Since we are building Greenland kayaks right now I want to share some actual pictures from Greenland.
A couple years ago I was contacted by Max, the schoolmaster in the tiny East Greenlandic village of Tiilerilaaq (population about 100), who wanted to revive the local kayak building tradition. All of our instruction materials are free to native arctic people, but actually getting them to a place where Internet speeds are only slightly faster than two cans connected by a string was another story. It cost $75 just to send a thumb drive!
Over the years we’ve developed a routine where we pack as many supplies as possible into a 25 kg flat rate box, and then a few weeks later the FedEx helicopter shows up, drops off the package, and Max literally drags it back to the school on a sled. Slowly, they are accumulating dry suits, tuiliks, reference books, and building supplies, but due to the limited shipping many materials are still scrounged and tools are improvised.
So far Max has built an F1 and an East Greenlandic Kayak. The children start paddling the F1 for comfort and safety, and then transition towards the more challenging East Greenlandic design.
Right now they are the only qajaq club in East Greenland and this year they became the first East Greenlanders to attend the kayak championships in Nuuk, where paddlers compete in a variety of traditional rolling and paddling skills. The president of the Greenland Qajaq Federation along with another highly skilled paddler from Sisimiut even visited the village this year.
I’m sure they could’ve figured all this out on their own but it’s been a privilege to be a small part of that. It’s cool to see the kids building and kayaks on the water.
Max is pictured in the second to last photo along with Kamilla who lived in Tiilerilaaq for a time. The photo of the village is from her excellent blog, where you can read and see more photos from the village and read about the complex issues it faces.
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This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
