SISIMIUT, Greenland: From a distance, the village of Sarfannguit looks like a scattering of coloured candy placed upon a shelf.Hidden deep along a narrow, sheltered inlet, away from the humpback whales and ringed seals that ride the currents of the nutrient-rich Davis Strait, its colourful homes rise against the exposed granite slopes of the area.This settlement is one of dozens of small communities whose future is increasingly uncertain - caught between a changing climate, decades of population decline and the economic pull of Greenland's growing towns.The Arctic is warming around four times faster than the global average, transforming coastlines, ecosystems and weather patterns across the high north.
From the highest vantage point in the settlement of about 100 people, wind whips across this landscape’s bare, smooth curves. Distant patches of Arctic wildflowers, dwarf shrubs and lichen break up the starkness of the rocky peninsula.
An aerial view of Sarfannguit, a small settlement on Greenland's west coast. (Photo: CNA/Jack Board)
An installed artwork of light-fracturing glass and steel called “Qaammat” - Greenlandic for “Moon” - sits here too, a tribute to the unbroken, intangible cultural heritage of the native Inuit people in this landscape.Hanserak Olsen has spent years of his life looking out across this view, beyond the small cemetery where his ancestors are buried and out to a place that for 4,000 years has been a central meeting place.For generations, families left Sarfannguit each summer to hunt inland towards Greenland's remarkable ice sheet. Olsen, a 69-year-old fisherman and boat guide who grew up here, wonders if that tradition will continue.He worries about the less predictable sea ice, the shifting fish stocks that mean his catch has been poor this year and the young people drawn away for education and employment. Climate change is accelerating many of the pressures that Greenland's remote settlements were already facing.“Of course, we have the internet here, but there're a lot more interesting possibilities and more modern life in the towns,” he said, referring often to Sisimiut, about an hour’s boat ride away.
