First Days in Kangerlussuaq

September 8, 2021

Above, a panorama photographed September 6, 2021, looking southeast from the outskirts of Kangerlussuaq at the hill that dominates that view. Below are two vintage photographs from the Danish Arctic Institute, both taken between September 1950 and July 1951 by a Danish Navy conscript named Bent Helmudt, who was stationed here when it was a … Read More

Of COVID, Copenhagen, and Colonialism

September 4, 2021

Kangerlussuaq is called Sondre Strømfjord on this 1957 map of Greenland on display on the ground floor of the Arktisk Institut. The map emphasizes the Danish colonial names in bold lettering, with Greenlandic names present, but in a much smaller font. Those Danish names went by the wayside in 1996 and today you won’t see … Read More

Capturing a Changing Arctic Landscape

August 26, 2021

Kangerlussuaq sign in front of the former Danish Hotel in 1959 (left) and at its current location at the airport in 2018 when I was last there (right). Photo on left by J.E. Saaby-Hansen, Collection of Danish Arctic Institute. In the summer of 2018 I went on an educational tour of the Canadian Arctic and … Read More