[4] Of all other northern villages in Nunavik (VN), only Puvirnituq has no Inuit reserved land (TI) of the same name associated with it.

The name means "putrifed" and is said to have arisen after an epidemic killed off most of the area's residents to the point that there were not enough people to bury the dead, which allowed the exposed bodies to decompose and gave off a putrid smell.

Puvirnituq Airport handles scheduled flights to and from all other Hudson Bay coastal communities in Quebec, Montreal, and Ottawa.

[6] In 1921, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) established a trading post in the village, known as Povungnituk and often shortened to Pov.

Its success inspired other Inuit communities to form similar cooperatives, most of which now make up the Federation of Co-operatives of Northern Quebec.