While speaking to the Inuit girl, Mr. Goodsir tells her he was told the Inuit call the land they are in "Nunavut". The native residents of the area have referred to the northern areas of Canada as Nunavut for centuries, likely millennia, though since 1870 that area was called the Northwest Territories by the government of Canada. In 1999, the Northwest Territories were divided, with the northeastern parts being renamed Nunavut in honor of the native Inuits' long-standing claim to the land. Nunavut is now the largest territory in Canada, being 1,750,000 sq km (680,000 sq mi) in area, making it roughly the same size as Mexico, though it is one of the most remote and sparsely populated areas in the world with a population of only 35,944 according to the 2016 census.
