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Leather kayak anorak: qaajarsiit
This anorak, made of dark-coloured seal leather, was sometimes worn over the gut-skin anorak. This leather was rendered waterproof with seal oil. The anorak was often beautifully decorated with leather strips along the seams, and with beads made of bone.
Small leather thongs, which could be pulled tight, were threaded through the seam on the bottom edge of the garment, through the seams at the bottom of the sleeves, and through the hood seam. The thongs were drawn so tightly that no water could penetrate the hood or sleeves. The bottom of the anorak was tied fast to the opening of the kayak with a leather strap, so that no water could get into the hunter's clothing or into the kayak itself. This allowed the hunter to turn right over in his kayak, finishing the right way up on the water without shipping any. (The Dutch have created an active verb for this: 'Eskimoteren' - 'to rotate like an Eskimo'!) On the back panel of the anorak there were two small leather thongs, which came over the shoulders to meet in the middle of the front panel. There, they could be drawn tight in such a way that the anorak was slightly pulled up. This made sure that no water could be left in the bottom of the kayak anorak. At the back of the hood, two leather thongs with bone beads could be drawn tight, to fasten the hood securely to the head, thus ensuring that the hunter did not peer into the back of his own hood when he looked behind him. At the end of the nineteenth century there was a third type of kayak anorak in use, made of white, bleached leather at the top, and of dark-coloured, waterproof leather at the bottom. There were marked similarities between the use of this anorak and the use of the dark-leather kind. These days, a kayak anorak is regarded in East Greenland as typical men's wear. However, this anorak is no longer worn at the moment. The first garment to disappear from use was the anorak made from intestines, which was completely replaced by the leather anorak. Later on, at the end of the 1960s, leather anoraks also disappeared, but some hunters still wore them on festive occasions, as they did when the Queen of Denmark visited Tiniteqilaaq village in 1967. At that time, hunters were already wearing cotton anoraks in their kayaks, of a grey-green colour useful as camouflage, or else thick woollen sweaters. In wet weather nylon raincoats, or oilskins, were (and are) worn. | |
