This study on developments in festive clothing is based on clothing and photograph collections in... more This study on developments in festive clothing is based on clothing and photograph collections in museums, interviews with Tunumiit (East Greenlanders) and participant observation during several months in Kalaallit Nunaata Tunua (East Greenland) in 1997, 1998 and 2001. Festive garments for special occasions did not exist in the traditional pre-Christian culture of East Greenland. In this article we investigate what influences affected the development of special clothing for festive occasions. Changes in Kalaallit Nunaata Kitaa (West Greenland) and European influences deeply affected clothing traditions in East Greenland. In the course of this process, some Tunumiit garments came to disappear and others were re-invented and re-shaped using new materials. Preparing animal skins and sewing attire always have been a women's preserve. In the past, sewing qualities were highly valued within Inuit society. Today, sewing skills and designing clothing are paid for but they still reflect ...
Global warming and climate change are important topics of debate in Greenland. This paper examine... more Global warming and climate change are important topics of debate in Greenland. This paper examines how the Tunumiit of East Greenland perceive the weather, the changing climate, and the local environment. It also discusses how their perceptions have been influenced by political debates on global warming, sustainable development, and wildlife management since the 1950s. In the past, if some animal species disappeared from a specific area, or if the weather turned bad, the Tunumiit would attribute this misfortune to human transgressions of rules of respect. Today, they often connect the increasingly unpredictable weather to their reduced access to natural resources and greater difficulties in travelling. Some hunters speak of a shift from seal hunting to cod fishing in East Greenland, although fishing is still perceived as a vulnerable source of income with low status. Nowadays, older methods of navigation and orientation coexist with such new technologies as GPS and mobile telephones...
In 2008 two Dutch museums and two Greenland museums started a cooperative venture to share the ph... more In 2008 two Dutch museums and two Greenland museums started a cooperative venture to share the photo collections of museums in the Netherlands. The photographs were taken from 1965 to 1986 by husband and wife Gerti and Noortje Nooter in Diilerilaaq, a village in the Sermilik Fjord (East Greenland). Gerti Nooter, then curator at the Museon in The Hague and at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, was doing fieldwork in that changing hunting community and, as part of that research, took photographs and collected museum objects for both Dutch museums. The National Museum of Ethnology in particular has long had a working relationship with Greenland museums and the local Tunumiit community. Through the visual repatriation project Roots2Share, these photographs have been scanned and returned to the communities where they originated and where they can now be accessed locally. As a product of cross-cultural interactions, they depict ancestors of present-day Tunumiit and carry multiple...
The Roots 2 Share project, a collaboration between two Dutch and two Greenlandic museums, was est... more The Roots 2 Share project, a collaboration between two Dutch and two Greenlandic museums, was established to share museum collections and photographs housed in the Netherlands with the Tunumiit people of East Greenland. The Tunumiit regard the collections in the Netherlands as belonging to their cultural heritage, yet the Dutch maintain authority over the collections, leading to imbalanced power relations. This unequal relationship has its basis in museums’ colonial pasts and hinders the sharing and exchange of cultural heritage. As an island, Greenland is often regarded as the periphery in contrast to mainland centres of Denmark. Physical and cultural distance, as well as a power imbalance, prevent the Tunumiit of East Greenland from reconnecting with museum collections containing their own indigenous cultural heritage. The Roots 2 Share project was set up using the internet to overcome this distance, exploring new possibilities and techniques for providing access and giving indige...
Today Arctic clothing is an important research topic. The first European researchers were fascina... more Today Arctic clothing is an important research topic. The first European researchers were fascinated by the Greenlander’s sophisticated technology, and they brought clothing, kayaks and hunting equipment back to Europe. Researchers still admire the quality of the techniques used to produce a balanced material culture that was perfectly adapted to the Arctic environment. Fur clothing was much better suited to meet the Arctic challenges than the Europeans’ woolen garments. Nevertheless, Inuit clothing changed rapidly under the influence of European culture. Nowadays, Greenlanders wear baseball caps, military jackets and Nike shoes. Compared to the excellent hand-made fur clothing of the Inuit, European mass-produced fabrics seem to represent a step backwards. Why did the East Greenlanders break with the traditions of their ancestors? Why did they abandon most of their perfectly adapted and beautiful fur clothing, and why did they adopt new styles of dress? This book discusses the soci...
