Today we headed back down south as the weather was improving. Our destination was Sisimiut just above the Arctic Circle. It is the second-largest city in Greenland mixing modern methods with traditional ways such as hunting. The area has been occupied for an estimated 4,500 years, first by the people of the Saqqaq culture, followed by the Dorset culture and then the Thules.
The current population is a mix of Inuit and Danish – the latter settling here in the 1720s. This city too has a large population of Greenlandic sledge dogs which is evidence of the hunting tradition.
Sisimiut was our first (and only) dry landing, with the ship being able to dock at the quay. We took a walk around the area passing a new form of graffiti. A local artist had been commissioned to engrave the rocks with a range of sea life. It would have been interesting to see the end result.
We took a short walk up the steep hillside to get a wider view, then headed down to visit an interesting museum of old buildings retained to keep Sisimiut’s architectural and cultural history alive. This included a turf house being a reconstruction of a dwelling typical of the early 20th century. It comprised layers of turf and soil interspersed with rocks. Remains of this type of construction can still be seen along the coastline of Sisimiut.
The turf houses can be roughly dated. During the earlier days of construction, they would accommodate several families in the one dwelling. When the Christian mission later arrived in Greenland this way of living was dissuaded because of possible ‘indiscretions’. We were to learn that this is just one example of how ‘outsiders’ have thrust their attitudes onto other cultures. The design of those multi-family dwellings was later changed to housing two families.
A Colonial Manager’s house dated from 1846 as a two-story building and was greatly extended, including adding a further floor. This was the home and office of the manager of the colony of Holsteinsborg (now known as Sisimiut). In the early 1900s Arctic explorers would visit to collect provisions and await better weather conditions. These are said to have included polar explorer Knud Rasmussen, aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, and Scottish botanist Isobel Hutchison.
Inside the Colonial Manager’s house was a display of office equipment including telex, duplicating machines and an Olympia typewriter – gosh, I remember working with a brand new one of those a long time ago. I would add it didn’t date back to the 1800s when the house was erected!
There were some interesting points about the nearby Bethel Church. It was built in Denmark in 1771, paid for by Sisimiut residents for the grand sum of 60 barrels of whale blubber. Once built, it was disassembled in Denmark and re-erected in Greenland but was not consecrated for two years because of storms and epidemics. The delay is still evident. Its weathercock has the inscription 1773 rather than the consecration date of 1775.
After the trip around the historic houses we were invited to a food tasting. It was good to talk to the local people about just some of their food. First up was dried whale, which was black and had a meaty taste and texture. It was nice but I had to put any thoughts of whale hunting out of my mind. Its appearance was just like meat with a fibrous texture although it was black.
Then we tried whale skin, also known as mattak. Yummy. Actually it was very chewy, a bit like eating a rubber eraser. The outer skin was fibrous and very fishy and the inner layer was rubbery. This is a delicacy and often served on festive occasions with mustard or garlic.
Next up was caplan, known locally as ammassak. This was like large whitebait and had a strong fishy taste which was improved by adding soy sauce.
The dried cod (nutaaq) which is left to dry in the sun and wind, was a cream colour, very fibrous and difficult to chew and soften. It is often eaten with mustard. Then we were on to the delicately-flavoured shrimps and snow crab claws, the latter being large and meaty although we had to borrow a Swiss Army knife to crack the shell.
We also tried the musk ox (moskus) sausage, which was similar to salami but a mild flavour. Overall my favourite, apart from the more familiar crab and shrimps, was to my surprise the black whale meat.
On return to the ship we were welcomed by an Inuit kayaker. We think he was the same chap we saw when in this area in 2014. He performed for about 20 minutes, displaying various turns each involving flipping the kayak so that he went down into the water and up again.
Children learn these techniques from around six years old and before they are let out into the deep water they have to be able to perform 60 different types of turn holding their paddle and sometimes a wooden spear or other items to catch their prey.
Once back to our cabin we were introduced to the art of towel folding by our talented cabin attendant. This evening was the hippo.
Copyright: Words and photos Sue Barnard 2022