With all of my heart I want to thank everyone who contributed to our fundraiser to send the kids in the ultra-remote East Greenlandic village of Tiniteqilaaq to the Greenland national kayaking championships this year.
We hit our $15,000 fundraising goal last night and transferred the first $10,000 to their kayak club to purchase plane tickets.
As I said in previous posts we’ve been working with Max, the schoolmaster there for a few years to help revive the local kayak building tradition and last year they represented East Greenland for the first time ever in the Greenland national kayaking championships in Nuuk. This year Max will be bringing 5 kids and Lars, the oldest hunter in the village (who used to hunt from a sealskin kayak) to the competition in Ilulissat.
Here is how Max describes their journey last year:
“In our village just a few decades ago the Inuit kayak culture was still alive and high skilled hunters were able to do all kind of rolling and paddling in heavy sea. Little by little the knowledge around kayak disappeared. Still the sea is called: Tsaqqivik: the kayaking playground. Could this dream be possible: to revive some East Greenland Kayak techniques?.
The oldest hunter of the village gave me his support and great encouragement to continue kayaking activities with children and my coworkers allowed me to use school to built kayak. Parents allowed their children to practice, and one day last summer…here we were: in Nuuk attending the Greenland National kayak championship. We received a very warm welcome.
We brought back 7 medals, including two golds.
Proud and joy were in East Greenland people’s heart.
This dream was only possible through supports from people here and connections beyond cultures among people who share the love.”
As you can see, it’s almost impossible to overstate how valuable this experience is for them, so thank you for making it possible. If you still want to donate all proceeds will go directly to the their kayak club for supplies, tools, and paddling gear, (we are packing a box for them right now). Thank you. -Brian
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This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
