Saint-Augustin (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃t‿oɡystɛ̃] ⓘ) is a municipality and settlement in Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada, known by its large English-speaking population as St. Augustine.
The majority of its inhabitants are Métis, descendants of Inuit and Europeans, many of whom still practice subsistence activities such as hunting, fishing, wood cutting, trapping and wild berry gathering, using both traditional and modern technologies.
It was first identified as Saint-Augustin–Saguenay, named after Augustin le Gardeur de Courtemanche (1663–1717) who in 1702 was granted the land concession "from the river called Kegaska up to the one named Kesesakion" for a period of 10 years and who was the King's Commander of the Labrador coast in 1714.
[1][5] The place experienced a slow growth until the lower North Shore was opened to settlement circa 1820, attracting English, American, Quebec, and Newfoundland fishing families to its rich stocks of seal, salmon and cod.
They mixed with the remaining indigenous people, and their descendants, the Métis, occupied at one point some 40 different fishing communities on the shores of the area's numerous islands and bays, including Spoon Cove, Anse du Portage, Havre Saint-Augustin, and Ile Saint-Augustin.