Niaqornat

Niaqornat (areas with head-shaped rocks)
Niaĸornat
Commune	Avannaata Communia
District	Uummannaq
Geographical location	70 ° 47 '20 "  N , 53 ° 39' 54"  W Coordinates: 70 ° 47 '20 "  N , 53 ° 39' 54"  W.
Residents	35 (January 1, 2020)
founding	1823
Time zone	UTC-3

Niaqornat [ niɑˈqɔnːatˢʰ ] (according to the old spelling Niaĸornat ) is a Greenlandic settlement in the district of Uummannaq in the Avannaata Kommunia .

location

Niaqornat is located on the north side of the Nuussuaq peninsula on Uummannap Kangerlua . The place has access to the sea in the west, while in the east there is a lake delimited by a narrow beach. There is a rocky cape north of the village . In the south, the peninsula is directly adjacent to the 1000 m high mountains. The next inhabited place, Qaarsut , is 38 km from Niaqornat to the southeast.

history

Niaqornat as an attachment

Niaqornat was already inhabited before the colonial era. Later, people only lived there temporarily to catch fish. From 1799 to 1800 a yarn catching attempt was carried out in Niaqornat. It went well and so in 1802 the assistant and the cooper on Illorsuit were used to catch yarn in Niaqornat in winter. 1804 the place of the plant in Nuussuaq was subordinated. During the war from 1807 to 1814, Nuussuaq and Niaqornat were abandoned.

In 1823 a plant was established in Niaqornat. A multi- storey house was moved from Uummannatsiaq to Niaqornat and later a oil distillery was built. In 1839, in addition to the assistant, there was a cook, a cooper, and in the summer two sailors worked in Niaqornat.

Together with the Sammisoq residential area to the west, 122 people lived in Niaqornat in 1849. Niaqornat is the place of origin of the Greenlandic families Cortzen, Løvstrøm and Kruse.

Niaqornat as Udsted

In 1870 Niaqornat was downgraded to Udsted . The oil distillery remained in operation until 1905. From 1886 to 1891 meteorological measurements were made in Niaqornat.

In 1915 there were 118 Greenlanders and two Danes in Niaqornat. The Greenlanders lived in 21 houses. The one-story building from Uummannatsiaq served as the apartment of the Udsteds administrator. It was 39 m² in size and had a hall, kitchen, living room and chamber. The provisions store with shop was from 1839. It was a half-timbered house just like the material shed from 1852 and the bacon house from 1906 as well as another older bacon house. A third old bacon house was a Greenlandic house. The church was built in 1874 in the Greenlandic style. In 1903 it was supplemented by a church bell from the old church of Uummannaq . There was also a school from 1907, which was 11 m² in size and a half-timbered house with a stone facade and a roof made of roofing felt and wooden boards. 28 hunters, four fishermen, the Udsteds administrator, a catechist and two midwives worked in Niaqornat.

In 1924 a packing house was built. In 1930 Niaqornat had 79 inhabitants. In 1946 the place received a school band. The fish house, which was also newly built, was hardly used because the 21 fishermen in the village caught an average of only 319 kg of fish in 1952. In 1960 Niaqornat had 100 inhabitants. In the same year Niaqornat lost its Udsted status, but survived the local reform in 1966, when the residential area became a village.

From 1911 Niaqornat was a separate municipality without any associated living space. There were three men on the town council. The community belonged to the colonial district of Uummannaq and was part of the 8th regional council electoral district of North Greenland. In 1950 Niaqornat was incorporated into the Uummannaq community . In 2009 Niaqornat became part of the new Qaasuitsup Kommunia and since 2018 the place has been part of the Avannaata Kommunia .

The British documentary Greenland - A village at the end of the world ( Village at the End of the World ) by Sarah Gavron from 2012 shows life in Niaqornat and accompanied inter alia Karl Kristian Kruse and his family.

List of colonial employees

The following persons were the administrators of the plant as trade assistants.

