Culture and Communication

The town of Narsaq in South West Greenland. Photo: Narsaq Foto.

Greenland’s church is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark. Greenland’s National Museum and Archive in Nuuk serves as the central museum for the island.

Despite the huge distances and the nature of the landscape, communications in Greenland are extremely well-developed. A digital radio link along the coast constitutes the backbone of the telecommunications network.

KNR (Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa, Greenland Broadcasting Corporation) has overall responsibility for radio and television services and produces radio as well as a relatively large number of television programmes.

The building of the Greenland Culture Centre in Nuuk (1997) established an important focus on Greenland’s rich cultural life, presenting both cultural experiences from abroad and contemporary and traditional Greenlandic culture.

Greenlandic art has always been closely associated with nature and natural materials. Soapstone and bone are important materials for carving figures and sculptures, notably by artists such as Christian Rosing (b.1944) and Aka Høegh (b.1947). Aka Høegh is also known as one of Greenland’s great graphic artists, whose work like that of artists such as Jens Rosing (b.1925), Kristian Olsen (Aaju) (b.1942), Kistat Lund (b.1942) and Naja Abelsen (b.1964), is inspired by man’s meeting with Greenland’s magnificent nature.

Story-telling was formerly a key feature of Greenlandic culture, but with the introduction of writing in the 18^th century and the establishment of the South Greenland Printing Press in 1857, the written word became an important element of cultural life. The Danish-Greenlandic explorer Knud Rasmussen (1879-1933) wrote fiction inspired by the Greenlandic tradition and was at the same time probably the most important documenter of Greenlandic legends and stories and the way of life of the Polar Eskimos. Many poets, such as Mathias Storch (1883-1957) and Otto Sandgreen (1914-1999), have dealt with the great changes which the Greenlandic society underwent in the 20th century. This is also a central theme in the work of poets such as Aqqaluk Lynge (b.1947).

Traditional drum song is still practiced, but vocal art is dominated by the polyphonic singing introduced by the Moravian Brethren and performed by for instance the Greenlandic choir Mik. The music scene is dominated by rhythmic music with rock bands such as Sume, G-60 and Zikaza as well as Ole Kristiansen (b.1965) and Rasmus Lyberth (b.1951).

Traditional drum dance has largely been superseded by the more contemporary approach of amateur theatre groups which incorporate traditional modes of expression using masks and face painting, while focusing on contemporary problems. The theatre group Silamiut plays a key role.