AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Kayaks are a key part of Greenland's history. The Inuit people of the island use them to hunt for food. And today, the kayak is a symbol of Greenlandic identity. Our co-host Juana Sommers met some of the people carrying on the tradition in Greenland's capital.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
I'm standing at the edge of a swimming pool as members of Nuuk's kayak club paddle their kayaks across the water. They come here when it's too cold to practice outside. Greenland kayakers are known for rolling.
They're literally capsizing the kayak with their own strength and having to use the torque of their bodies and the paddle to right themselves fairly quickly.
Those rolls and their more than two dozen techniques are part of what makes Greenlandic kayaking unique. I watch them practice for a while, and then it's my turn for a more basic lesson.
Let's do it.
PAVIA TOBIASSEN: (Through interpreter) The Greenland kayak is unique. Plastic kayaks are usually wider and heavier, making them slower in water. Also when we build it ourselves, we can customize the shape and size to our own preferences.
SUMMERS: This is Pavia Tobiassen. He heads up the kayak club, and he's helping me get situated.
I've never been in a kayak before, never.
TOBIASSEN: OK.
SUMMERS: I promise to pay attention. Take this? My legs go forward? All right, we're learning stuff.
I take a seat in a practice kayak. Tobiassen hands me a paddle. It doesn't look like the type of kayak paddle I've seen before. This one is slim and narrow. The blades aren't very wide at all.
So I'm holding the paddle about shoulder width, distance apart.
TOBIASSEN: (Non-English language spoken).
SUMMERS: Relax your body? You know, new skills. I'm going to try my best. All right, Pavia's hopping in the pool to help me out a little bit.
He takes off his shirt and helps me push off. I noticed that he has a tattoo that says, America, on his chest. When I ask him about it, he chalks it up to an impulsive teenage decision.
We're taking a little lap around the pool here. Trying to keep this kayak straight - varying degrees of success.
SUMMERS: I make my way around the pool really slowly, and somehow, I don't tip over.
All right, we've made it back to the dock. Thank you for dragging me back in. How did I do?
TOBIASSEN: Good.
SUMMERS: Good? All right, I got a thumbs up. That's better than I expected (laughter).
Greenland today is caught in a tug of war between competing international tensions. They believe in tradition. They don't want to be Danish? They don't want to be American. They're Greenlandic. Keeping this part of their heritage alive is one way they're showing the world who they are.
TOBIASSEN: (Through interpreter) What's most important is that we, as Greenlandic kayakers, are continuing a tradition that has been a part of our way of life for generations.
SUMMERS: Pavia Tobiassen started kayaking in the 1990s. And when he started, he says there were barely any kayakers in Nuuk.
How do you feel when you kayak? What does it make you feel?
TOBIASSEN: (Through interpreter) I can see seals, whales, and birds up close as they move along. Of course, when I think back to how our ancestors lived, I can really feel the deep connection to their way of life. And that adds to the feeling of freedom I experience.
SUMMERS: To learn more about the ancestral heritage of paddling and building kayaks in Greenland, we headed to the kayak clubhouse. It's a small wooden building that overlooks the water, a rack of kayaks stacked up outside. A man is using a small knife, scraping away at what looks like a long string.
Tell us about what he's cutting there. What is it?
IDA NIELSEN: It's a seal skin that - he's helping me take off the hairs because we need to make, like, a rope, like a string almost. Goes on the outside of the kayak.
(SOUNDBITE OF KNIFE SCRAPING)
NIELSEN: My name is Ida Nielsen, and I am trying to build some kayaks here.
SUMMERS: Ida Nielsen moved to Greenland from Denmark four years ago. Members of the club are here building their own kayaks.
NIELSEN: You can put your - like, your tools or your paddle or your (non-English language spoken). There's not really an American word for that. It's, like, the thing you use to throw your harpoon.
SUMMERS: The building's small with low ceilings. There are kayaks, paddles and long wooden harpoons hanging over our heads. All of these kayaks are made from traditional designs and materials, like seal skin, whale bone and reindeer antlers. There are two men sawing part of a kayak frame as we start talking to 18-year-old Koluk Jensen Polson (ph). He's been building kayaks for three years.
KOLUK JENSEN POLSON: I like creating kayaks because I can style it myself, so I know it can be better for me when I compete.
SUMMERS: How did you get started building kayaks?
POLSON: My dad used to build me kayak, and he was in cancer.
SUMMERS: His dad was diagnosed with cancer, so he picked up the work. I ask him to show me his kayak. Today, he's working on finishing the wooden ribs of the frame.
POLSON: We steam it and let it steam in water and steam it and bend it.
SUMMERS: Bend it so it makes the shape of the kayak that...
POLSON: Yeah.
SUMMERS: ...We're used to, that rounded shape at the bottom?
POLSON: Mm-hmm.
SUMMERS: Today, kayaking is an incredibly popular sport in Greenland. There is a national championship every year that draws kayakers from across Greenland and around the world. At the Nuuk kayak club, one shelf is full of trophies. Naia Roke Peterson (ph) sits at a desk nearby. She says it's good that kayaks are used for sport now but that it's important to remember the ways that her ancestors used them.
NAIA ROKE PETERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
SUMMERS: Without kayaks, there would be no food she tells me. Without kayaks, there would be no Greenland.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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