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Dear Mr. Nuttall,Your article in the October 15, 1999 issue of The Times described Mr. Gareth Burnell's plan to reintroduce kayaking in East Greenland ("Britons to teach Inuit forgotten kayak skills"). Mr. Burnell cited the success of West Greenlanders in reviving kayaking and hoped to do the same in East Greenland by taking glassfiber kayaks there.
Just two weeks before your article appeared, I was one of nine Americans who met with Kaleraq Bech, one of the founders and now President of QAANNAT KATTUFFIAT, the Greenland National Kayak Association. Other Greenlanders at our meeting in Delaware were Kaleraq's wife Lone, who is the secretary of QAANNAT KATTUFFIAT, and Maligiaq Johnsen Padilla, 1998 champion kayaker of Greenland.
Our meeting was held to discuss various ways in which recreational kayakers could help QAANNAT KATTUFFIAT preserve Greenland's kayaking heritage. QAANNAT KATTUFFIAT is comprised of about 25 local West Greenland kayak clubs who build and use traditional kayaks and paddles. These kayaks are identical to the skin covered craft of ancient Greenland seal hunters, except the covering is now usually fabric instead of sealskin. Young Greenlanders are trained to use kayaks safely and many of them become experts in the ancient capsize recovery techniques developed by their ancestors.
Mr. Bech said that some of the local clubs did not have the funds to send local contestants to this year's annual championship meeting. The association hopes to raise funds by selling anoraks and similar items that display their club insignia. Mr. Bech hopes to raise enough funds for QAANNAT KATTUFFIAT to include East Greenland in the association. They have been handicapped by the lack of scheduled ship transportation between East and West Greenland. Pack ice hampers East Greenland shipping and air travel between East and West Greenland is very expensive because of the low volume of travel.
Mr. Bech would also like to have QAANNAT KATTUFFIAT give exhibitions in Europe. I have always hoped that they could perform at the Crystal Palace canoe show in London.
Any organization that wishes to contact Kaleraq Bech can Telefax him at: Your local access number + 299-865296. It will expedite his reply if the Telefax could be written in Danish or Greenlandic.
John D Heath