THE REVIVAL OF INUIT TATTOO TRADITIONS
Donation protected
For ten years Maya Sialuk Jacobsen has been researching the Inuit culture and its practices in body art. Now she will gather her work and discoveries into a book.
– The future is in the past, she says.
Since her book is a comprehensive project that requires financial release of time, family and friends decided to create a fundraiser. With financial help, Maya will be able to immerse herself into her writing process. Please support her important work. All her knowledge is of historical significance - it really needs to be written down.
Maya Sialuk Jacobsen grew up in Qeqertarsuaq in Greenland. As a teenager, she moved to Denmark. She has traveled extensively and lived for many years in different countries, including in the Netherlands and Norway. She now commutes between Denmark and Greenland, where she gives lectures, tattoos, researches, teaches and writes.
Her lecture, INUIT tattoos and women's roles, arouses great interest and draws full houses. Here she shares her discoveries. Maya sees the tattoos as a bridge builder between the past, present and the future. They help create awareness about Greenland's cultural heritage and identity.
- It is incredibly important that we understand our culture and are conscious of where we come from. The tattoos can help to understand who we are, she says.
It was the quest for what was lost and once forbidden, that ignited a spark within Maya to immerse herself in the Inuit culture. Her own story. Her mother's story. The history of her ancestors. The history of Greenland. Before and after colonization. The tattoos, done by and mostly on women, were closely associated with the Inuit religion. When the Danish-Norwegian priest and missionary, Hans Egede, arrived in Greenland about 300 years ago, the tattoos disappeared along with the spirit belief, which was replaced by Christianity. It is the forbidden and forgotten cultural heritage Maya Sialuk Jacobsen wants to revive - Greenland's beautiful cultural treasure.
On her Facebook page Inuit Tattoo Traditions , Maya shows her tattoo work and insight into her research and thought activities on Inuit culture and spirituality. Visit her page to learn more and to follow her work.
– The future is in the past, she says.
Since her book is a comprehensive project that requires financial release of time, family and friends decided to create a fundraiser. With financial help, Maya will be able to immerse herself into her writing process. Please support her important work. All her knowledge is of historical significance - it really needs to be written down.
Maya Sialuk Jacobsen grew up in Qeqertarsuaq in Greenland. As a teenager, she moved to Denmark. She has traveled extensively and lived for many years in different countries, including in the Netherlands and Norway. She now commutes between Denmark and Greenland, where she gives lectures, tattoos, researches, teaches and writes.
Her lecture, INUIT tattoos and women's roles, arouses great interest and draws full houses. Here she shares her discoveries. Maya sees the tattoos as a bridge builder between the past, present and the future. They help create awareness about Greenland's cultural heritage and identity.
- It is incredibly important that we understand our culture and are conscious of where we come from. The tattoos can help to understand who we are, she says.
It was the quest for what was lost and once forbidden, that ignited a spark within Maya to immerse herself in the Inuit culture. Her own story. Her mother's story. The history of her ancestors. The history of Greenland. Before and after colonization. The tattoos, done by and mostly on women, were closely associated with the Inuit religion. When the Danish-Norwegian priest and missionary, Hans Egede, arrived in Greenland about 300 years ago, the tattoos disappeared along with the spirit belief, which was replaced by Christianity. It is the forbidden and forgotten cultural heritage Maya Sialuk Jacobsen wants to revive - Greenland's beautiful cultural treasure.
On her Facebook page Inuit Tattoo Traditions , Maya shows her tattoo work and insight into her research and thought activities on Inuit culture and spirituality. Visit her page to learn more and to follow her work.
Organizer
Trine Johanne Dahlman
Organizer
Jar, 2