Ice fishing is a pastime (a recreational activity? a sport? a way of life!) that faces nature’s challenges head on and says, boldly, “cold? BAH with cold.” Though casting lines for fish through feet full of ice in remote, treacherously frozen locations may not be everyone’s cup of tea, getting the opportunity to spend some quiet time out in nature going ice fishing with our friends sure sounds like fun. Fortunately our “interpretive” version of ice fishing, in honor of this week’s music from Greenland, takes place in your nice warm classroom. Cheers!
Tag Archives | Greenland
The First Thing you Need is an Auger
In Greenland, Iceland and other Nordic countries the winters are darned cold, and with darned cold comes icy ponds that are right for fishin’. After eons of fishing in the cold the Inuit have figured out what to do to conquer the thick ice that sits between all of us and our very chilly fish. To carry on with contemporary Inuit ice fishing all we need is:
— an ice auger: a large drill to cut through the ice
— a spud: an ice-pick shaped like a wedge
— a “split shot”: a lead weight
— a “jigging rod”: a regular fishing rod, and
— a “tip up”: a contraption that allows you to lower a line down into the ice and that “tips up” a spring-loaded flag to alert you when the fish takes your bait so you can reel in the fish by hand. So let’s go!
Yes, Greenlandic Rap
If you think hip hop seems to be everywhere nowadays, you’re right — Greenland = “everywhere.” Nuuk Posse billed themselves as the first Greenlandic Rap act, which may have been true; the crew’s members, all Inuit, came together to rap as early as 1985. By 1991 the group had officially become Nuuk Posse. Watch the video for the video for “Qitik,” which the self-proclaimed first Greenlandic rap act puts forth as “the first Greenlandic rap.”
Kalattuut
When the Danes came to Greenland they brought European instruments such as the accordion and the Danish fiddle, not to mention a steady stock of Christian hymns. Missionaries introduced brass instruments and violins. Danish folk-style Greenlandic bands often play to support an Inuit polka known as the Kalattuut–watch some kalattuut here. (the dancing starts at about 0:50).
Drum Dance Master Anda Kuiste
The main surviving Greenlandic musical tradition is the Drum Dance, a competition during which two musicians come to the town’s “qaggi,” which a snow-house built to host community events, and chant lighthearted songs while each beating a frame drum (made of an oval frame with a bear bladder stretched over the top as the drum head), competing to see who can get the most laughs from the audience. One of the best known Greenlandic drum dancers is Anda Kuitse. Watch him perform a drum dance, the story of which a YouTube commenter summarizes in the following way: “a raven and a goose whom fall in love one summer. When autumn comes and the goose must fly south over the big ocean the raven follows its loved one. But the raven cannot swim nor flote. So when the goose landed in the ocean to rest the raven also landed. But for each time the goose landed in the ocean the raven sinks deeper (the drumdancer shows with his drumstick how deep the water reaches the raven each time they land in the ocean) and finally the raven drowns into the deep for its love.”
Frame Drums and Bull-roarers
The Inuit people who live in Greenland’share cultural and musical traditions with Inuit people all over the world’s north–especially the Yukon, Canada’s Northwest Territories, Alaska and eastern Russia. Most Greenlandic Inuit music features singing and drums–mainly hand-held frame drums. Greenland’s musicians also use buzzers, whistles and even, wonderfully, BULL-ROARERS.
Take Off to the Great White North
This week we complete our Western European and Nordic online-class adventure by heading way way WAY up north to visit Iceland and Greenland. Iceland, which for almost a thousand years was in Norse or Danish hands, became independent in 1874. Greenland which for centuries was also a Norwegian-Danish-ruled land, still has ties to Denmark but has been self-governing since 1978. Both places are chilly. Both places are grand, and they’re so different! Our upcoming blog posts will mainly introduce Greenland, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love Bjork.
Greenlandic Rap — Nuuk Posse
When we say hip hop is everywhere, we mean everywhere. “Nuuk Posse” is Greenland’s most accomplished rap group. They formed in 1985, have toured worldwide, and in 2004 were nominated for the distinction of “Messengers of Truth” by the United Nations. As we all do, thep rap in English, Danish and Greenlandic (Kalaallisut.)
