[Paddlewise] The Greenland Kayak Club

At 04:55 PM 10/19/99 -0700, juliom_at_cisco.com wrote:
>Whether the Greenland Kayak League will allow foreigners to participate,
>and even compete, in the art of traditional Greenland kayaking is 
>to be decided.

Julio,

Actually this was revealed last month at the Delaware Paddler's Retreat in
a meeting that included John Heath, Maligiaq Padilla, Kaleraq Beck
(president of Qaannat Kattuffiat - the Greenland Kayak Club) his wife Lone,
Charlie and Cindy Cole, Chuck Sutherland, Robin Snow and a few other folks
including myself.

Qaannat Kattuffiat (the Greenland Kayak Club) is looking for ways to help
grow and fund the organization. This organization was formed in 1983 after
almost an entire generation was brought up with very little knowledge of
kayaking. The club brought together the veteran seal-catchers to instruct a
band of eager young students. Fortunately the knowledge was passed on to a
new generation and the skills narrowly avoided being lost forever. Today
many Greenland towns sport their own affiliated kayak clubs that promote
the sport and teach not only respect for their ancestors but also technique
and kayak building as well. The need for money is very real, the Sisimiut
kayaking team (in Maligiaq's hometown) trained for the Greenland National
championships but could not even afford the cost of transportation to the
event this year.

Some of the items that were discussed follows:

-The Greenland kayaking championships will be open to kayakers of all
nationalities next year! There will be a separate class for fiberglass
boats. The details are being drafted.

-Kaleraq favored creating associate memberships that will allow
non-Greenlanders to become non-voting members of Qaannat Kattuffiat.
Although it is still sketchy, membership will probably include a newsletter
with articles concerning the club, the championships and technique as well
as club accessories such as pins, patches and stickers. Kaleraq handed out
a few of the patches at the meeting. They are very well done, with the
shape patterned after the sealskin float (which vaguely resembles the shape
of a nautilus shell), with a tuilik clad kayaker in a skinboat as the
center of interest. Other accessories that were made available at the
symposium included a wonderful white (or green) anorak ($100.00) adorned
with the club logo, that is modeled after the garment worn by Palos in Knud
Rasmussens old Greenland film "Palos Brudefaerd". This jacket is not
designed for immersion and thus does not have waterproof wrist or face
seals but is warm and very comfortable. The jacket is nylon with Thinsulate
insulation. Lone Bech said that the Greenlanders wear it kayaking in the
summer with their short spray skirts and the white color helps them blend
with floating ice for seal hunting. 

-The Qaannat Kattuffiat, which is composed of kayakers in Southwest
Greenland will work actively with the East Greenlanders to help preserve
their unique kayaking traditions. The challenges of this include funding
transportation costs and dealing with different dialects that makes
communication difficult. Regarding the recent news of the British
expedition to East Greenland to reintroduce kayaking skills, John Heath
will draft a letter and document the plans of Qaannat Kattuffiat to the
writer of the Times article. I will forward John's letter to this list.

-Instructors who teach "Greenland-style" technique will be encouraged to
support Qaannat Kattuffiat. 

-Kaleraq Beck will write a regular technique/news article to be targeted to
the North American audience. There was also talk of creating a Qaannat
Kattuffiat web page (I assume in English) to help spread the word.

-The creation of a Greenland-supported training program was discussed. This
program would strive to teach truly authentic Greenland technique to the
outside world. The details of this are still being discussed.

Kaleraq was jubilant after seeing so many Delmarva Retreat paddlers using
Greenland-style paddles and demonstrating various rolls. On one trip where
students had the opportunity to paddle alongside both Kaleraq and Maligiaq
there were over 30 kayakers with Greenland-style paddles on the water.
Kaleraq had no idea that the popularity of Greenland techniques had become
so popular outside of this homeland. Kaleraq struck me as a very honest man
who does not wish to push his organization down other people's throats.
Rather, I believe that he would like to build an organization that respects
and preserves the Greenland paddling traditions, openly shares this
information and builds enough support that it can actively continue its
goals into the future.

I will pass along more information as it becomes available. 

Greg Stamer


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