7/30/25: Qaqortok's Great Greenland Tour, More Sculptures, & the Adventure Begins!

Steven and I were so unused to seeing real sealskin anywhere that we were surprised to see so much of it where we stayed at Hotel Qaqortoq in the town of the same name, located in southern Greenland. I don't think I'd ever seen dyed sealskin before. I didn't much care for it. Do you?

The view from the hotel's balcony over the fjord and port:

Perhaps because Steven and I had known for several months that we were heading to Greenland, our ears perked up whenever we heard news of the country. There had undoubtedly been a definite uptick in articles on the country itself, Trump's declaration that he wanted to buy it, and also on the complicated relationship between it and Denmark, its long-time colonizing power. As a result of Trump's many assertions, we were concerned about how we'd be treated by Greenlanders once they knew we were American, or, in my case, Canadian-American. 

A cruise ship in port had brought out numerous locals selling their unique crafts at some stalls just below our hotel. We spent some time chatting with this man, who said he "wouldn't hold (being American) against you" and seemed happy enough to take our greenbacks, as credit cards weren't accepted! He had crafted some impressive-looking tupilaks. If you read the previous post, you'll know that they are small statues with carved faces that were long believed by the Inuit or Indigenous people to protect against enemy attacks. His were made using reindeer antlers and hair from Greenlandic sled dogs. 

Months earlier, we'd made a reservation with a local company in Qaqortok for a guided tour of Great Greenland, the country's only sealskin-processing company with an on-site shop, as prior booking of the factory tour was essential. Our guide was Lauritz, a young Dane spending his summer break from university working in Qaqortok. As we walked toward the factory through a different area of the town than we'd explored the day before, he mentioned that Qaqortok was founded in 1775 by a Danish missionary who promoted the use of seal oil, and that the oil was used to light all of Europe. However, our travel book said it was a Norwegian, not a Dane, who first settled in Qaqortok.

In his opinion, the US "took over" Greenland during World War II by establishing numerous military bases. After the war, the colonizing powers, specifically Denmark, which had had a long and contentious relationship with Greenland, "resolved to treat its territories better." With a population of under 60,000 people, Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. It's the least populated area by size in the world!

With over half of Greenland being supported financially by Denmark, Lauritz felt it would be "impossible" for the country to separate now. In his opinion, Greenland would require a lengthy process to achieve complete political and economic independence from Denmark. That correlates to what we heard later from other Danes in Greenland's tourist industry.

Lauritz said there are four kinds of seagulls in Greenland - I didn't ask him whether he meant four types that were endemic to the country. I was taking notes at a rapid-fire pace as he spoke, so some details fell through the cracks.

It was disturbing to see the untreated pollution flowing directly into the fjord from the Great Greenland factory. When I asked Lauritz about Greenland's environmental rules, he wasn't aware of any. 

You may recall the photo I included from afar of the Great Greenland factory in the previous post.

As we entered the factory, Lauritz told us that only ringed and harbor seals breed in Greenland. Harp, hooded, and bearded seals breed elsewhere, but are hunted here. He said that harp seals are also known as trouser seals because of their discoloration as they age. 

You could tell how a ringed seal got its name from this display.

The second display was made using a harp sealskin.

These sealskins were dyed in the factory here. The brightly colored pelts just reinforced how little I cared for the very unnatural look.

Greenland's Indigenous people traditionally hunted seals using kayaks made from seal skin. He added that hunters from all over Greenland, including those from the far North, send the sealskins to the Great Greenland factory, many of them arriving by plane. On arrival, they are placed in salted water to preserve them.

Lauritz was holding an ulu, a traditional knife long used by women to scrape the fur off the hide. An ulu is now mainly used as a kitchen knife. 

Lauritz explained that the polar bear skins had been accepted by the factory for private use only, not for sale in its adjoining shop. It is illegal to export skins.

The pricing of sealskins is dependent on their size. 

Lauritz discussed the successive stages for the sealskins following their arrival at Great Greenland. Depending on space, the skins are preserved in a water and salt solution for an additional three to four weeks before they are cleaned and processed to remove all blood. After the fat is removed using an ulu, the skins are washed in large machines to eliminate any further fat. Another machine reduces the thickness of each skin to 1.5 millimeters, which is extremely thin for non-metric users, Janina! The skins are then placed on wooden racks to dry for one to two days.

The skins are washed yet again, this time to loosen any remaining dirt and open up the pores to clean them. In the next process, the pores are 'sealed' in what looked like a commercial washing machine. They are then sorted by size and dried on high racks with clamps used to hang them up. The last stage occurs when the skins are sanded until they are totally smooth. Each skin is stamped for export.

I noticed that some of the skins had a pale blue tint that had come from the chemicals.