• 1825–1826: Jens August Mørch
• 1826–1828: Johan Peter Petersen
• 1829–1830: Severin Michael Cortzen
• 1830–1839: Poul Nicolaj Egede
• 1840–1870: Severin Michael Cortzen

economy

The residents of Niaqornat live from hunting, which is done with dog sleds and dinghies . There are, among others, seals , walruses , whales , polar bears , cod , halibut , Greenland shark , reindeer , arctic hares , ptarmigan , eider ducks and gulls hunted. The trading post in Niaqornat was closed by KNI in 2011 so that the residents had to sell their hunted prey in the district capital Uummannaq , 58 km away , but a private trading post was established in the same year. They try to promote tourism, so that, for example, tours are offered on request.

Infrastructure and supply

In the south there is a quay from which the boats are departed. The Niaqornat heliport east of the lake connects the place with the outside world even in winter. Otherwise, dog sleds and snowmobiles are used for traffic in the roadless settlement.

Nukissiorfiit is responsible for supplying the place . Electricity is generated by a power plant. The drinking water is taken from a mountain lake and stored on site. Garbage is stored and burned on site and sewage is discharged into the sea. TELE Greenland provides the place with a telecommunication connection.

Development

In Niaqornat there has been a branch of the national nature institute Pinngortitaleriffik since 2007 , which deals with narwhals , belugas and polar bears, for example . There is a service building that houses showers and a laundry, for example, and a church. The Neriunnerup Atuarfia school, with around eight students who have to move to a secondary school in Uummannaq after eighth grade, houses a library and provides recreational opportunities. The Pilersuisoq branch opened in 2012 and the infirmary offer additional work opportunities . Five buildings in Niaqornat are under protection. There is also a soccer field in the south on a mountain, where there are also good opportunities for winter sports .

See also : List of architectural monuments in Niaqornat

Sons and daughters

• Jonas Cortzen (1874–?), Provincial Councilor
• Tobias Kruse (1898–?), Provincial Councilor
• Hans Hansen (1890–?), Catechist and councilor
• Edvard Kruse (1900–1968), councilor, catechist, poet, artist and journalist
• Mikael Petersen (* 1956), politician (Siumut)

Population development

The population of Niaqornat has been constant for a long time, but has more than halved in the last 20 years.

panorama

Niaqornat (2017)

Web links

Commons : Niaqornat  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Map with all official place names confirmed by Oqaasileriffik , provided by Asiaq
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Alfred Bertelsen , Hother Ostermann : Beskrivelse af Distrikterne i Nordgrønland: Ũmánaĸ district. De grandson Bopladser. Niaĸornat . In: Georg Carl Amdrup , Louis Bobé , Adolf Severin Jensen , Hans Peder Steensby (eds.): Grønland i tohundredeaaret for Hans Egedes landing (=  Meddelelser om Grønland . Volume 60-61 ). tape 1 . C. A. Reitzel Boghandel, Copenhagen 1921, p. 397 ff . ( Digitized in the Internet Archive ).
3. ↑ ^{a b} Jens Christian Madsen: Udsteder and bopladser i Grønland 1901–2000 . Atuagkat, 2009, ISBN 978-87-90133-76-4 , pp. 170 .
4. ↑ Niaqornat in the Internet Movie Database (English)
5. ^ Hother Ostermann : Beskrivelse af Distrikterne i Nordgrønland: Ũmánaĸ District. History . In: Georg Carl Amdrup , Louis Bobé , Adolf Severin Jensen , Hans Peder Steensby (eds.): Grønland i tohundredeaaret for Hans Egedes landing (=  Meddelelser om Grønland . Volume 60-61 ). tape 1 . C. A. Reitzel Boghandel, Copenhagen 1921, p. 381 f . ( Digitized in the Internet Archive ).
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Niaqornat at qaasuitsup-kp.cowi.webhouse.dk
7. ↑ Population Niaqornat 1977-2020 at bank.stat.gl