Kangaatsiaq

Kangaatsiaq, which means ‘the small promontory’, has never been a colony and has no Danish name. As the only district besides Upernavik, most of its residents live in the four settlements, whose population total 621 people. The town has a population of just 534 people. Kangaatsiaq has always been a sort of forgotten outer district, despite its central location between Aasiaat and Sisimiut.

History of Kangaatsiaq

The district has long branched fjords with several areas with very strong currents that ensure ice-free water all year, and the large relatively flat ice-free land area towards the ice sheet has historically been important to the Inuit because it was a good place to hunt for marine mammals, birds, caribou and other terrestrial mammals. The area was therefore an important part of income base for the colonial districts of Egedesminde (Aasiaat) and Holsteinsborg (Sisimiut). The two colonies had permanent remote trading posts in the district from the early 19th century, and by the early 20th century there were 17 permanent settlements. Kangaatsiaq district is an excellent example of the original high degree of mobility and flexibility of the Greenlandic population. People moved to where the hunting was best, and the partial transition from hunting to fishing led to the establishment of new settlements.

Until 1950, Kangaatsiaq and the district’s settlements were part of the Egedesminde colonial district, but was then given special municipal status. Most of the administrative tasks of the new Kangaatsiaq Municipality remained in the hands of Egedesminde Municipality, and Kangaatsiaq belonged under the Egedesminde school district, and it was the town treasurer of Egedesminde who was the secretary of the municipal council of Kangaatsiaq. Similarly, Kangaatsiaq was under the Egedesminde medical, commercial and police district.

In 1986, Kangaatsiaq was granted the status as autonomous municipality. Unlike the country’s other municipalities, Kangaatsiaq did not have a hospital and the schoolchildren of its settlements continued to be sent to Aasiaat to finish primary school, while the children in Kangaatsiaq was able to finish primary school in the town. In many respects, Aasiaat effectively remained the administrative centre, which is why Kangaatsiaq was and still is the town with the fewest people not born in Greenland compared with other towns.

The period as an autonomous municipality led to an increase in population where Kangaatsiaq reached a population of 690 in 1997, however, the municipal amalgamation in 2009 resulted in a gradual depopulation, especially of those with longer educations who had worked in the municipal office.

During the cod fishing period, Kangaatsiaq district had periods of good trading compared to its population size. With the disappearance of the cod at the end of the 1980s, the Kangaatsiaq factory switched to landing shrimp in 1994. The local cutter fleet switched to shrimp, but in 2000 shrimp trading was moved to Aasiaat and the cutters eventually followed along. There is still cod in the fjords of the district, and the town’s factory is now run by Royal Greenland where it produces cod fillets and cod in frozen blocks as well as roe and to a lesser extent freezing of other fish species. The factory employs up to 25 people during the season.

Geography, infrastructure and trade and industry of Kangaatsiaq

Kangaatsiaq is located on a relatively low peninsula with the central functions such as port, factory, filling stations, shop, health station and the old school located on the headland to the west. A new school is being built in the east end of the town and is expected to be complete in 2022. Most homes are single-family homes supplemented by single terraced houses. The town has a water network, however, a few homes are not yet connected, meaning that the residents have to get their own water. The town has no sewer system, meaning that toilet buckets with biobags are used, and the bags are collected and emptied by the collection of latrines.

Royal Arctic Line calls weekly at Kangaatsiaq with cargo, and the Disko Line has one weekly passenger trip with relatively small boats during the summer season, while Air Greenland serves the town once a week by helicopter during the winter months. Most passengers travel via Aasiaat.

The hunting profession has been maintained together with fishing and fish processing, and the local economy consists of a mix of subsistence economy from hunting combined with fishing as well as the revenue from administration, education and services, etc.

Further reading

• Aasiaat
• Education
• Health and care
• Industry and labour market
• Infrastructure
• Kommune Qeqertalik
• Population and demographics
• Qasigiannguit
• Qeqertarsuaq
• The ice-free landscapes
• The ice sheet
• Towns and settlements

Read more about the Municipalities and towns in Greenland