We were then led to the gift shop - don't all factory tours end up in gift shops?!  Lauritz explained that hunting seals is culturally appropriate in Greenland because it is an integral part of the Indigenous or Inuit way of life and brings them an income when the skins are sold to Great Greenland. I am aware of the controversy surrounding the hunting of seals, and I recently wrote about a similar issue, namely the hunting of whales, in northern Iceland. 

If you had asked me before visiting Greenland whether I was pro or anti seal hunting, I would have definitely fallen into the latter category. However, after spending a few weeks in Greenland, my opinions have become more nuanced vis-à-vis seal hunting in Greenland itself. Part of that is because there is a far greater Indigenous population that often lives in tiny settlements with minimal economic opportunities. Another reason is that Indigenous people use the rest of the seal for food, so nothing is wasted. 

I don't understand why any of the sealskins are dyed, as that lowers the price that Great Greenland can get from them. The company produces 20,000 sealskins a year. Apart from the few items created in the factory by its designers and sold in its shop, the rest are brought to Denmark and exported from there. Lauritz didn't go into details about the international market for sealskins but did note that many countries refuse to accept them.

These anoraks sold for DKK 4,550 each, about USD 715. If they didn't have the inferior white marks, they would have sold for more.

There was a large assortment of Christmas tree decorations, children's boots, and accessories, including headbands, purses of all shapes, colors, and sizes.

According to the company, tanning and conserving sealskins are ancient crafts dating back thousands of years. The tanning process preserves the skins' natural look and feel. Great Greenland is the world leader in tanning sealskins. Its goal in the next few years was admirable - to make its tanning process completely free of chemicals. The company states that modern tailoring and furrier techniques, combined with traditional Greenlandic methods that have been used for centuries, are employed in its workshop.

Significant dates in the company's and Greenland's history related to seal hunting: After the Grenlandsgarveriet Company was founded in 1977, the tannery burned to the ground the following year. The government bought it in 1982, the same year Inuk Furs was founded. In 1983, Greenpeace intensified its pressure against the hunting of baby seals. Two years later, the sealskin market collapsed, and the company reorganized in 1988, becoming the more international Great Greenland in 1997. 

In 2005, they began buying raw skins instead of dried skins. That same year was their most profitable, with 68 million DKK, more than nine million euros. The international market for sealskins again collapsed in 2008. I wonder why. The following year, the European Union imposed an import ban on sealskins, but exempted the Inuit from Greenland.

After thanking Lauritz for the tour, Steven and I made our own way back to town. I was glad that the boat flying the Canadian flag that I had noticed from the hotel lobby the previous night was still moored by the quay. I (naturally!) chatted with the owner for a few minutes, especially after noticing that he was wearing a Lunenburg cap, Ellen! He said he wasn't from the Maritimes, however, but hailed from Winnipeg, and that he'd sailed from Florida up the coast to Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and then to the east coast of Greenland. He admitted he needed a new flag, as his old one had gotten worn out from his travels.

We only had a few hours before our big adventure up the west coast of Greenland began on the ferry, so we beetled back to the colonial harbor area of Qaqortok. We wanted to find more of the Stone and Man sculptures that Nordic sculptors had placed around the town, beginning in 1993. As we'd learned yesterday, it felt more like a scavenger hunt, and finding them was no guarantee!

Phew, Figure in Net, the first one we looked for, was easy to find! Finn Bobi Richford Ekholm created it during the project's first year in a prominent spot beside a road. I would have liked to have known the significance behind the bound figure. 

Overlooking the colonial area, and also next to where we stayed, was the stark white Gertrud Rasch Church. I smiled at the description of the views from the church windows, which might distract people's attention from the sermon!

A minute's walk away was Bruseni, another large grocery store, a different chain than the one we'd seen in either Narsarsauq on our arrival in Greenland or the one the day before in Qaqortoq. I remain amazed at the broad selection of high-quality produce and grocery items we found throughout Greenland, even in settlements of fewer than one hundred people. Our local King Soopers stores, part of the national Kroger chain, didn't look 'superior' to the grocery stores we saw.

These next sculptures were devilishly hard to find on a rocky outcrop behind the church and the grocery store. The first was Deepest Within by Swede Kristine Brodersen.

Sculpted by Norwegian Gunnar Torvund, the next was called Travelling in Time, although I couldn't understand why.

Perhaps looking at it from other angles might help ... nope!

But it did afford us different views of the church.

We had to go up and down several sets of stairs before finally finding the completely smooth Turned Away by Nuka Lyberth of Greenland. If many of the artists' goals were to prevent their viewers from understanding their works, they have accomplished their aims. I liked the texture, but again, Turned Away left me thinking we may have wasted time looking for it, except for the "fun" of the hunt. 

