The Diary of Johannes Hansen

A trip around Greenland to a distinct culture with no prior contact with the outside world

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The catechist Johannes Hansen, called Hanserak, a Greenlandic missionary, was part of Captain
Gustav Holm's well-known umiaq expedition to the east coast of Greenland (1884 - 1885) which passed the winter in Angmagssalik and discovered 11 Inuit communities. His diary is a series of extremely interesting sketches of the remarkable customs and practices of the native people, and was reported in the pages of Atuagagdliutit, the first Greenlandic newspaper.

This work examines the people of eastern Greenland at the later stages of the 19th century in diaristic form, but with the compassion and empathy of a native. Material of this kind is very rare and significant for understanding the longer, mostly unknown, evolution of Greenlandic culture in the midst of Danish colonization.