Tiina Itkonen on Greenland

Greenland is the biggest island in the world. Much of the island lies above the Arctic Circle, where the sun never sets in summer and never rises above the horizon in winter. An ice sheet a mile thick covers most of the island’s surface. Only parts of its coastal fiords are inhabited by humans. Today, some 57,000 Greenlanders, mostly Inuit, live in the capital city, Nuuk, and in isolated towns and settlements.

No roads link the settlements. Travel between them relies on dogsleds, boats, planes, and helicopters. While there are sea farms in south Greenland and vegetables can be grown there during a short summer season, elsewhere, Greenland is too cold and barren to support agriculture. People rely on fishing and on subsistence hunting of birds and of land and sea mammals. The skill and courage of Greenland subsistence hunters have kept Inuit people alive and fed for more than a thousand years. Here in the far ice-covered north where farming is not possible, the hunting of seal, walrus, polar bear, and other arctic animals is still a vital part of life and the main source of food for many households. Inuit hunters in north and east Greenland still travel by dogsled in winter and rely on natural resources to provide food for their families and communities. A successful hunt rewards hunters with hundreds of pounds of meat, fur for sewing hunting clothes, and something no less important: respect, identity, and reciprocity within the community. 

Thirty years ago in northwest Greenland, the sea was frozen for ten months a year and the sea ice could be two meters thick. Now, the ice stopped at 30 centimeters and is strong enough to carry people for only about half of that time. In Greenland, sea ice is disappearing at the rate of about 10% a decade.

The age-old culture of ice subsistence hunting is already feeling disruption. Hunters come across more open water now. Increasingly, they must rely on boats. Their dogsled roads have disappeared. They cannot access the areas where they used to hunt on sea ice. Hunting out on the ice has become more dangerous. It’s possible this way of life will be lost forever.

This work is part of science-art collaboration with polar scientist Dr. Kristin Laidre, science writer Suzanne McGrath, and photographer Tiina Itkonen. Project was supported by Pew Marine Conservation Fellowship, awarded to Dr. Laidre.