Greetings from Kit – Greenland

Even an essay has to begin somewhere and so I will begin mine with a tale from the Inuit.

A family who no longer wanted to provide for their unmarried daughter took her out on the oceans in a small boat. When a storm arose, the parents pushed their daughter overboard into the angry waters.

The girl, Sedna, fought to save herself. She clung tightly, pleading with her parents to help her climb back into the boat. The father steeled his heart against his daughter’s cries and fought to loosen her grip but try as he would, Sedna refused to let go.

Battered about by the angry waves, the small boat was in danger of capsizing and drowning the entire family. The father took his knife and cut off the ends of Sedna’s fingers at the first knuckle. To his astonishment, the bits of finger turned into seals as they fell into the sea. Sedna continued to cling to the side of the boat and her father cut off her fingers to the second knuckle. As these bits of finger fell into the roiling seas, they became the walruses.

Sedna cried piteously, knowing she would not be able to hold on for much longer. Her father, sensing her weakness, cut off the rest of her fingers, which became the great whales. The girl, no longer able to hold onto the boat, sank into the sea where she resides to this day, the mother of all sea creatures.

The stories of the peoples indigenous to Greenland are harsh, not unlike the lands they populate. Too, like Greenland itself, the stories provide for surprises in unexpected places.

It is not a coincidence that I have given you a story about the mythos of the ocean, for it is from the ocean that I pull my living. Although Greenland has been under the protection of a number of the European Nordic countries, she became an official part of Denmark in 1953 and was granted home rule in 1978. Not many live here – not many can, because it is a harsh land. In 2007, approximately 70,000 rugged souls call Greenland home; 80% are Inuit – the other 20% were born outside of Greenland. My family came here many years ago from Denmark. As is true of about 95% of the population, we have been fisher folk for as long as we have been a part of this land. We do not have much, but we what we have is ours, at least as much as anything nature provides can be said to belong to mere humans!

One has to be thick-skinned to live this far north, where the average temperature is around 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit (10-15 degrees Celsius) and where 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 Celsius) is considered comfortable! During the hemispheric summer the day is very long. North of the polar circle the sun doesn’t go down at all for about two months, from late May through late July. Imagine a workday that rarely ends…. On the other hand, our long winter nights are the perfect backdrop for the northern lights, which put on such a spectacular show here in the tundra north that the U.S. National Science Foundation operates a scientific station in Kangerlussuaq, on the southwestern shore of Greenland for the purpose of monitoring them. Peles, my dog, doesn’t seem to care about the northern lights but likes the winters better than the summers because, even though he is free to join me on the fishing boat, I have little time to play with him during the summer.

If you like exotic places that provide a variety of challenges, please come visit! No roads join the various cities – one gets about Greenland on foot, by air, or by boat (when the weather and the sea permit). Glaciers are visible nearly year round and just about everywhere, not only around the huge portion of my country covered by the glacial ice sheet but even during the summer months when the southern parts of the country are lush and green. Ever wondered where Santa gets his reindeer? We’ve got them! Want to see a whale up close and personal? They’re waiting for you. This land is a paradise for anglers, for hikers, for mountain climbers – for adventurers. If you haven’t yet found paradise, come on over. This could be just the place for you.