In short
Antarctica has no one to visit. The Arctic has four million people, and on an expedition in Greenland or the Canadian Arctic you will walk into their towns. Done well, it is the part of the voyage guests remember longest. Done badly, it is a coach tour of someone’s street. This is how to do it well.
Who lives here
Greenland has about 56,000 people, nearly nine in ten of them Inuit, in towns and settlements strung along a coast with no road between any two of them. It has governed itself in most matters since 2009 and its language, Kalaallisut, is the first language of almost everyone you meet. Nunavut, across the water, was created in 1999 as the homeland of Canada’s Inuit: 40,000 people in 25 communities across a fifth of Canada, with Inuktitut as a working language of government. The Inuit of Labrador live in Nunatsiavut, along the coast the autumn voyages sail.
These are not museum villages. There are supermarkets, schools, a church, a football pitch, fast internet, hunters who go out by boat in summer and by dog sled or snowmobile in winter, and teenagers who are as interested in you as you are in them. The thing to leave at the gangway is the idea that you are visiting the past.
The communities the ships visit
Ittoqqortoormiit, East Greenland
About 350 people at the mouth of Scoresby Sund, the most isolated town in Greenland and the only one for a thousand kilometres of coast. Coloured houses on the rock, sled dogs staked on the shore, a red church and a small museum. The September voyages call here, and the drum dance in the community hall is given, not performed.
Ilulissat, Qeqertarsuaq and Uummannaq, West Greenland
Ilulissat is Greenland’s third town, 4,700 people above the icefjord, with a museum in the house where Knud Rasmussen was born and a boardwalk to the ice that is the best short walk in the Arctic. Qeqertarsuaq on Disko Island is smaller and quieter. Uummannaq, under its heart-shaped mountain, is where the Qilakitsoq mummies were found in 1972, eight people buried five hundred years ago and now in the National Museum in Nuuk.
Siorapaluk and Savissivik, the far north
Siorapaluk, at 77° North, is the northernmost permanently inhabited village in Greenland, with around forty people who still hunt with dogs and kayaks. Savissivik, further south in Melville Bay, is smaller again. The Thule voyages of Le Commandant Charcot and the Ponant sisters call at one or both when the ice allows, and these are visits to arrange your whole voyage around.
Pond Inlet, Qikiqtarjuaq and Gjoa Haven, Nunavut
Pond Inlet, Mittimatalik, faces Bylot Island across Eclipse Sound, 1,600 people and the gateway to Sirmilik National Park. Qikiqtarjuaq, on the east coast of Baffin Island, is a community of 600 that welcomes ships with Inuit games in the hall and country food on the table. Gjoa Haven, Uqsuqtuuq, is Amundsen’s harbour on King William Island and the keeper of the Franklin story from the Inuit side.
Nain and Hebron, Labrador
Nain is the capital of Nunatsiavut, 1,200 people and the northernmost town in Labrador. Hebron, further north, is a Moravian mission settled in 1831 and closed by the government in 1959, when its people were moved south. The restored mission church and the apology carved in stone beside it are visited on the autumn voyages, often with a Nunatsiavut elder aboard.
What a visit is like
A Zodiac to the harbour, a walk through the town with a local guide or on your own, the museum or the church, the shop, the school if it is in session, and a gathering in the hall: a drum dance, Inuit games, a choir, a display of dog-sled gear, a table of dried fish, seal and whale skin for the brave. Two or three hours, and the ship is in the harbour the whole time. The expedition company pays a community fee for every visit, and the sale of carvings and beadwork is a real part of the local economy.
How to be a good guest
- Ask before photographing a person, every time, with the camera lowered. A nod is enough. A child is photographed only with a parent’s yes.
- Buy from the makers. Carvings, tupilaks, beadwork and sealskin from the artist or the community shop. Cash is better than cards in the small settlements, in Danish kroner in Greenland and Canadian dollars in Nunavut.
- Know what you can bring home. Narwhal tusk, walrus ivory and anything from a polar bear will not clear Australian customs. Sealskin needs a permit. Soapstone, bone, beadwork and textiles are fine. Ask the expedition team before you buy.
- Eat what is offered, or decline with thanks. Dried fish and whale skin, mattak, are offered as hospitality, not as a test.
- Do not pet the sled dogs. They are working animals, staked for a reason, and a bite ends a voyage.
- Leave the drone on the ship, which the rules require anyway. And do not walk into a house, a yard or a hunting shed, however picturesque.
The language, enough of it
Greenlandic and Inuktitut are related and both are polysynthetic, which means a whole sentence can be one long word. Nobody expects you to manage one. Two words do most of the work: in Greenland, aluu for hello and qujanaq for thank you. In Nunavut, ullaakkut for good morning and qujannamiik for thank you. The effort is noticed.
Why it changes the voyage
The ice and the bears are the reason most guests book the Arctic. The people are the reason they describe it differently afterwards. A fjord is a fjord. A fjord where a woman you met in the hall grew up, whose grandfather hunted the bear whose skin is drying behind her house, is somewhere you have been. Our East Greenland, West Greenland, Northwest Passage and Labrador pages show which voyages call where.
Ittoqqortoormiit, East Greenland. Fur dries on a wooden rack with the houses and fjord behind, photographed on a Swan Hellenic SH Vega walk ashore.
Questions we are asked about community visits
Are the visits staged for tourists?
No. The ships visit towns where people live and work, with the community’s agreement, and the gathering in the hall is organised by the community for the fee the ship pays. Some weeks there is a drum dance, some weeks a football match. That is the point.
Can we visit a community on our own?
In the towns, yes, within the time the ship allows. In the small settlements the walk is usually with the expedition team and a local guide, for the community’s sake as much as yours.
Is there anything we should bring?
Nothing is expected. Some guests bring a small gift for the school. Money spent in the shop and with the artists does more good than anything in a suitcase.
Which voyages have the most community time?
The West Greenland voyages, which call at four or five towns between Kangerlussuaq and Disko Bay, and the Canadian Arctic voyages that include Pond Inlet and Qikiqtarjuaq. The Thule voyages have fewer visits and the most remote ones.
