I like going hunting with my Dad. I like going out on the land, going to my camp.

– Grade 5 student
Inualthuyak School, 2025

Everyone knows everyone. When people go hunting they offer Elders meat that they got. And I love when Elders tell me stories from when they were younger.

– Grade 8 student
Inualthuyak School, 2025

We’re saving the north end of Banks Island for breeding area. That’s for foxes, caribou, muskoxen, and all the caribou, and the muskox, they all calve at the north end.

– Andy Carpenter, Ikaahuk, 1976, Berger Inquiry Transcripts

We used to stay out for about two to three weeks and set traps as far as we can to a certain point and on our way back we’d check the traps and stay home for about five to six days and we’d go again, do the same thing, but we’d go a little bit farther each trip we’d go out.

– John Lucas Sr., 2016, Inuktitut Magazine, Issue 119

I remember that was my first love, I fell in love with the land. Sounds crazy but that was true. My first love was the land, I looked out and it was early in the morning, the sun was out. I thought it was so beautiful, but there’s no trees, just rolling hills all over, right by the ocean. That was my first love, just the land. The sight of the land, the way it looked

– Agnes Carpenter, Aulavik Oral History Project Final Report

It was good. It was good them days ‘cause everybody had to work in order to survive. Like if you wanted a year’s supply of fuel for your stove, you know you’re gonna have to trap and work real hard to get what you need to survive for the winter. That way everybody was self-supporting themselves.

– Lawrence Amos, Aulavik Oral History Project Final Report

Our Community in the Past

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