Tourisme Québec recognizes Nunavik park display design

The interpretive centre for the Kuururjuaq provincial park sits on a rocky site in the community of Kangiqsualujjuaq. (PHOTO BY PASCAL POULIN)

A display at the new interpretation centre for the Kuururjuaq provincial park in Kangiqsualujjuaq has picked up an award from Tourisme Québec.

The exhibit, a showcase for the park and Inuit heritage, co-ordinated by the Kativik Regional Government and the local Asimaauttaq cultural committee, prepares park visitors to travel the Koroc River and teaches them more more about the natural and cultural heritage of the park and surrounding area.

Now, that exhibit is also a prize-winner, recently winning a bronze medal from Tourisme Québec for its design in the category of “Tourism Attractions: fewer than 25,000 visitors,” the KRG announced this past week.

When you enter permanent exhibit at the visitors centre in Kangiqsualujjuaq, you can expect a mini-tour of the huge park.

The trilingual exhibit, called “A Millennium Travel Route,” takes visitors through the park, which includes the 160-kilometre Koroc River valley and towering Mount D’Iberville (Mt. Caubvick in Newfoundland-Labrador), which, at 1,562 metres, marks the highest point in the two provinces and east of Alberta.

Follow the green trail laid out on the floor of the interpretation centre and you’ll move through time, from the formation of the Torngat Mountains to today’s community of Kangiqsualujjuaq.

Displays include historical artifacts, as well as crafts and works of art by community members.

Last summer, 130 people made it to the visitors centre in Kangiqsualujjuaq — and 49 of these ventured into the park, according to KRG statistics from 2012.

But those numbers are expected to increase as Parks Canada works with Quebec’s parks system to promote “two parks, one destination,” which would encourage visitors come to the Torngat National Park and Kuururjuaq, also called a “parc national” by Quebec.

Follow the green road and explore the Kuururjuaq park through the award-winning display at the park interpretive centre in Kangiqsualujjuaq. (PHOTO BY PASCAL POULIN)