Aguanish is a municipality

Types of municipalities in Quebec

The following is a list of the types of local and supralocal territorial units in Quebec, including those used solely for statistical purposes, as defined by the Institut de la Statistique du Québec....

 and village in the Côte-Nord

Côte-Nord

Côte-Nord is the second largest administrative region by land area in Quebec, Canada, after Nord-du-Québec...

 region of the province

Provinces and territories of Canada

The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...

 of Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

 in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

In addition to Aguanish itself, the municipality also includes the community of L'Île-Michon, 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) to the east along Route 138

Quebec route 138

Route 138 is a major highway in the Canadian province of Quebec, following the entire north shore of the Saint Lawrence River past Montreal to the eastern terminus in Natashquan on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The western terminus is in Elgin, at the border with New York State south-west of Montreal...

. Economic activity primarily centers on crab and salmon fishing.

The place is named after the Goynish or Aguanus River, that flows through and drains into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence

Gulf of Saint Lawrence

The Gulf of Saint Lawrence , the world's largest estuary, is the outlet of North America's Great Lakes via the Saint Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean...

 right at the village. This word of Innu origin came from aguanus, in turn from akwanich, from the roots akwan (shelter) and ich (small). It has undergone many different spellings, including: Goines (17th century); Guanis, Goinis (1744 map by Bellin); Goynish (1776 map by Carver); Agwanus, Aguanus or Agouanus (maps of the 19th century).

History

For a few years in the 1830s, the Hudson's Bay Company

Hudson's Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...

 operated the Nabisipi trading post at the mouth of the Nabisipi River (just west of the current town site).

The first European inhabitants, fishermen from the Magdalen Islands

Magdalen Islands

The Magdalen Islands form a small archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with a land area of . Though closer to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, the islands form part of the Canadian province of Quebec....

, settled in the area circa 1849. They were joined in 1875 by people from Kégashka (today Kegaska) and from Nabisipi River. The place was incorporated as a municipality in 1957.

Demographics

Population trend:

• Population in 2006: 303 (2001 to 2006 population change: -11.7 %)
• Population in 2001: 343
• Population in 1996: 380
• Population in 1991: 402

Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 125 (total dwellings: 140)

Mother tongue:

• English as first language: 0 %
• French as first language: 96.7 %
• English and French as first language: 0 %
• Other as first language: 3.3 %