Otto Sermiaq

Hunter

Siorapaluk, Greenland

 

2006

”They should think about people like us who live from the earth."

The day I met Otto Sermiaq, he was cutting up a freshly killed walrus. The bloody skull, with skin and whiskers still intact, sat on the snow-covered deck in front of his house. Upon entering the tidy, three-room house that Otto shares with his wife and son, his mother and assorted visiting nieces and nephews, I was struck by a cacaphony of smells. Fresh coffee. The gamey odor of raw walrus and blood. Chemical toilet. Body odors. A gym bag full of qiviaq (small birds) fermenting on the floor.

Otto sat on a stool in the crowded living room, butchering a walrus shoulder that hung before him on a hook. With each cut, he separated the parts; dropping blubbery mattaq into one large pot, edible organs into a second, bones into a third and red meat into a forth. Later that morning, he made up a fifth pot, a mixture of bones and red meat, and fed it to his dog team. Even the puppies got raw meat as evidenced by the pink snow around their dog house and the blood on their paws and muzzles.

Navaranna and I entered and took off our anoraks, gloves and hats. Otto's mother greeted us and put on a fresh pot of coffee. Then, as Navaranna and I found seats at the kitchen table, the mother pulled the walrus heart out of the pot full of organs, cut it in half and put one half in a pot of water on the stove to boil. Soon the aroma of simmering walrus heart mingled with the other smells of the room. Otto finished carving and joined us at the kitchen table for a cup of coffee and an hour of conversation about life in northern Greenland, hunting and climate change.

On Arctic Warming

Otto:  When I was a child it was good to be a hunter. There was such a variety of animals. Now we must eat more fish than before and also store bought food. We cannot hunt as much when the ice season is so short."

On Government Hunting Restrictions

Otto:  Homerule government is very much to blame. They look to see if the wife has a job and they forget we have to feed our dogs. They think only about rent and the things that are in their lives in Nuuk and forget about our dogs.  It doesn't matter which party is in charge of Parliament. It is difficult to change a politician because they only think of themselves."

A Hunting Minority

Otto:  I think there is always hope. We always fight back, but we get very little response and little result. Hunters are a minority in Greenland today. Fishermen and shrimpers get all the attention because there is more money in that.

Home Rule Government should think about people like us who live from the earth. But they decide things without consulting us. Sometimes I think we should not be part of Greenland. Sometimes I think the Thule region should become part of Nunavut. They have more respect for traditional hunters."

Looking Toward the Future

After our conversation, Sermiaq showed Navaranna and I a once-empty house he had bought in Siorapaluk. He'd fixed it up in the hope of using it as a small in for the journalists and others who came to Siorapaluk. The house was immaculate, with new linoleum on the floor, fresh paint on the walls and just unpacked appliances in the kitchen. The future of Siorapaluk and his life as a hunter are uncertain, but one thing has remained constant. People continue to visit Siorapaluk, in twos and threes, just to see the farthest north community on earth. In the past they have had to stay in abandoned, often filthy shacks. Now, thanks to Sermiaq, they will have a clean house in which to stay, with private rooms and clean, modern facilities. It's Otto's way of adapting — and maybe even prospering — in the rapidly changing Thule region.

2008

”I don't know who to pass our hunting skills on to now."

The only change I noticed in Otto in the two years since I'd last seen him was that he was more suntanned. I think that's because the last time I saw him was in early March when the village had just come out of more than four months of darkness. This time he'd had the whole spring and summer outside and he had a good "trucker's" tan — just on his face, neck and arms, the few parts that had been exposed to the sun.

One of the things that Otto did in 2007 was repair an empty house in the village and open it as an "inn" to visiting scientists, tourists, journalists and other nosey people like myself. The two story house was spacious and comfortable — I can personally vouch for that since Jack and I spent two nights there. When I spoke to Otto during this visit, he came to the "inn" rather than having me go to his house, which is usually teaming with family members, people sleeping on the floor and sofa at all hours of the day and night, depending on when they got back from hunting or whatever. He said the "inn" has provided a small income to supplement his hunting.

"The Government Limits Are Almost Meaningless"

Otto:  This was a better winter than the one before. The sea ice stayed longer this year so we were able to hunt a few more weeks than in 2007. Still, it was hard to reach the walrus hunting place because the sea ice was so thin. I caught one walrus and another hunter caught two.  The year before no one caught any walrus. That was a very hard winter.

Until around the year 2000 it was usual for each hunter to get one or two walrus. There were no limits then like the government has set now.  Now it is harder for hunters to reach that quota so that government limits are almost meaningless.

"All the Animals Are Changing"

Otto:  It's hard to have dogs if we don't catch walrus, there is so much meat on it. We have to find other things they can eat and feed them to the dogs, like seals.  But we cannot feed the dogs until they are full, it would take too many seals.  We can't catch that many. So they are always hungry when there is no walrus.

Polar bear behavior is changing too. Because the sea ice is closer, the bears are closer too.  They spend less time on the new ice and more time on land. They are making different routes and it is harder for us to get them when they are in the mountains. Also, they go more often in the fjords where the seals are going. The seals are going there because that is where the fish are going. All the animals are changing.

One thing we saw in March and April this year — the bears were hunting young seals closer to land. They would go around the pressure ridges and icebergs to get to the seal pups. There's more snow now, so it's harder for the pups to find their breathing holes and escape. The pups are more exposed.

"Climate Change Is the Reason"

Otto:  I still believe climate change is the reason. The weather can still be cold, but the water is much warmer so the ice is thinner. It used to be up to 2 meters thick — the new sea ice. Now 3/4 of a meter is a good year.

Now we hope for strong winds to help our hunting. The winds blow the snow off the ice so the ice can thicken. The snow acts like insulation, it holds the heat in and we get thinner ice. It's too hard and too dangerous to hunt walrus on the thin ice.

If it doesn't get any warmer the hunters can still hunt if they want to. As long as the sea ice comes during the dark period and as long as it is thick enough, we can hunt.

But if it gets warmer and the sea ice doesn't come, it will become difficult to hunt. It will be hardest on the dogs. They will almost starve. A few years ago when we had a bad winter and the ice didn't come, the government had to give us money to buy dog food. Our dogs are not used to that food but it kept them from starving. Since 1999 it has been very difficult — hunting has been difficult — because of problems with the new sea ice.

Climate Change is the Biggest Problem Facing Siorapaluk

Malin:  When I was here before the hunters were complaining as much about government quotas as they were about climate change. Which is harder on you now, government restrictions or warming?

Otto:  Climate change is the bigger problem. We aren't even catching enough to meet the government quotas.

Of course, I'm not happy with the industrialized countries for ruining the environment.   But we cannot stop using motors.  Everyone contributes to the problem. Even us.  We need the helicopters and we are used to having electricity now. I recognize that but I am still mad at these countries and factories that produce so much CO2. We can't go out on the ice, it's not thick enough for hunting. Our dogs go hungry. But I believe they will invent something that will save the environment and reverse the greenhouse effect. Someone will solve the problem.

I used to hear stories and read in books about our ancestors starving here. As a boy I didn't believe it because we had so much to eat, there was so many animals. But now I know the stories were true.  Now, we don't starve today inspite of what we're experiencing because we have stores and food from other places. Maybe it has been like this from the beginning; sometimes it is too warm for the animals then it becomes cold again.

But I know this. There are fewer hunters here now. People are moving to Qannaq. This will continue unless other hunters come here from somewhere else. People have to go where the money is. It is hard for other people, people who are not hunters, to understand how long it takes a hunter to master the skills our ancestors taught to us. I don't really know who to pass it on to now.