This study on developments in festive clothing is based on clothing and photograph collections in... more This study on developments in festive clothing is based on clothing and photograph collections in museums, interviews with Tunumiit (East Greenlanders) and participant observation during several months in Kalaallit Nunaata Tunua (East Greenland) in 1997, 1998 and 2001. Festive garments for special occasions did not exist in the traditional pre-Christian culture of East Greenland. In this article we investigate what influences affected the development of special clothing for festive occasions. Changes in Kalaallit Nunaata Kitaa (West Greenland) and European influences deeply affected clothing traditions in East Greenland. In the course of this process, some Tunumiit garments came to disappear and others were re-invented and re-shaped using new materials. Preparing animal skins and sewing attire always have been a women's preserve. In the past, sewing qualities were highly valued within Inuit society. Today, sewing skills and designing clothing are paid for but they still reflect ...
Global warming and climate change are important topics of debate in Greenland. This paper examine... more Global warming and climate change are important topics of debate in Greenland. This paper examines how the Tunumiit of East Greenland perceive the weather, the changing climate, and the local environment. It also discusses how their perceptions have been influenced by political debates on global warming, sustainable development, and wildlife management since the 1950s. In the past, if some animal species disappeared from a specific area, or if the weather turned bad, the Tunumiit would attribute this misfortune to human transgressions of rules of respect. Today, they often connect the increasingly unpredictable weather to their reduced access to natural resources and greater difficulties in travelling. Some hunters speak of a shift from seal hunting to cod fishing in East Greenland, although fishing is still perceived as a vulnerable source of income with low status. Nowadays, older methods of navigation and orientation coexist with such new technologies as GPS and mobile telephones...
In 2008 two Dutch museums and two Greenland museums started a cooperative venture to share the ph... more In 2008 two Dutch museums and two Greenland museums started a cooperative venture to share the photo collections of museums in the Netherlands. The photographs were taken from 1965 to 1986 by husband and wife Gerti and Noortje Nooter in Diilerilaaq, a village in the Sermilik Fjord (East Greenland). Gerti Nooter, then curator at the Museon in The Hague and at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, was doing fieldwork in that changing hunting community and, as part of that research, took photographs and collected museum objects for both Dutch museums. The National Museum of Ethnology in particular has long had a working relationship with Greenland museums and the local Tunumiit community. Through the visual repatriation project Roots2Share, these photographs have been scanned and returned to the communities where they originated and where they can now be accessed locally. As a product of cross-cultural interactions, they depict ancestors of present-day Tunumiit and carry multiple...
The Roots 2 Share project, a collaboration between two Dutch and two Greenlandic museums, was est... more The Roots 2 Share project, a collaboration between two Dutch and two Greenlandic museums, was established to share museum collections and photographs housed in the Netherlands with the Tunumiit people of East Greenland. The Tunumiit regard the collections in the Netherlands as belonging to their cultural heritage, yet the Dutch maintain authority over the collections, leading to imbalanced power relations. This unequal relationship has its basis in museums’ colonial pasts and hinders the sharing and exchange of cultural heritage. As an island, Greenland is often regarded as the periphery in contrast to mainland centres of Denmark. Physical and cultural distance, as well as a power imbalance, prevent the Tunumiit of East Greenland from reconnecting with museum collections containing their own indigenous cultural heritage. The Roots 2 Share project was set up using the internet to overcome this distance, exploring new possibilities and techniques for providing access and giving indige...
Today Arctic clothing is an important research topic. The first European researchers were fascina... more Today Arctic clothing is an important research topic. The first European researchers were fascinated by the Greenlander’s sophisticated technology, and they brought clothing, kayaks and hunting equipment back to Europe. Researchers still admire the quality of the techniques used to produce a balanced material culture that was perfectly adapted to the Arctic environment. Fur clothing was much better suited to meet the Arctic challenges than the Europeans’ woolen garments. Nevertheless, Inuit clothing changed rapidly under the influence of European culture. Nowadays, Greenlanders wear baseball caps, military jackets and Nike shoes. Compared to the excellent hand-made fur clothing of the Inuit, European mass-produced fabrics seem to represent a step backwards. Why did the East Greenlanders break with the traditions of their ancestors? Why did they abandon most of their perfectly adapted and beautiful fur clothing, and why did they adopt new styles of dress? This book discusses the soci...
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