Siorapaluk
By dogsled to Siorapaluk, the northernmost subsistence village in the world. Population: between 50 and 62. A dog team travels about 10 km per hour. It should take 6 hours to get there, but the snow is wet and the ice under it is mushy. Still, it’s good to be on a dogsled again. There are three sleds: Gedeon takes Carsten the photographer, Mamarut takes Navarana (the translator) and Evelyn; I’m traveling with Mikele. Their brother-in-law, Jens Danielsen, my usual traveling companion, was just elected mayor of Qaanaaq and he’s too busy to come. They’ve hunted an extended family group all their lives.
We leave in semi-darkness. The rough ice at the shore is thicker than usual. Lines snag on bits of ice. There are hard bumps. The sled tilts precariously as we rumble through the labyrinth. Out on the smooth ice, there’s open water visible. Here and there we pass a half-melted iceberg that is stranded close to shore. The air temperature is quite warm but so much open water makes the wind feel cold. We hug the coast. At one headland, we are forced to go up on the ice foot because of open water. Nine hours later, just after dark, we arrive.
The next morning we visit Otto and Pauline Simigaq. They are fine traditional hunters who are now beset with food and money problems because of the condition of the sea ice. “Seven years ago we could travel on safe ice all winter and get animals. We didn’t worry about food then. Now it’s different.” He looks out at the fjord. “This is the second ice of the winter. In the fall we now have to sail to get walrus. The seas are very rough now and its dangerous. We always went to the ice edge west of
“When the moon is half full the ocean current is safer, so we travel then. Before, it didn’t matter. Seven or eight dog teams from here would go to Kiatak together twice a month. We could get between three to five walrus each time. Last year, in February 2006, I got one walrus. That was the last walrus I got one from the ice.
I have three boys. Their future as hunters is very uncertain. Even the future of this village is uncertain. We may all have to move just to feed ourselves. From here we used to go far north. The weather was always good. No the current is stronger and the wind, and there’s lots of pressure ice. And here the sea current brings big waves. They are eating away our land.
Pauline says: “Many of us are behind with our debts. We are not so good in our moods now. Now, depression and changing moods, just like the ice. I worried when Otto and the others go out now. When I don’t hear from them, I think they may have been eaten by bad ice.”
