Shigawake

Shigawake
Municipality
Saint Paul Church in Shigawake
Location within Bonaventure RCM
Shigawake Location in eastern Quebec
Coordinates: 48°06′N 65°05′W / 48.100°N 65.083°W / 48.100; -65.083[1]
Country	Canada
Province	Quebec
Region	Gaspésie– Îles-de-la-Madeleine
RCM	Bonaventure
Settled	Late 18th century
Constituted	December 15, 1924
Government [2]
• Mayor	Rolande Beebe
• Federal riding	Gaspésie— Îles-de-la-Madeleine
• Prov. riding	Bonaventure
Area [2][3]
• Total	75.85 km2 (29.29 sq mi)
• Land	76.82 km2 (29.66 sq mi)
	There is an apparent contradiction between two authoritative sources.
Population  (2021)[3]
• Total	333
• Density	4.3/km2 (11/sq mi)
• Pop (2016-21)	14.0%
• Dwellings	167
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Postal code(s)	G0C 3E0
Area code(s)	418 and 581
Highways	R-132
Website	municipalityshigawake.com

Shigawake is a municipality in the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine region of the province of Quebec in Canada. Shigawake is bordered to the west by Saint-Godefroi and to the east by Port-Daniel–Gascons.

The place name is taken from the river that flows through the village and is of Mi'kmaq origin, meaning either "land of the rising sun" or "white water".^[1]

The Municipality of Shigawake has an eight kilometre stretch of coastline behind high red cliffs on the Gaspe Coast. It has been officially designated as an Anglophone community among the largely Francophone population of Quebec. The community is only home to, among many small houses, a municipal building, the Anglican church of St Paul's (built in the 1860s), and a former Rectory converted to the Community Centre. The United Church was decommissioned in 2012, formerly the site of a temperance hall.

Shigawake has held the Shigawake Fair annually since 1909, also now paired with the Shigawake Music Festival which has showcased local talent.^{[citation needed]}

Shigawake is also the site of Seagro, an organic fertiliser and composting firm.^{[citation needed]}

The oldest farmhouse on the entire coast continuously inhabited by one family, the Old Homestead, was built early in the first decade of the 1800s.^{[citation needed]} The founding of Shigawake is described in The Alford Saga, an eight book series of a romantic adventures by Paul Almond, an officer of the Order of Canada.

The area's fields, once so productive, are now used mainly for hay and its forests for harvest of sawlogs and firewood.^{[4][not specific enough to verify]}