Canada gives birth today to a new territory, a frozen land in the far north two-thirds the size of India, with only a small fraction of the population.
Nunavut, as the new territory is known, is home to only 25,000 residents, most of them Inuit, who will enjoy wide autonomy and mineral and mining rights under an agreement with the federal government.
Two-thirds of Canada's Northwest Territories of ice and tundra above the 60th parallel will form the new territory, Nunavut, or "our land" in the language of the Inuit.
Nunavut covers 2.2 million sq km (850,000 square miles) of some of the most inhospitable terrain known to mankind. Frozen for most of the year, Nunavut boasts only 28 settlements built on piles driven deep into the permafrost.
The smallest, Bathurst Inlet, has 18 residents while Iqaluit, the capital of the new territory, boasts 4,500. With no roads, the communities are linked by air.
In exchange for wide autonomy, the Inuit have relinquished their ancient territorial claims to land but will hold full economic control, including mineral rights, on 350,000 sq km, with control of the rest shared with the federal government.
In line with the other two Canadian territories, and unlike Canada's 10 provinces, the budget for Nunavut will be mostly met out of central government funds.
"Nunavut is like the promised homeland for the Inuit," said one of the territory's newly appointed officials recently.
The government for the new territory was elected in February, with 15 Inuit in the 19-strong parliament, which chose an Inuit lawyer, Mr Paul Okalik (34), as Nunavut's first Prime Minister.
The territorial government's responsibilities include education, justice, housing and local administration.
Its most pressing problems include unemployment which affects 22 per cent of the Inuit, poor skills training and a suicide rate six times the national average.
Setting himself up as a role model for the youth under 20 who form half Nunavut's population, the new Prime Minister said recently: "I am a living example of the value of a good education."
Mr Okalik overcame alcohol problems that led him into frequent brushes with the law before he went to Ottawa to study law, becoming the Inuits' only qualified lawyer.
The birth of Nunavut marks the first time the map of Canada has been redrawn since Newfoundland became the federation's 10th province in 1949.
There are 125,000 Inuit people in the world, those outside Canada living in Alaska, Greenland and Russia. Canada's biggest concentration of Inuit outside Nunavut is found in the extreme north of Quebec province, where there are 9,000.
The local newspaper, News/North, has advised residents of Iqaluit to bask in the spotlight while it lasts. Inqaluit's 4,000 residents have been swamped by 250 media representatives and 1,000 visitors for today's ceremonies. "Next week it's someone else's turn," the newspaper said.