Siorapaluk (

West Greenlandic West Greenlandic ( da, vestgrønlandsk), also known as Kalaallisut, is the primary language of Greenland and constitutes the Greenlandic language, spoken by the vast majority of the inhabitants of Greenland, as well as by thousands of Greenland ...

) or Hiurapaluk ( Polar Inuit) is a settlement in the

Qaanaaq Qaanaaq (), formerly known as Thule or New Thule, is the main town in the northern part of the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is one of the northernmost cities and towns, northernmost towns in the world. The inhabitants of ...

area of the

Avannaata Avannaata (, da, Det Nordlige, lit=The Northern) is a municipality of Greenland created on 1 January 2018 from the bulk of the former Qaasuitsup municipality. It encompasses an area of 522,700 km2 and has 10,726 inhabitants. Geography In ...

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in northern

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 one of the world's northernmost inhabited settlements, the northernmost settlement inhabited by natives, and the northernmost public settlement in Greenland. It has a population of 43 who speak the

Inuktun Inuktun ( en, Polar Inuit, kl, avanersuarmiutut, da, nordgrønlandsk, polarinuitisk, thulesproget) is the language of approximately 1,000 indigenous Inughuit (Polar Inuit), inhabiting the world's northernmost settlements in Qaanaaq and the surr ...

language of the Polar

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 ...

as well as the

Kalaallisut Kalaallisut may refer to: * Greenlandic language * West Greenlandic West Greenlandic ( da, vestgrønlandsk), also known as Kalaallisut, is the primary language of Greenland and constitutes the Greenlandic language, spoken by the vast majority of ...

dialect of Greenlandic. Many of the inhabitants are direct descendants of the last migration of Inuit from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in the 20th century.

Geography

Siorapaluk is located in the northern shore of the

Siorapaluup Kangerlua Siorapaluup Kangerlua, also known as Robertson Fjord and Robertson Bay, is a fjord in northern Greenland. To the southwest, the fjord opens into the Murchison Sound of the Baffin Bay.GoogleEarth Administratively it belongs to the Avannaata munic ...

(Robertson Fjord).

Hunting

There is good hunting in the area of the settlement, and the cliffs around it function as breeding grounds for dovekie (UK English: little auk) ('' Alle alle'') and the thick-billed murre (UK English: Brünnich's guillemot) (''

Uria lomvia The thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot (''Uria lomvia'') is a bird in the auk family (Alcidae). This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich. The very deeply black North Pacific subspecies ''Uria lomvia arra'' i ...

''). There are many

Arctic fox The Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus''), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in co ...

es and

Arctic hare The Arctic hare (''Lepus arcticus'') is a species of hare highly adapted to living in the Arctic tundra and other icy biomes. The Arctic hare survives with shortened ears and limbs, a small nose, fat that makes up close to 20% of its body, and ...

s in the area and an abundance of

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impr ...

s and

walrus The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large pinniped, flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in ...

es which are hunted.

Infrastructure

Siorapaluk has an electrical power plant, direct satellite radio and TV-broadcasting, a well stocked store and telephone service. The settlement's school is combined with its church and a small public library. Although there are no resident medical facilities, the settlement is visited regularly by a physician and a dentist.

Transport

Air Greenland Air Greenland A/S (formerly named Grønlandsfly), also known as Greenlandair, is the flag carrier airline of Greenland, owned by the Greenlandic Government. It operates a fleet of 32 aircraft, including 1 airliner used for transatlantic and cha ...

operates settlement flights to

Qaanaaq Airport Qaanaaq Airport ( kl, Mittarfik Qaanaaq) is an airport located northwest of Qaanaaq, a settlement in the Avannaata municipality in northern Greenland. It was established in 1991 to serve Qaanaaq and neighboring communities because Thule Air Ba ...

and to

Savissivik Heliport Savissivik Heliport is a heliport in Savissivik, a village on Meteorite Island, off the shores of the northern end of Melville Bay in Avannaata municipality, northern Greenland. The heliport is considered a ''helistop'', and is served by Air Gr ...

via

Thule Air Base Thule Air Base (pronounced or , kl, Qaanaaq Mitarfik, da, Thule Lufthavn), or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport , is the United States Space Force's northernmost base, and the northernmost installation of the U.S. Armed Forces, located north o ...

. The distance to Qaanaaq is 45 km. The twice-weekly flights are subsidized by the Government of Greenland. Transfers at the airbase are subject to access restrictions by the Danish Foreign Ministry.

Population

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Greenland Populated places of Arctic Greenland