International Polar Institute Press – förlag

Published in 1915, Singnagtugaq: A Greenlanders Dream, created both furor and literary history as the first original novel in Greenlandic. Initially the book was seen as an encounter between the historic clash of good and evil–Danish colonizers and the colonized Greenlanders. The book portrays this encounter in vivid, harsh terms reflecting the time. At the end of the novel comes a vision of a future, modern Greenland, freed from colonial humiliation and poverty: the first literary expression of the desire for progress which later became so prominent in Greenlandic poetry and politics. It also described the first required Danish education for primary school students, not to serve as subservient to the Danish, but as a necessary part of a Greenlanders education and growth. Later, this apparent contradiction came to characterize Greenlandic cultural policy.

First English translation of this 19th century novel tracing the relationship between traditional Greenlandic life and the interaction with the culture of their Danish colonizers.These first hand accounts of Greenlanders have rarely been recorded. Written in 1887, with exquisite poetic detail, the dynamics driving ritual, domestic affairs and women's place in society are described as never before.Signe Rink (née Miller, 1836–1909) was born and raised in Greenland. Eden of The North was written after Rink returned to Denmark in 1883, and was followed by two more novels in 1886 and 1902. She remains the first female interpreter of Greenlandic culture and maintains a poetic style only achieved by the deepest of empathies developed after many years of living and working among Inuit as a woman and a scientist. L.S. Johanson was born in San Diego,California. L.S. later moved to Scandinavia where she lived on a small farm in western Denmark for 25 years. As an interpreter, translator, and teacher, she studied languages and linguistics at Aalborg University and Aarhus University in Denmark (Cand.Phil., Cand.Mag.) She has been translating fiction and non-fiction professionally in the U.S. and Scandinavia for over two decades. She currently lives, writes, and works in Vermont.

The Meaning of Ice celebrates Arctic sea ice as it is seen and experienced by the Inuit, Iñupiat, and Inughuit, who for generations have lived with it and thrived on what it offers. With extensive details offered through their own drawings and writings, this book describes the great depth of Inuit, Iñupiat, and Inughuit knowledge of sea ice and the critical and complex role it plays in their relationships with their environment and with one another. Over forty Inuit, Iñupiat, and Inughuit from three different Arcticcommunities contributed stories, original artwork, hand-drawn illustrations, maps, family photos, and even recipes to this book. Professional and historical photographs, children’s artwork, and innovative graphics add more to the story of The Meaning of Ice.The Meaning of Ice is an important contribution to understanding the Arctic and its people at a time when the region is undergoing profound change, not least in terms of sea ice. It takes readers beyond what sea ice is, to broaden our appreciation of what sea ice means.

In the ’40s and ’50s many men from Denmark traveled to Greenland to work. Here they met Greenlandic women—which more than once resulted in pregnancies. Many of these men then returned to Denmark, which meant that the children grew up as illegitimate children without even knowing their fathers. One of these children was Anne Sofie Hardenberg, who was teased all through her childhood for having a Danish father—and an absent one at that. By the age of 17 she gathered the courage to write to her father. To her surprise he was very glad to hear from her, and wished to make her a part of his family. Unluckily they only got three weeks together—then he died in a car accident…This book is Anne Sofie’s memoir accompanied by photos and letters between her and her Danish family.Today, still, there is a problem with the legal rights of this generation of “fatherless” children.

The Los Angeles Times praises the wordplay and the richness of Bergland’s poetry, “erupting through deep forest, with all the exuberance and reticence of Emily Dickinson.”In this new collection the poet asks: How do poems enter essence? Through poetics, or the absence of poetics? Through language or vapor? Through revelation or fear of heart? And how does writing inform? Through biography, place, the body, and language? “To objectify the answers is to demean the poems and cheat the reader,” the author states.

