Qeqertat is a small village in the Qaanaaq area of the Avannaata municipality, in northern Greenland. It is located on the Harvard islands, in the inner Inglefield Fjord, approximately 63 km (39 mi) east of Qaanaaq. The village had 23 inhabitants in 2020. It is one of the most northern settlements in Greenland and in the world. Qeqertat means "the islands" in the Inuit language.[1][2]
Qeqertat | |
|---|---|
  Qeqertat Location within Greenland | |
| Coordinates: 77°29′39″N 66°41′05″W / 77.49417°N 66.68472°W | |
| State |  Kingdom of Denmark |
| Constituent country |  Greenland |
| Municipality |  Avannaata |
| Population (2020) | |
| • Total | 23 |
| Time zone | UTC−02:00 (Western Greenland Time) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−01:00 (Western Greenland Summer Time) |
| Postal code | 3971 Qaanaaq |
The local economy relies heavily on traditional Inuit hunting for narwhal, seals, and walrus.[1] Qeqertat is also known as a good place for halibut fishing, with the largest and most abundant Greenland halibut found in the fjord nearby.[3]
The town has no independent water supply. Instead, the townsfolk must get their water from nearby rivers and lakes, or, in winter, collect sea ice to melt.[3]
Population
editThe population of Qeqertat has been stable in the last two decades.[4] After registering a decline in the '90s, the population grew to 30 in 2010, before declining again to 23 in 2019.
A 70-year-old resident of the village, interviewed by Gretel Ehrlich in her 2021 book Unsolaced, said that the village had a much larger population when she was a child.[5] A 1984 National Geographic article stated that the population of the town had recently fallen from 50 to about 20. The town in 1984 consisted of 11 houses, a store, a school and a chapel.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c Silis, Ivars (April 1984). "Hunting the Greenland Narwhal". National Geographic. Vol. 165, no. 4. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
- ^ MacMillan, Donald Baxter (1943). Eskimo Place Names And Aid To Conversation. The Hydrographic Office, U.S. Navy. p. 54. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
- ^ a b Koch, N.E. (2023). Greenland. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 294. ISBN 978-1-5381-8125-6. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
- ^ a b Statistics Greenland Archived July 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ehrlich, Gretel (2021). Unsolaced: Along the Way to All That Is. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-91179-7. Retrieved 2024-06-19.
Further reading
edit- Fredskild, Bent. The Holocene Vegetational Development of Tugtuligssuaq and Qeqertat, Northwest Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland, 14. Copenhagen: Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland, 1985. ISBN 87-17-05400-1