Upernavik (‘The place to spend spring’) is located in Avannaa Municipality in northernmost West Green- land. The town is sited on an island bearing the same name. The population in the town is about 1,125 with a further 1,675 people residing in the nine surrounding settlements. Upernavik was the capital of the former Upernavik Municipality, which comprised an area almost the size of Great Britain.
Foundation
Warehouse keeper Andreas Bruun founded the Uper- navik colony in 1772 on the southern side of Upernavik Island, where the sea was always calm regardless of the weather. Upernavik was the place to go in the spring when the ice broke up, partly to shop and partly to fish and hunt out in the open sea. Hence the name Upernavik.
For the people who had already settled there, it was a transition to a completely new society. Trade was restored in the district in 1823 and Upernavik was granted colonial status under the Godhavn (Qeqertar- suaq) colony before becoming an independent colony in 1826.
A town is born
Commerce was based on traditional catches. Seals, whales, fish and fowl were the primary food staples of the local population. An important prey was the common murre, which still breeds today on two enor- mous rocky cliffs in the area. Both the birds and their eggs formed part of the food chain. Fishing for halibut started around 1920, however it was not until the 1980’s that fishing began in earnest, so that Upernavik is no longer characterised as a hunting community but rather as a fishing community.
Modern Upernavik
Upernavik Church dates back to 1926. It was extended in 1990 to seat 300 people. A small cast of Bertel Thorvaldsen’s Christ figure stands on the alter behind the seven-armed candelabra.
The town’s primary school, Princess Margrethe School, accommodates around 235 pupils from the 1st to the 10th grade. In addition, there is a youth college for pupils from the regional villages, who attend sec- ondary school classes in Upernavik.
The town’s only supermarket sells the most com- monplace colonial and food products, along with hardware, clothing, boots, cosmetics, knitting yarns, etc. in a limited selection.
The town hospital was built in 1996 on the same site as the old hospital, which burned down. The hospital functions both as an emergency room and a centre for standard medical procedures. Basic treatments are administered and some minor operations are per- formed there. The town sports centre was inaugurated in 2006.
Transport in the district is either by private motor boat or helicopter. Upernavik Airport on the outskirts of the town has a 799 metre runway and there is a flight connection from Kangerlussuaq via Ilulissat. Goods are shipped regularly to and from Upernavik by the Royal Arctic Line shipping company.
The main industry today is fishing for Greenland halibut with long lines and nets. Seals, whales and polar bears are also hunted. Although Upernavik still bears signs of its old hunting culture, few people make a full-time living as hunters. There are, however, many recreational hunters and fishermen.
About the artist
Jessie Kleemann, born in Upernavik on 6th November 1959, is a Greenlandic-Danish visual artist and writer. She is a trained graphic designer. From 1978-79, she was a student at the Tuukkaq Theatre in Fjaltring, Western Jutland. She was the head of the Art School in Nuuk from 1984 to 1991. Jessie Kleemann has also worked in TV and media and created Greenland’s first art video. She held her first major solo exhibition in Nuuk in 1988.
She is an internationally recognised performance artist, who has performed all over the world, espe- cially within Arctic contexts. Kleemann incorporates Greenlandic symbols, mythologies and materials in her often challenging performances. In 1997, Kleemann made her debut as a poet with the collection Taallat. Kleemann writes in Danish, Greenlandic and English, often letting the three languages interact. This is Jessie Kleemann’s second stamp since her stamp debut in 2012.
