Change
Today, people of the Arctic region are becoming ever less dependant on their natural surroundings for their living. Changes in life style, and the use of new techniques, impose new demands on clothing. Nowadays the Inuit often have paid jobs in hospitals, schools, shops, or on trawlers working in the industrial fisheries. People often have only a short journey between home and workplace, so that there is no longer any need for two fur coats, worn one on top of the other. In properly heated houses, people usually find T shirts, sweat shirts and jeans comfortable to wear.

Martha Jonathansen with her daughter Anna Sofia, and small son Hans-Lars. (Photo: Cunera Buijs, Ammassalik 2001).

The transition to a new life style has created new needs in the clothing area. East Greenlanders purchase a large proportion of their clothes in boutiques and stores, or through the post via catalogues. The extent to which this is done varies according to region.

With the advent of new materials and new articles of clothing deriving from 'western' culture, age differences are now expressed more markedly in the clothes worn. Older men and women usually retain their traditional garments for longer. Thus in East Greenland the older men, especially, continue to use their seal-skin boots (kamiit) for everyday wear, while the younger males walk around in sports shoes, wellington boots, or other 'western' footwear.

This is not to say that traditional, indigenous clothing is disappearing from the entire polar region - on the contrary.

Seamstresses in the 'Skaeven' tailoring workshop making modern clothing from fur. (Photo: Cunera Buijs. Ammassalik, 2001).

Even in Greenland, fur garments are still made, and are still being worn by hunters, for protection during long journeys by snow scooter. Indigenous garments still compare favourably with 'European' clothing. Modern 'cold weather' garments make considerable use of synthetic materials, designed to trap as much air as possible, in the same way as fur. This kind of clothing is made from thin layers, each of which permits the transfer of perspiration to the next layer. In this way perspiration collects in the outermost layer, which has the best chance of drying out. Generally speaking, synthetic materials have a rapid drying rate. The Inuit also buy modern polar clothing of this kind. Only in extremely cold areas, such as North Greenland, are fur garments still preferred, since they still appear to provide the greatest degree of insulation. Indigenous clothing is increasingly worn as festive dress, and as the expression of the Greenlander's identity.

New East Greenland clothing made from seal fur and cotton is displayed during a fashion show and cultural festival held in the sports hall in Ammassalik. (Photo: Cunera Buijs, 2001)

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