This volume of folk tales collected by Heinrich Rink, by native Greenlanders, is the translation of the first book printed in Greenland. Rink began his career as an administrator based at the Moravian mission at Godthaab, on the southwest coast of Greenland. He used the press to produce both official notices and literary works. Rink was determined to collect legends and folk tales of Greenland natives and publish them, an ambition achieved in these volumes, published over a five year span. Rink collected oral tales from throughout Greenland, although mainly in the southern area he administered. The remarkable oral tradition of the Inuit, unaffected by few outside influences, is traced through their history on the land. Many of the stories describe the clashes between the Norse and the Inuit. Rink recognized that some of the tales existed in the realm of pure myth, but that others represented recollections, passed from one generation to the next, of events of many centuries earlier. Translated from Danish, this is the first English translation of these stories. Illustrations are by Aron of Kangeq, a sealer and walrus hunter who lived at the Moravian mission at the small trading station of Kangeq. His illustrations of the oral storytelling tradition have gained status as a symbol of the new artistic tradition developed in Greenland in the mid-19th century.

"A child of the ’50’s, Sas Carey was raised to marry and rear children. She did that, but with the care and morals shared by her parents, along with a lust for life, learned she could follow her own path, strewn with heartache, yet leading to transcendence. Her story is one of empowerment. In overcoming expectations, Sas becomes a healer of body and soul, learning that she need not devote herself to a single person to substantiate herself. “Sas Carey has climbed mountains, swum across lakes and rivers, and slept on the ground of three continents. She has ridden planes, trains, cars, bikes, boats, horses, camels, and reindeer. A Quaker, Sas is an award-winning documentary film director, author, spiritual healer, registered nurse, mother, and grandmother. Relaxing in her gazebo in Vermont, she dreams of her next adventure.

Karmageitin (Karma Goat) and Gentukamarið (“A Girl’s Room") are a literary pair, each having its own expression and character. They are written in two different genres, poems (Karma Goat) and a play (A Girl's Room). The works can be read in any order, and are not linearly or causally connected, but rather as two nested works, where the dialogues of the drama, the movements of the poems, the states of mind and the physical spaces, grow into each other. As the title A Girl's Room indicates, it is about a female protagonist. The same is the case in Karma Goat. Here we follow the poet as a middle-aged woman. The poems are located in the woman's home, but arise and grow out of her childhood bedroom. It is from here that the poet's perception of the world springs, and here that it is linked to the family. The room has been passed down from the aunt to the poet. A remarkable insistence is found in the movement of the poems; a longing and a desire to become part of the world, but the desire to connect is turned inside out and returns home to the girl's childhood bedroom, or the kitchen of midlife crisis; not necessarily out of a direct longing for home, but as a necessity. As soon as the poem has returned home, the poet is made invisible and exhaustion sets in, and so begins the growing of a new longing.

Karmageitin (Karma Goat) and Gentukamarið (“A Girl’s Room") are a literary pair, each having its own expression and character. They are written in two different genres, poems (Karma Goat) and a play (A Girl's Room). The works can be read in any order, and are not linearly or causally connected, but rather as two nested works, where the dialogues of the drama, the movements of the poems, the states of mind and the physical spaces, grow into each other. As the title A Girl's Room indicates, it is about a female protagonist. The same is the case in Karma Goat. Here we follow the poet as a middle-aged woman. The poems are located in the woman's home, but arise and grow out of her childhood bedroom. It is from here that the poet's perception of the world springs, and here that it is linked to the family. The room has been passed down from the aunt to the poet. A remarkable insistence is found in the movement of the poems; a longing and a desire to become part of the world, but the desire to connect is turned inside out and returns home to the girl's childhood bedroom, or the kitchen of midlife crisis; not necessarily out of a direct longing for home, but as a necessity. As soon as the poem has returned home, the poet is made invisible and exhaustion sets in, and so begins the growing of a new longing.

Narwhals come alive in the pages of this expanded 2nd edition of an award-winning Smithsonian book accompanying a Smithsonian exhibit seen by millions of visitors since its opening in 2017 and its 10-year tour throughout North America.  Added sections on the legend and lore of narwhal tusk trade, high tech science from genetics to advances in nanoscale views of the inner working of the sensory tusk, and collecting insights from Inuit elders adds new information about this beloved and mysterious creature. Inuit art and knowledge blend with science to create new understandings about the seemingly harsh arctic seascape.  Authors and editors Martin Nweeia and William Fitzhugh assemble nearly one hundred scientists and Inuit to help us better understand a whale that brings endless fascination.  The narwhal with its extraordinary sensory tusk continues to inspire awe and teaches us much about the need for attention to our rapidly changing world and its endangered animals and ecosystems. Who would think that successful companies, unique individuals, and even political campaigns would be called narwhals?  Wonder, explore, and discover as you meet one of the most popular and unique animals on the planet.

