Reykjavík Grapevine - nov. 2020, Síða 26

The Backbone Of
The Arctic
Ra!nar Axelsson celebrates the le!acy of the Greenlandic sled do!
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photo: Ragnar Axelsson & Art Bicnick
Photo Book
‘Arctic Heroes’ will be out the first
week in December (in Icelandic).
The English language release will be
within the coming months.
“I was talking for maybe two hours
to this Greenlandic hunter with a
translator. There was an elderly
Greenlandic woman who didn’t
say much but in the end, she said
to me, ‘Without the Greenlandic
sled dog, there would be no Green-
landers,” photographer Ragnar
Axelsson, or RAX, explains. He’s
just weeks away from the release of
his latest book ‘Arctic Heroes,’ an
intimate 40-years-in-the-making
documentation of the Greenlandic
sled dog.
Lifesavers on the ice
“When you look at a dog, you
look at it as a dog. A dog is a dog.
But when you hear stories from
the [Greenlandic] hunters, they
talk about them like they are hu-
man,” he says, sitting back in his
Laugavegur studio. “Those dogs
saved these hunters’ lives often
from bad conditions. They would
take you home. They are the for-
gotten Arctic heroes.” He pauses,
letting the title of the book sink in.
“What’s remarkable about these
dogs is that they took people to
both poles. They tried to go on
horses, it didn’t work, even bicy-
cles. It was because of [the dogs]
that people could reach the poles.”
The importance of the dogs as
opposed to snowmobiles or other
machinery, Ragnar emphasises, is
reliability, “You have to hunt on a
dogsled because if something hap-
pens you are days away walking,
but the dogs never fail,” he says.
The subsequent relationship be-
tween dog and owner, therefore,
is a serious one.
While Ragnar spent significant
time documenting the dogs on
their hunts, he also took great care
to present a more personal side
of the animal. “I tried to capture
moments, expressions,” he relays,
pointing to a picture of two young
puppies in the snow. “I was follow-
ing these two, watching them, and
the older brother was teaching his
younger brother.”
He turns to a later page, proudly
showing off a shot of a mother dog
cuddling her young pups. “The
mother’s love for her puppies,”
he says fondly. “I tried to capture
what it would be if the world was
just full of dogs. I tried to get into
their lives.”
Ole & Qerndu
Ragnar also spent time hearing
hunters stories about their per-
sonal relationships with their
dogs—a select few which were put
in the book. One particular story
that touched him was that of his
friend Ole and dog Qerndu.
Ole was reluctant to tell Qern-
du’s story to Ragnar—in fact, he
said it would go with him to the
grave. But Ole later decided to open
up to the photographer, first giv-
ing him a warning. “He took me to
the ice and taught me how to think
on the ice,” Ragnar remembers.
“If you feel bad or you’re angry or
frightened, it’s not going to be a
good trip. But if you have a positive
mind, it will be the greatest trip of
your life.”
Ole had been given Qerndu
when the dog was but a pup. They
were best friends before Qerndu
joined Ole’s sled. One day, Qerndu
crossed the sled reins of an old
man as they were inspecting polar
bear tracks. Ole warned the dog,
“A polar bear will get you if you
behave like that.” Immediately,
the old man told him to watch his
tongue, as Mother Nature listens
to you on the ice.
Later, while hunting a polar
bear, Qerndu and a few others
gave chase to the beast, attacking
him as they had been trained to do.
The polar bear fought back fiercely,
throwing Qerndu off and breaking
his spine as Ole shot the bear.
“Qerndu called Ole and they
looked into each other’s eyes and
he licked him and closed his eyes,”
Ragnar relays. “And the old man
said, ‘Do you remember what I told
you a month ago? Never talk like
this.’”
The next issue
While Ragnar seeks to shine a
light on an oft-ignored pillar of
Greenlandic history, he empha-
sises that this is but a small piece
of a bigger puzzle about the Arctic.
“I think after this COVID thing
is over, life in the Arctic will be the
biggest issue on the planet,” Rag-
nar says. “Whether that’s because
of us or a natural thing—I’ll let
scientists tell us that—but I’m just
documenting the lives that will
change because of the melting of
glaciers and the melting of sea ice.”
And these changes are drastic,
Ragnar relays, referring back to a
story he tells in the beginning of the
book, that of a text message sent to
him by his friend. “He said, ‘Hi, there
is no ice. What’s already frozen is
very thin. There’s no way to go to
the other village. We have to go over
the mountains. No hunt for a long
time. I miss the old Greenland,’”
Ragnar relays. “They are sensing it
more than anybody else and they
did many years ahead of everybody
because they walk on the melting
glaciers that we read about.”
In fact, Ragnar asked another
one of his friends what they would
wish for if they had one wish. “He
said he’d ask for 25 years back in
time to when the ice was safe,”
Ragnar says softly.
The chance to continue
“You see so many differences,”
Ragnar concludes, turning his
thoughts to the declining sled dog
population “There were 30,000
dogs just 10 years ago but now
there are 11,000-12,000.”
“But the people living there,
they have to have a chance to con-
tinue living there. And I think I’m
telling the world, just in pictures,
that this life is changing fast or
passing away and the young gen-
eration of Greenland might not
have as many hunters as they used
to,” he explains sadly. “It’s a hard
life but it’s a beautiful life and it’s
getting worse for them. You show
a picture in that puzzle and put
more pieces in by making books
and [documenting.]” He pauses.
“That’s what I want to do.”
26The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09— 2020Books
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ICELANDIC GASTROPUB
"Without the Greenlandic sled dog, there would be no Greenlanders."
"RAX": Iceland's most celebrated photojournalist