Perhaps we should have looked at Aqissiaq and the Worm from a different perspective, because it bore little resemblance to the tiny image in the brochure? 

Above some vents, in an entirely inaccessible spot except for a Cirque de Soleil contortionist, was Marit Benthe Norheim's The Place for Rest. It boggles my mind how the Norwegian artist fashioned this sculpture. Did she use some sort of contraption that window washers use? I'm not sure if the adjacent tablet was part of her work.

I had to use my Zoom to see the figures, because the closest we could get was a dozen or more feet away on some steps.

We came across this piece, but it wasn't listed in the brochure we had purchased, which described each of the 30 sculptures. I preferred it to several of those included in the booklet!

Thank goodness Steven and I were both feeling as good as it gets that day, even with my bum leg from the femur surgeries and his still recovering from back surgery a few months ago. It would have been impossible otherwise to navigate the multiple sets of stairs and umpteen trips back and forth looking for some of the sculptures!

Qaqortoq's Town Hall:

Oh, lucky us, more stairs as we tried to find numbers 17 and 18 before boarding the ferry! 

We looked, searched, and peered for the last two we were determined to find, and felt SO stupid when we realized we'd passed The Nucleus several times within steps of the hotel. Our mistake - we'd never looked up. All I could think of then was people always saying you've got to look up and down and all around to 'notice' what is around you! According to the brochure, the sculpture was created by Ellika Sjöstrand-Åland in 1994; however, it failed to mention her origin, and I couldn't find any information about her online.

You probably recall the stylish Greenlandic boot I mentioned earlier, don't you? We searched for The Diamond, number 18, for a good fifteen to twenty minutes, before Steven was able to pick it out near the boot! Dane Björn Poulsen carved it in 1993. 

Once again, the enjoyment had been in the hunt for the sculptures, not necessarily in the sculptures themselves. It had also been fun running into the same few people who were also doing the Stone and Man trail. We were content knowing we'd found most of the sculptures, and that it hadn't been worth trying to find some on the far side of town. Our travel philosophy is that we always leave something to see or do for the next visit, even if we may never return! 

A while later, while watching from the lobby, we saw that the M/S Sarfaq Ittuk coastal ferry was arriving in port. It looked so tiny compared to the immense Holland America cruise ship! From April to early January every year, the passenger ferry travels once a week from Qaqortok up Greenland's west coast to Ilulissat in the north, a distance of 1,330km or 718 nautical miles. On arrival in Ilulissat, it makes the return trip south. 

Just two to three weeks earlier, there had been so much ice in the fjord that cruise ships hadn't been able to stop in Qaqortok. However, because the ferry was built expressly for the route, it was designed to sail in icy waters. 

Before spending several days on the ferry, Steven and I decided to take a last walk on land and see a bit more of colorful Qaqortok, a town that we had thoroughly enjoyed.

When we boarded the ferry shortly before 7pm, we were almost as excited as we had been several years earlier, boarding the old scientific research vessel to Antarctica from southern Argentina!

Our excitement dimmed a bit when we saw the cabin we'd been allotted, as it didn't match our reservation. Neither of us felt comfortable with the idea of trying to get up and down from the upper bunk!

Fortunately, the purser was able to find the 'suite' that we had reserved. He couldn't have been friendlier and more accommodating. Though our room was definitely compact, the small space had been arranged perfectly for us to stow our belongings without tripping over them constantly. We had our own bathroom and, best of all, an electric kettle for tea, mostly for me, and soups for Steven. 

While Steven rested, I went on deck and admired my last views of Qaqortok.

Our hotel, Hotel Qaqortok, with the modern church beside it:

I could hardly wait to go on long walks around both decks and take in breathtaking vistas as we slowly meandered up the coast.

What a relief we'd reserved the cabin far enough in advance and didn't have to sleep in an eight-bed couchette or a four-bed cabin. We saw both options as we wandered around the ferry.

Not a bad life, huh!

At 8:45, we arrived in Narsauk again, where we'd seen a young boy swabbing down the deck of his father's boat a couple of days ago en route to Qaqortok.

In the harbor was the same Danish military vessel we'd spotted a couple of days earlier.

Shots from our window around 10:30pm as we headed north to Arsuk, arriving the next morning at 6:45:

Next post: Life aboard the ferry as it stopped at small communities to disgorge some passengers and took on others.

Posted on September 30th, 2025, from Denver, a day after Steven and I escaped into the nearby mountains to go leaf peeping, i.e, see the aspens turn glorious shades of yellow and gold. That was a rare treat for us, as we usually travel internationally in the fall. Please take care of yourself and your loved ones.