Martha Biilmann

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Martha "Mattaaraq" Bodil Marcilie Biilmann (born Jessen ; born January 7, 1921 in Napasoq , † March 13, 2008 in Maniitsoq ) was a furrier from Greenland .

Life

Martha Biilmann was the daughter of the hunter Otto Andreas Ivar Jessen (1890–1960) and his wife Amalie Karen Sabine Platou (1893–1956). She came from a traditional family where the father hunted and the mother worked the skins. Martha and her three sisters were also brought up while their three brothers were painters. On May 19, 1940, she married the office assistant Holger Biilmann (1916–1988), son of the catechist Klaus Biilmann and his wife Frederikke Heilmann. The marriage had six children: Amalie (* 1941), Lars (* 1943), Nathan (* 1947), Line (* 1949), Johanne (* 1952) and Petrus (* 1954). Through her youngest daughter, she is the grandmother of the politician Aqqaluaq B. Egede (* 1981).

In the 1950s, with the emerging fish boom, the importance of seal hunting declined. Because industrial clothing was sold in Greenland, fewer and fewer girls were taught how to work with fur. In the late 1960s, Martha complained about this change in the press and began teaching fur sewing at night school in Maniitsoq in 1967. From 1974 she also taught as an assistant teacher in the Folkeskole in Maniitsoq. In 1977 the Arnat Ilinniarfiat women's college opened in Sisimiut . Martha Biilmann gave courses there for women from all over Greenland, so that their knowledge and techniques spread across the whole country. From the mid-1980s, she experimented with preserving raw seal skins by salting them ; in some places the skins are now preserved with salt during storage. Because of her high profile and knowledge, she was appointed fur advisor to the government in 1986, an office that was created just for her and that was not re-occupied after she left in 1996. From 1993, the salting of skins was used in Greenland to store the skins until processing in the Nunatta Ammerivia tannery in Qaqortoq . During her tenure as a government advisor, she also served on the tannery's board of directors. In 1990 she published a textbook on fur processing with Amminik Suleriaaseq . Today seal skins are once again used as everyday clothing in Greenland and there are fur processing and sewing facilities in many towns and villages.

Martha Biilmann has received numerous awards for her work: in 1975 she received the award of the Union of Greenlandic Women's Associations (Kalaallit Nunaanni Arnat Peqatigiit Kattuffiat), in 1982 an award from the Maniitsoq community , in 1983 the Greenland Christmas stamp award and in 1988 the culture award of the Greenland government . On November 27, 1996 she was awarded the Nersornaat in silver and she is also the holder of the Fortjenstmedaljen . In 1998 she was made an honorary member of the Maniitsoq Women's Association, which she had co-founded almost 50 years earlier. She died in Maniitsoq in 2008 at the age of 87 after a long illness.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b biography in Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon
  2. ↑ a b Martha Biilmann død, 87 år at knr.gl
  3. ↑ January René Westh: Ordenshistorisk Tidsskrift . Ed .: Ordenshistorisk Selskab . tape 36 , December 2010, ISSN  0904-5554 , p. 17 .
personal data
SURNAME Biilmann, Martha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Biilmann, Martha Bodil Marcilie (full name); Jessen, Martha Bodil Marcilie (maiden name); Mattaaraq (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greenlandic furrier
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Napasoq
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 2008
Place of death Maniitsoq