‘The expedition members in kayaks, Nuuk harbour’. C. Rydberg. 1888-1889. Photograph. National Library, Oslo.

‘The expedition members with kayaks on the beach’. Possibly C. Rydberg. 1888-1889. Photograph. National Library, Oslo.

When the Norwegian Nansen expedition in 1888-89 overwintered in Nuuk, local Inuit helped build a kayak for Nansen. They also provided him with a seal bladder buoy, a harpoon and all the equipment an Inuit hunter need in his kayak. Watching Nansen’s skill in the art of kayaking grow over the next few months, the other expedition members’ interest grew. Excepting Ole Nilsen Ravna, all gradually built their own kayak frame under the supervision of local kayakers and received the help of Inuit women to cover the frame with sealskin. Writes Nansen: ‘Towards spring you could thus find all the members of the expedition, except old Ravna, hunting for sea birds in their kayaks’ (Paa ski over Grønland 1890, 616). Learning the art of kayaking, Nansen and his crew gained insight into an important part of Inuit culture.
  

None of the traditional hunting accessories Nansen acquired are visible in the photographs. The archival description of the image 'Expedition members with kayaks on the beach' in the National Library in Oslo identifies the four Norwegian explorers (Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Neumann Knoph Sverdrup, Oluf Christian Dietrichson and Kristian Kristiansen Trana) but leaves nameless the two figures to the left. Balto’s published account of the expedition, Med Nansen over Grønlandsisen i 1888: min reise fra Sameland til Grønland (Universitetsforlaget, 1980) (With Nansen Across the Greenland Ice in 1888: My Journey from Sápmi to Greenland) identifies them as the expedition’s two Sámi members, Samuel Johannesen Balto (visible to the furthest left in the photo 'Expedition members in kayaks') and Ole Nilsen Ravna. 

Essay by Sigfrid Kjeldaas and Axl Ingemann-Jeremiasen