Inuit Nunangat Stories

Much is made of China "going green." But maybe more attention should be paid to China going to Greenland.

Uploaded by UummannaqMusic on Mar 19, 2012

Galya Morrell's short documentary The Tale of Uummannaq, highlights a small isolated Greenlandic village in need of solutions in the times of climate and societal change.

Uummannaq - a heart-shaped island in Northern Greenland - is referred by many as the "Heart of the Arctic." Today, like many other little settlements in the Far North, its culture is at risk of disappearing. The ancient ways of life that had survived for millennia are now disintegrating along with the disappearing ice.

In the old days, the sea ice was the center of a healthy living community. Everything -- food, clothing, legends, and moral values -- came from the sea ice. Songs were composed and stories were told beside seals' breathing holes. Now, as the ice vanishes, people feel that they are rapidly losing the "ground" beneath their feet.

Join us in this rare opportunity to look into the lives and the disappearing culture of the Inuit as they take part in Uummannami Nipi (Uummannaq Music - in Kalallisut), their community-based yet far-reaching initiative in Northern Greenland whose goals are to protect and support the indigenous dog-sledding hunting culture, preserve the old traditions of Inuit music, dance and storytelling, and thereby prevent the epidemic of suicides among the region's youth brought about by the stresses of abrupt climate and societal change.

Arguably the world's northernmost stage on the drifting ice, Uummannami Nipi functions as a collaboration of native hunters, international artists and local children that aims to revive the spirit of the community and protect the unique Greenlandic values that are disintegrating along with vanishing ice and the advance of "consumer civilization."