Post: Greenland: The cities of Nuuk and Sisimiut

We spent Thursday, 8/31, in the capital of Greenland, and this afternoon (9/1/), in the second largest town, Sisimiut.

Nuuk is a city. In fact, it feels like a boom town. There are construction cranes absolutely everywhere. Currently, the population of Nuuk,y Greenland’s capital, is 20,000. Their goal is to be a city of 30,000 by 2030. Unemployment is very, very low, well below 2%, and immigrants are helping to make up some of the need for workers, in the service industries, especially.

We visited a museum of historical artifacts. Seeing the kayaks was by far the most interesting part for me. A kayak was custom fit to its owner, and in fact in the past, Inuit would sometimes bury loved ones with their kayaks. The wood that makes up the body of the boat would have been a dear resource for old Greenland. Today in Nuuk, kayak clubs are common, as are places to store a personal kayak near the shore.

Land in Greenland is owned in common. Most citizens rent their apartments from the municipality or the federal government. Rents are not that height. Even in the rare case that a home or apartment is privately owned, however, the land is not.

Taxes are around 42% and include education, healthcare, and going to Denmark for higher education.

There are so many boats. Most people own a boat for fishing, and also hunt on land for a freezer of meat.

Greenland has self government, although it is a protectorate of Denmark. There is a movement among the younger people to be in touch with the old Inuit ways and decolonize Greenland’s culture.

The country is rich in resources—power is hydroelectric and inexpensive, drinking water comes from a lake. Trash is incinerated and they don’t sort for recycling although they are trying to expand this aspect of waste management.

Sisimiut, by contrast to Nuuk, is much smaller, at a population of 5300. So, the second largest city in Greenland is about 1/4 the size of its largest city, the capital. It had buildings that were more similar to one another and looked more historical.

It is run similarity to Nuuk- inexpensive hydropower, and lake water.

We had a hike that largely followed the water line over rock. Along the way, we passed evidence of Inuit buildings from the 1700-1800s.

We took the opportunity to visit the area of town where the sled dogs spend their summer. The only way to conceive of this space is to think of it as a town of dogs. There were 800 dogs living on acres and acres of just outside of town.

Sled dogs are not pets. The really, really are not. They are working dogs. Their summer is short, and they spend it in a pretty small area. Sled dogs only eat 2-3 times a week in the summer. A typical sled dog owner will have 10-20 dogs. Years ago sled dogs lived behind a family home, but at this point that is only the case for one household in Sisimiut.

I will say that seeing these dogs did not evoke my usual response to dogs. Petting them was not allowed since they didn’t know us, but I would not have wanted to in any case, although at home it would be hard for an hour to pass without me patting or scratching the ears of our dogs.

Puppies are allowed a little more freedom, and this pair were romping around in a universal puppy play. The puppies were more likely to come up to people, but people did not hold their attention for very long.

It is illegal to breed a pure Greenland dog with any other dog. Dogs can be exported but not imported, and this keeps the strain “pure.” About 30% of these dogs are used for hunting and transportation. The rest, for tourism.