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The oldest items of clothing from East Greenland held in the collection of the National Museum of Ethnology (Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, the RMV) date from the end of the nineteenth century. In that period East Greenland had only just been 'discovered' by the Danes, and the garments collected at that time had therefore not yet been influenced by contact with Europeans. These items of clothing, together with other objects of ethnographic interest, found their way into the RMV via the National Museet of Copenhagen. In the 1930s the well-known Dutch biologist and Nobel Prize winner, Niko Tinbergen, [2] lived for some time in East Greenland, in connection with his research.
During his field work, he studied the behaviour of several bird species, and also collected objects of ethnographic interest, the majority of which are now to be found in the Museon in The Hague. However, Tinbergen donated an East Greenland kayak and two kayak anoraks to the RMV. The great breakthrough for the collection came in 1970, when Gerti Nooter [3] was appointed the RMV's curator for North America and the arctic region. Even before Nooter's arrival at the RMV, he conducted research and undertook long field work expeditions. He created an unusually close relationship with a small village on the east coast of Greenland, called Tiniteqilaaq.
Between 1970 and 1990 Gerti Nooter made several return trips to Tiniteqilaaq, for extended visits. During this field work Nooter assembled various collections of objects from this region, consisting of implements, hunting equipment, means of transport, household goods, art, and clothing. When purchasing objects, he concentrated on items still in use at that time. However, in the course of time what had been 'contemporary' objects at the time of purchase, became 'dated' and 'historic' for the museum itself. It is therefore important that Nooter's successor, Cunera Buijs, still continues to carry out research on East Greenland from her RMV base, stimulated by a comparable interest. Objects dating from the present day thus supplement the older collections. Thus changes in clothing can be traced, confirmed and demonstrated on the basis of the museum collection. | | ||||||||
