The Grecnlandic qajaq-or kayak, as it's known in English-is a vessel for hunting. That's what the name means. It's a boat made from skin, traditionally seal, stretched over a frame of whalebone or driftwood, although "boat" is considered disrespectful when applied to a qajaq. (Modern recreational kayaks are called qajariaq, "qajaq-like.") The Aleut, Yupik, and Inuit peoples transformed the qajaq from open boat to watertight capsule roughly 4,000 years ago as their hunting moved from just offshore to the open sea. From its unsteady perch on frigid seas, they'd throw harpoons and haul waterfowl, seals, and even walruses back to shore. Today, qajaq hunting is mostly limited to the less populous regions in Greenland's north and east. You don't see a lot of kayaking elsewhere-unless, like me, you're at the Greenland Kayaking Competition in Sisimiut, a community of 5,500 on the country's west coast.
展开▼
