WAITING FOR FRESH SEAL MEAT
«Three days without hunting; three days stuck inside the house is just too long,» Henning says as he fills his thermos with steaming tea. He is preparing his eager dogs for a long-awaited seal hunt. «Life is simpler these days. We can buy food right here in the village; we don't have to wait to eat untill I catch a seal.» But the hunt still provides the village with its most important food supply.
Click the photo for a larger version.
On this March moming in a remote East Greerdandic village, there is no hint of a breeze. A terrific storm raged for three days off the nearby ice cap, but has now passed. The head of the fjord is now free of ice, and the glimmer of open water beckons.
Henning secures two rifles and a pair of binoculars to his sled, sits down atop a reindeer skin, and rouses his dog team to action. The kayak dragging behind the sled will be used for hunting at the ice edge.
Bera, his wife, watches him until he disappears behind an island. «I look forward to fresh seal meat,» she says. «Henning rarely returns empty-handed.»
Eventually Bera, turns to remove allmenn dry stiff seal skin from a large drying frame she has kept inside by a small ship’s stove. «I will work outside in the sunshine today,» she smiles, bringing out her skin-working implements and settling down at her outdoor work space. She asks her young grandson to fetch two buckets of water. Skin processing requires an ample supply. «I am glad about the new water tank in the village,» she says, explaining that not too long ago the villagers had to melt water from icebergs or collect melt water from puddles around the island. Easy access to clean water has been a boon to everyone in the village.
Bera dressing sealskins To prepare the skin for sale, Bera must wash it once more, soften it, and scrape off the last traces of blubber. The end result is a soft, white skin. Processing skins is hard on the hands, requires great skill, and does not earn as much as it did before the collapse of the market- all reasons why many young women are now reluctant to become hunters’ wives. Indeed, a shortage of wives for hunters has become, a problem in many of Greenland's communities today. ,
Every now and then Bera scans the horizon for her husband. «I don't expect him back for a while,» she says, «but I am always waiting when he is out.» The skins she has worked on are now ready for sale, or she may turn them into mittens or ceremonial boots. «I have, no idea how many skins I have processed over the years,» she says. «Who is counting?»
As the sun begins to set over the ice-cap she points to a small dot out on the ice. «That's Henning,» she says. «I can tell by the size of the team and the directtion from which he comes.» Other hunters who have been out that day are returning home, but Bera confidently identifies her husband.
Henning returns with four seals, one caught while it was sunning on the ice, and three while swimming at the ice edge. «When I tap the ice with my pick,» he explains, «they swim out towards the open leads, and when they poke their heads up I can catch them from my kayak.» In the fading light, Bera quickly butchers the seals. «This part of the ribs I usually give to my sister,» she says, «and this part to Henning's brother.» A large portion of the catch is put on to boil with onions and rice. «We will eat this tonight together with our daughter and grandson.»
Another day has passed in an East Greenland household. Seals have been caught, skins have been processed, and meat has been eaten. A peaceful feeling settles over the house, and with luck Bera will tell a story or two.
KALAALIMERNGIT
In the Inuit language of West Greenland, wild foods are known as kalaalimerngit, and include such specialities as dried minke and fin whale meat, beluga and narwhal mattak, fresh seal liver, fermented seabirds, and fresh or dried caribou meat.They are distinguished from imported foods, which are called qallunaamerngit, or «white man's food». Whale, seal and other wild foods are important to Iunit identity, and contribute to underlying systems of reciprocity and community, solidarity that continue to be important in contemporary Intuit society. The catching and processing of wild foods perpetuates the skills and cultural knowledge of hunters (typically men) and processors (typically women), which have evolved over countless generations.
The skin of the whale, mattak, is a much coveted delicacy in Greenland
