Qaqortoq Museum ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaanni Katersugaasiviit) is a museum in

Qaqortoq Qaqortoq, formerly Julianehåb, is a city in the Kujalleq municipalities of Greenland, municipality in southern Greenland, located near Cape Thorvaldsen. With a population of 3,050 in 2020, it is the most populous town and the municipal capital in ...

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

. It is located close to the main fountain square in one of the oldest buildings of the town, the former

Royal Greenland Trading Department The Royal Greenland Trading Department ( da, Den Kongelige Grønlandske Handel, KGH) was a Danish state enterprise charged with administering the realm's settlements and trade in Greenland. The company managed the government of Greenland from 177 ...

which dates from 1804. The museum exhibits old

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

boats, hunting equipment, national dresses and Norse artifacts. The museum is a member of NUKAKA, the association of Greenlandic museums. Museum Director is Dan Ullerup.

Exhibits

Permanent exhibits

The

Dorset culture The Dorset was a Paleo-Eskimo culture, lasting from to between and , that followed the Pre-Dorset and preceded the Thule people (proto-Inuit) in the North American Arctic. The culture and people are named after Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) in N ...

, the

Thule culture The Thule (, , ) or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by the year 1000 and expanded eastward across northern Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people o ...

, and the

Norse culture The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pre ...

all have their separate, permanent exhibits. One of the features is the reconstructed "red room" and "blue room", where polar explorer

Knud Rasmussen Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen (; 7 June 1879 – 21 December 1933) was a Greenlandic–Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of Eskimology" (now often known as Inuit Studies or Greenlandic and Arctic Studies ...

and the aviator

Charles Lindberg Charles W. Lindberg (June 26, 1920 – June 24, 2007) was a United States Marine Corps corporal who fought in three island campaigns during World War II. During the Battle of Iwo Jima, he was a member of the patrol that captured the top of Moun ...

have slept. Much of the

culture can be seen around this area along with the old brewery and the old meeting hall.

Temporary exhibits

The museum also exhibits artworks and other expos. Among former temporary displays are Greenlandic artist Aka Høegh that held an art exhibition, displaying the latest works. The art exhibition was opened by Qaqortoq mayor Simon Simonsen.

Current developments

In 2006 the museum started constructing an umiac, a traditional Greenlandic boat. The project was done in cooperation with ''Northern Coastal Experience''.

References

{{Qaqortoq Museums in Greenland Industrial buildings completed in 1804 Ethnographic museums in North America Qaqortoq