The community of Gjoa Haven is located about 250 kilometers above the Arctic Circle in the central part of the Nunavut Territory. It is home to about 1,100 and growing. Gjoa Haven is a typical Nunavut community in regards to ethnicity, population, lifestyle, and the economy.

Gjoa Haven has an interesting history. Many Nunavut communities were created through the establishment of whaling camps, a Hudson's Bay Trading Post or a church, but Gjoa Haven was founded by an arctic explorer. In the summer of 1903, a Norwegian explorer named Roald Amundsen set forth with his crew in their small ship, the Gjoa, into the Canadian Arctic to search for and navigate the Northwest Passage. No ship had ever navigated the Northwest Passage up to this time.

Amundsen traveled down Peel Inlet and discovered "the finest little harbor in the world", which at that time was an uninhabited little bay on the east side of King William Island. Amundsen anchored the Gjoa in the harbor and stayed for two years doing scientific research on the magnetic North Pole, which was located near Gjoa Haven at that time. Over the two years Inuit people from surrounding camps came to trade with Amundsen, who had loaded up his ship with metal products and other trade goods to prepare for such an opportunity. The harbor became known as a haven for the Gjoa or "Gjoa Haven". After Amundsen left, the Inuit people stayed and the community was born. In the 1920's the Hudson Bay Company set up a trading post in Gjoa Haven and the community grew from there. Amundsen went on to become the first person to navigate the Northwest Passage and five years later the first person to reach the South Pole.