Mallikjuaq Island is a small nature reserve near Cape Dorset, reachable from the mainland across the tidal flats of Tellik Inlet at low tide. Its archaeological traces, burial sites, lake, and familiar shoreline make it more than a nearby island: for Leon Anawak, it holds a vivid connection to the home he left as a boy and encounters again as an adult.

Setting and Landscape

The island lies close enough to Cape Dorset to be described as a tiny island nearby, and at low tide the flats of Tellik Inlet form a walkable route between it and the mainland. From the shore, it belongs to a landscape of tidal water, ice, and open views; from the Polar Lodge, it appears only a short distance across the frozen inlet.

The island is a territorial nature reserve containing several layers of human history. Its features include nineteenth-century fox traps, ruins from ancient Thule culture, and burial sites associated with local legends. Anawak also remembers the stone kayak stands and a lake where he and his companions once camped. These details place everyday use, archaeological remains, and inherited stories within the same compact landscape.

Anawak’s Childhood Memories

On his return to Cape Dorset, Mallikjuaq Island comes back to Anawak as part of the place he loved. The island’s remembered features are bound up with the childhood landscape: the kayak stands, the lake, and the camp. His memories of it are not simply a catalogue of landmarks; they mark a time before his departure and the painful history that made him leave Nunavut.

When Anawak was twelve, a supply ship carried him away with his new family. The wharf, rather than the plane that later came to mind, was his last view of Cape Dorset. The island and its surroundings thus belong to a remembered home that he lost, as well as to the present landscape he has returned to while preparing to bury his father.

The Island on His Return

The adult Anawak sees Mallikjuaq from across the frozen inlet near the Polar Lodge. In the bright, reddish-gold half-light, the frozen water of Tellik Inlet appears silver, and the island rises from it like a sleeping whale. The scene makes him recognize the beauty of the place anew, connecting its remembered geography to an immediate experience rather than leaving it solely in the past.

That renewed attention contrasts with his first responses to Cape Dorset, whose present-day streets and buildings seemed unlike the place of his childhood. Mallikjuaq remains a recognizable point of connection: close to the town, accessible when the tide allows, and full of the specific places he remembers. Its significance in Anawak’s return lies in this conjunction of physical landscape, cultural and historical traces, and personal memory.