This is a collection of previously unpublished texts, collected from letters, notebooks and excerpts from the novels by the acclaimed Faroese writer and artist William Heinesen. With these, the English reader has access to his philosophy and worldview. He writes on the extensive connections between consciousness and cosmos, poetry and religion, humanity and mankind, the human and the humane. The texts contain observations on childhood, old age, and his own life’s work. Additionally, the texts contain thoughts on science, politics, and acculturated European ideas spanning from antiquity up until modern society, leading finally to how Heinesen worked to address his fight against the cultural polarization that characterized his time.

Recorded here, long before the environmental and political effects of the later parts of the twentieth century, are the recollections of the people of Nunavik in their own words. This is the first volume of a ten-volume series collecting articles from periodicals published by Makivik Corporation, beginning in 1974 with Taqralik Magazine and continuing through the current Makivik Magazine. This volume presents, in stories and tales, a unique glimpse into the authentic experience of a world in change, yet still in touch with its own traditions. The Makivik Corporation is the legal representative of Quebec's Inuit people, established in 1978 under the terms of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. The Makivik Corporation is empowered to negotiate new agreements with governments on behalf of the Quebec Inuit and to represent them. Makivik promotes the preservation of Inuit culture and language, as well as the health, welfare, education, and relief of poverty for Inuit in their communities.

Second in the series based on articles originally published in the periodicals of Makivik Corporation beginning in 1974 with Taqralik Magazine and continuing through the current Makivik Magazine. The Makivik Corporation is the legal representative of Quebec's Inuit people, established in 1978 under the terms of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, the agreement that established the institutions of Nunavik. As such, it is the heir of the Northern Quebec Inuit Association which signed the agreement with the governments of Quebec and Canada. Its principal responsibility is the administration of Inuit lands. It also has a mandate to promote the economic and social development of Inuit society in Nunavik. The Makivik Corporation is empowered to negotiate new agreements with governments on behalf of the Quebec Inuit and to represent them. Makivik promotes the preservation of Inuit culture and language as well as the health, welfare, education and relief of poverty for Inuit in their communities. Beginning with the spoken word and tracing its evolution through the modernizing culture surrounding it, the people of Nunavik continue making themselves heard as the only true representatives for their needs and aspirations in the face of economic, cultural and environmental changes.

Written both by members of the Inuit community and by various health practitioners, Voices and Images of Nunavimmiut: Health offers a pioneering look at the many worries and obstacles surrounding the delivery of sound and culturally appropriate health services to Nunavik. Contributors deal with problems of providing adequate health services in small Arctic villages, where there is often only one nurse on hand to make life-and-death decisions. The book also deals with the complex issue of establishing culturally sensitive services to ten-thousand Inuit living in an area larger than the state of California. Editors offer insights and reactions from the perspective of the Inuit as they take control of health services introduced by policy makers in the south. With global interest in the Arctic rapidly increasing, Voices and Images of Nunavimmiut: Health presents an important and timely glimpse into the health concerns and services of Nunavik.

Seventy percent of Nunavimmiut is under thirty years old, making it one of the youngest populations in Canada. Marianne Stenbaek and Minnie Grey bring together accounts by young people written over the course of three decades to show the lives of the Inuit through their own eyes. Contributors write about the problems of growing up in small Arctic communities, but also about the many joys of living a free life and their close connections to their families. They wonder about the dilemma of respecting community elders and their wisdom while combining this knowledge with modern life. The book also includes discussion both by young people and Inuit leaders about what kind of education is worthwhile and necessary in a community where traditions of hunting and fishing exist simultaneously with smart phones and shopping trips to Montreal. The young people write about their connection to Inuit across Canada, in Alaska, and Greenland as they forge new bonds respecting their culture and language. Weaving a story never told before from an Inuit perspective, Voices and Images of Nunavimmiut: Children and Youth follows an exceptional period in Nunavik development as Inuit peoples transitioned from living off the land to living in centralized towns and villages.

