Archaeological evidence indicates that people have occupied the area around Quaqtaq for about 3500 years.
Thule people, the ancestors of today's Inuit, arrived around 1400 or 1500 AD. In 1947, a
Roman Catholic mission opened in Quaqtaq. The present-day settlement was established after a trading post first established in 1927 at Iggiajaaq, a few kilometres south-west, was finally closed in 1950. After a
measles epidemic killed 11 adults in 1952, the Canadian government began delivering basic services to the community. A nursing station was built in 1963. In the 1960s, the Quebec government opened a store and a post office equipped with a radio-telephone. In 1974, the store became a co-operative and, in 1978, Quaqtaq was legally established as a Northern village. In 1996, the Kativik Regional Police Force was created in Nunavik, and became responsible for policing Quaqtaq. In 2021, the KRPF changed its name to the
Nunavik Police Service. == Climate ==