The Records of the Moravian Mission in Labrador

Abstract

the middle of the eighteenth century the Moravian Brethren have been engaged in missionary activity among the Eskimos of northern Labrador. During much of this period Moravian missionaries have been virtually the only group of educated and literate people in this remote area. Their correspondence, reports, and other papers undoubtedly constitute the most extensive written records of the life of the Labrador Coast in existence today. In 1 77 1 the Moravians established at Nain their first mission station in Labrador. It remained the headquarters for the Labrador Mission until after World War II. The main impulse for the missionary venture came from the Brethren in Germany and in England. The former provided most of the personnel of the mission ; the latter, through their missionary agency, the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel, provided most of the financing and supply. It was also the Brethren in England who secured from the British Crown the necessary land grants for the mission settlements. Following the settlement at Nain, other mission stations were founded at Okak in 1776 and at Hopedale in 1782, to the north and south of Nain respectively. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries further mission posts were established on the Coast of Labrador, extending from Makkovik in the south, near Hamilton Inlet, to Killinek, close to Cape Chidley in the north. At present the Moravians still maintain four mission stations Nain, Hopedale, and Makkovik on the coast, and an interior mission at Happy Valley, near Goose Bay, where the Superintendent of the Labrador Province is now stationed. As the various mission settlements became established, the methodical German missionaries set up station archives, where were kept