This book, the fifth in a series anthologizing writings by Inuit in Nunavik over the last thirty-five years, presents articles on renewable resources and wildlife protection. Written by member of the Inuit community and non-Inuit who have worked closely with the community to better understand environmental concerns, the articles in this volume shed light on how interaction with the natural environment has changed dramatically in the past three decades.

This book, the sixth in a series anthologizing writings by Inuit in Nunavik over the last thirty-five years, presents articles on environmental contaminants, land use, and climate change. Written by members of the Inuit community and non-Inuit who have worked closely with the community to better understand environmental concerns, the articles in this volume shed light on how interaction with the natural environment has changed dramatically in the past three decades.

Northern Quebec, now known as Nunavik, has in the last forty years gone from a subsistence economy entirely reliant on hunting and fishing, to a modern day mixed-economy that, in addition to traditional practices, also includes resource development, airline ownership, tourism, and the export of cultural products. In Volumes 7 and 8 of Voices of and Images of Nunavimmiut Inuit actively involved in this economic transformation provide detailed accounts of their successes and their failures, in their own words. Together, these volumes tell the fascinating story of how a small but determined people, with the support of the Makivik Corporation, have become economically strong and may well play an important role in the future economic growth of Quebec and Canada.

Northern Quebec, now known as Nunavik, has in the last forty years gone from a subsistence economy entirely reliant on hunting and fishing, to a modern day mixed-economy that, in addition to traditional practices, also includes resource development, airline ownership, tourism, and the export of cultural products. In Volumes 7 and 8 of Voices of and Images of Nunavimmiut Inuit actively involved in this economic transformation provide detailed accounts of their successes and their failures, in their own words. Together, these volumes tell the fascinating story of how a small but determined people, with the support of the Makivik Corporation, have become economically strong and may well play an important role in the future economic growth of Quebec and Canada.

The signing of the James Bay Agreement in 1975 was a turning point in relations between the Inuit and Cree of Northern Quebec and the federal government. Designating specific areas of land in Northern Quebec that the Inuit could own and use, the agreement laid the groundwork for the development of several influential institutions such as the Makivik Corporation - essentially the beginning of modern-day Nunavik, which now serves as the economic and political motor of Northern Quebec. Marking the fortieth anniversary of the agreement, Volumes 9 and 10 of Voices and Images of Nunavimmiut offer the Inuit perspective through a series of articles portraying the unique process of creating and implementing the first modern-day land claims treaty in Canada. With an introduction by Senator Charlie Watt, one of the original Inuit negotiators of the agreement, these richly illustrated volumes cover the period from 1975 to the present day, applauding the many achievements of the treaty while identifying the work that still needs to be done.

The signing of the James Bay Agreement in 1975 was a turning point in relations between the Inuit and Cree of Northern Quebec and the federal government. Designating specific areas of land in Northern Quebec that the Inuit could own and use, the agreement laid the groundwork for the development of several influential institutions such as the Makivik Corporation – essentially the beginning of modern-day Nunavik, which now serves as the economic and political motor of Northern Quebec. Marking the fortieth anniversary of the agreement, Volumes 9 and 10 of Voices and Images of Nunavimmiut offer the Inuit perspective through a series of articles portraying the unique process of creating and implementing the first modern-day land claims treaty in Canada. With an introduction by Senator Charlie Watt, one of the original Inuit negotiators of the agreement, these richly illustrated volumes cover the period from 1975 to the present day, applauding the many achievements of the treaty while identifying the work that still needs to be done.

Tuumarsi is a realistic depiction of the struggle for survival. A famine causes a family to pick up and relocate to fairer hunting grounds. The psyche and humor of the people is reflected through Nielsen’s own experiences with them. The struggle among the settlement members to make their lives better illustrates what was to become Greenland’s desire for sovereignty from Denmark.

Rise Up is a novel about the inequalities that Greenlanders and Faroese experience in Denmark. It is a tribute to Greenlandic and Danish politicians who attempt to heal fractures and a rebuke to the part of the Danish population that still assists in perpetuating negative stereotypes.