I last visited Narsarsuaq years ago. It’s an abandoned American military airbase and a settlement entirely devoted to supporting the only airport (at present) in South Greenland. Out of season, like this, the Hotel Narsarsuaq has a edge of The Shining to it, with it’s enormous capacity, long brightly lit corridors and it’s distinct lack …
If you want to be anonymous, Greenland might seem like a good idea. Greenland’s towns and settlements are so small, so remote, so distant from each other. You could easily be fooled that this is a place you might find solitude, isolation, privacy. But you’d probably be wrong. Greenland has a population of fifty six …
*Photograph by Hans Peter Kleemann . Child abuse. It’s not a subject most people want to talk about. And certainly not at the up-beat, pro-business Future Greenland conference, which brought about four hundred and fifty participants to Nuuk last week. There’s enormous interest in the future of Greenland. From long-time allies like the Americans, to …
This morning, as I walked to work, on another day of Arctic sun blazing down from a perfect blue sky, brilliant white snow clinging to the dark rocky mountains, I was struck by a combination of smells, a combination of smells that perfectly reflected my image of Greenland, and which invoked a burning passion for …
*‘Skadestuen’ The hospital emergency department, Nuuk One of the first panicked thoughts that flashed through my mind after breaking my leg hiking in Greenland was, Oh God! What day is it today?! And a wave of relief washed over me as I realised it was a Monday. I was recalling a friend’s experience with her …
Normal people collect flowers, rocks. But we’re not all normal, are we. I once knew a cat that collected leaves instead of dead mice, mewing at the front door until someone would acknowledge the beautiful green catch between his paws and add it to the bowl filled with similar leafy trophies. People collect strange things …
“How high are we above sea level?” asked a middle-aged woman, as the zodiac carrying her and a half dozen other high-end tourists skirted along the icy shoreline toward their landing point by the outlet of another monolithic glacier. My husband, the tour guide, frowned and his mouth opened and closed, but no words fell …
For me, winters in northern Europe were a dark dirge. Weeks of rain, sleet slapping the windows, grim morning darkness and a cold dank wind. The evenings too quickly wrapped their shadowy arms around the city, already hunkered down for the night by mid afternoon. It’s so dark in Copenhagen, Greenlanders say, and so cold. …
The multicultural festival in Nuuk this week seems like a good time to think about embracing diversity. There were activities involving food, art, and culture to celebrate Nuuk’s limited diversity. It’s needed. Since we moved to Greenland from Australia, I have noticed a marked change in my young son’s attitude toward foreigners. He notices people …