Aasivissuit - Nipisat:inuit hunting ground between ice and sea

• Main Authors: Jensen, Jens Fog, Andreasen, Claus, Fleischer-Lyberth, Paninnguaq, Løgstrup, Laust, Poulsen, Hans Holt, Ólafsson, Ólafur Rafnar, Løventoft-Jessen, Anne-Christine, Barr, Susan, Meldgaard, Morten
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Qeqqata Municipality 2017
• Subjects: Aasivissuit; Arctic; Greenland; Davis Strait; inuit
• Online Access: https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/aasivissuit--nipisat(2a7d01d9-8155-4cf4-a588-8c1fb9cacada).html; http://snm.ku.dk/SNMnyheder/alle_nyheder/2017/2017.1/levende-groenlandsk-kulturlandskab-nomineret-til-verdensarv/Aasivissuit-Nipisat_web.pdf

The Aasivissuit – Nipisat area is a unique cultural landscape in an artic setting. It lies at the heart of the largest ice-free area in Greenland which, in combination with the transitional coastal zone between the open-water area and the high-arctic area of land-fast winter ice, has made it an exceptional hunting ground for people through millennia. Aasivissuit – Nipisat provides the most complete and best-preserved record of arctic hunting traditions from 2500 BC onwards, demonstrating sustainable land use based on seasonal migration between the coast and the interior. In the archipelago towards Davis Strait in the west, there are centuries-old winter settlements with ruins of turf houses on virtually every cove and point. Colonial ruins reflect the arrival of Europeans in the 18th century and their interaction with Inuit. The old well-trodden trail inland passes summer camps, stone-built graves and caches, and far inland there is the great summer camp of Aasivissuit, with its perfectly preserved caribou drive system, ‘hopping stones’ and meat caches, recalling the joy and social importance of communal hunts. Today, hunters and their families continue these seasonal journeys, staying and hunting in the same places as their predecessors and thereby forging a tangible link between the past and the present.