Tupilaq

Completing my trip down memory lane, when we left Hvalsey we sailed to the capital of Greenland.  Do you know what it is?  Not many people do - it's Nuuk - a miniature city of about 20,000 people on the west coast just south of the Arctic Circle.  It has a diverse population including many Inuit and Danes.  There is a fantastic museum telling the story of Greenland, including a wonderful collection of Inuit carvings.

My little tupilaq here came from an artists' cooperative in an Inuit settlement called Tasiilaq on the east coast.  It is carved out of caribou antler.  They also carve in walrus and narwhal tusk.  Only the caribou antler are allowed to be exported as they are the only carvings that don't involve the death of an endangered wild animal.  Tupilaqs are avenging monsters made by shamans in the Inuit religion.

My first extra is an early 20th century photograph of an Inuit leader painted large onto the wall of some social housing for Inuit in Nuuk.  The second extra shows Nuuk in the context of its ocean setting and the magnificent mountain behind it.