By Hanne Tuborg Sandell & Birger Sandell, eskimologists
In 1995, the Greenlandic Homerule handed over one of the town’s oldest houses to Ittoqqortoormiit Kommunea, for use as a local museum.
On 4th September 1997 this local museum was officially opened. The house, which was built in 1930, was formerly the KGH ( Royal Greenlandic Trading) store for many years . Later it was taken over by GTO ( Greenland’s Technical Organization ): after a sympathetic renovation, they used the building as their office. The permanent exhibition in the museum is from a house ( Eleonorap Ittersua / Elionora’s house) in the village of Ittajimmiit / Kap Hope, with one room where you can see what a hunter’s home looked like in the 1950s/1960s, and how people were living by then.
In the other room on the ground floor, photos of people from the same period are exhibited. These photographs were taken by Ib Tøpfer, who used to work at the telephone station in Kap Tobin. This room is meant to become a frame for changing exhibitions, and so far there have been exhibitions of work by various artists, including Åge Gitz-Johansen and Inger Lise Westman.
On the floor upstairs is a large collection of wonderful photos on permanent exhibition, partly from the town’s foundation and colonization in 1924-1925, and partly from the early years in town. Furthermore there is the “skeleton” from a kayak, and suits worn by Eastgreenlandic men and women. Here also is a great collection of oil-paintings from the period 1957-1959, painted by the first qualified Doctor in town, Jens Nielsen .
“The room is a glimpse into the life of the village in an earlier time. The old iron range with its bucket of coal shows not only the domestic life of people then, it also indicates the economic structure of their community. You see the tools she used in her daily life, her cups and plates, knives and forks, pots and pans, her scrapers for seal-skins, her books, and her own intricate, beautiful embroidery - all parts of Elionora’s daily life.”
Vikky Furse
Openinghours : The museum is managed by the school and can be opened after appointment.
