Tasiilaq

Tasiilaq

Tasiilaq is a town located on Ammassalik Island in southeastern Greenland, within the municipality of Sermersooq. With 1,985 inhabitants as of 2020, it is the most populous community on the eastern coast and the seventh-largest town in Greenland.

Arts

• Ammassat and Lakes: Formerly known as Ammassalik, which means the place with the Ammassat, the town received its official name change to Tasiilaq, meaning the place at the lakes, in 1997.
• Interior Artistry: While the first church was established in 1908, a second church was built in 1986 featuring interior decoration created by artist Aka Høegh.
• Historical Turning Point: A pivotal historical turning point arrived with the 1884 and 1885 expeditions led by Danish naval captain Gustav Holm, which marked the area's first connections with Europe when approximately 400 people lived in the village facing vanishing resources, malnutrition, and disease. This led directly to the founding of the permanent settlement as a Danish trading station in 1894.

Food Culture

Tasiilaq is the most populous community on the eastern coast of Greenland, situated within the municipality of Sermersooq. Home to 1,985 inhabitants as of 2020, the town anchors the southeastern region where East Greenlandic is spoken.

Seasonal harvesting

Summer camps in the mountains and fjords

From hunting to cod fisheries

Long before the formal establishment of the permanent settlement as a Danish trading station in 1894, local dietary sustenance relied entirely upon regional yields. At least up to the 1920s, residents routinely left town during the summer months to occupy temporary hunting and fishing camps scattered throughout the surrounding mountains and fjords. This traditional rhythm of food gathering underwent a definitive transformation in the middle of the twentieth century. From the end of World War II into the 1960s, the community shifted its primary culinary and economic reliance away from traditional hunting, transitioning instead toward cod fisheries to secure both food provisions and economic prospects in Sermersooq.

Tasiilaq is a town located on Ammassalik Island in southeastern Greenland, within the municipality of Sermersooq. Home to 1,985 inhabitants as of 2020, it functions as the most populous community on the eastern coast and the seventh-largest town in Greenland.

Harbour settlements

Reaching the southeastern coast after centuries of desertion following back migrations, settlers established a permanent site in 1894 as a Danish trading station. Previously known as Ammassalik, the community faced early challenges of vanishing resources, malnutrition, and disease following initial European connections led by Danish naval captain Gustav Holm during expeditions in 1884 and 1885.

Shifting livelihoods

From the end of World War II into the 1960s, the local economy shifted its reliance from hunting toward cod fisheries for food and economic prospects. The official name changed to Tasiilaq in 1997, designating the place at the lakes.

A historical turning point

A significant social intervention occurred on September 7, 2021, when alcohol consumption was banned by Greenland's self-rule authority over a two-week period until September 17 following a surge of violence and suicide in the town. Following this prohibition, reports of domestic violence greatly decreased, with local social workers noting the measure acted as a necessary short-term solution to halt alcohol-fueled incidents.

Tasiilaq is the most populous community on the eastern coast of Greenland and the seventh-largest town in the country. Situated in the Sermersooq municipality at latitude 65.61451 and longitude -37.63676, the town holds 1,985 inhabitants as of 2020.

A frozen shore

Located approximately 106 km south of the Arctic Circle on Ammassalik Island, the settlement hugs a natural harbor within the Tasiilaq Fjord. Alfred Gabriel Nathorst named this basin Kong Oscars Havn in 1883. Beyond the immediate waters lie the long Ammassalik Fjord, opening to the North Atlantic, and the vast Sermilik Fjord to the west, near where the Sermilik Station researches the Mittivakkat Glacier.

Traces of migration

Prehistoric cultures first traversed the region from the north via Peary Land and Independence Fjord, beginning with the Saqqaq people before the Dorset culture arrived. Norse voyagers recognized the locality as a navigational landmark between Iceland's Snæfellsnes peninsula and Greenland, while Thule migrations moved through in the fifteenth century. Subsequent back migrations toward the western coast left the southeastern shores deserted for two hundred years until late-eighteenth-century resettlement.

The turning point of European contact

Danish naval captain Gustav Holm led expeditions in 1884 and 1885 that marked the area's initial documented connections with Europe. At that time, approximately 400 people populated the village amid severe challenges involving vanishing resources, malnutrition, and disease. This historical turning point paved the way for the foundation of a permanent Danish trading station in 1894, originally called Ammassalik, meaning the place with the Ammassat. The first church followed in 1908, anchoring a community that later transitioned from seasonal hunting and fishing camps toward cod fisheries after World War II, before adopting the official name Tasiilaq in 1997.