New manager with a heart for craftsmanship

For a decade have she worked purposefully and with a quiet but heartfelt effort to preserve the traditions surrounding the national costume of Kalaallisuuliornermik Ilinniarfik, Greenland's only educational institution specializing in national dress and traditional leather sewing.

Her fight has never been loud, but it has been persistent, driven by a deep love to the materials, to the suit and to what is inherited. That stubbornness and curiosity, which today keeps her engaged in her work, has been there ever since childhood. Back then, she sneaked out in the middle of the night while her parents slept, even though she wasn't allowed to, in order to stand close to the music and feel life concerts with Aasiaat's most popular bands in the mid-1990s.

For a decade have she worked purposefully and with a quiet but heartfelt effort to preserve the traditions surrounding the national costume of Kalaallisuuliornermik Ilinniarfik, Greenland's only educational institution specializing in national dress and traditional leather sewing.

Her fight has never been loud, but it has been persistent, driven by a deep love to the materials, to the suit and to what is inherited. That stubbornness and curiosity, which today keeps her engaged in her work, has been there ever since childhood. Back then, she sneaked out in the middle of the night while her parents slept, even though she wasn't allowed to, in order to stand close to the music and feel life concerts with Aasiaat's most popular bands in the mid-1990s.

Pilunnguaq Kleist Aronsen was born in January 1983 in a cold of over 40 degrees below zero in Qasigiannguit. The rough beginning mirrors also in her own way the persistence she puts into the work of preserving them today Greenlandic traditions.

Although Pilunnguaq Kleist Aronsen was born in Qasigiannguit, she did not grow up there. When she was two years old, the family moved - her parents, two siblings and herself - to Aasiaat.

- My father, Ludvig Kleist, is from Aasiaat, which is why we moved there in 1985, says she.

Pilunnguaq grew up as the family's eldest child. Her father's eldest son, who biologically is her older brother, lived with the grandparents, and that gave her the role of the one elders in everyday life. A position that, according to the family, she filled fully - with curiosity, will and not so few antics that sometimes put the parents' patience tested.

When she didn't list out for concerts, while her parents were asleep, she also hid under the bed in Sisimiut, just to truant from elementary school.

- I used to ride the bus to school and fell sometimes asleep during the trip. I ended up just going back home. When my dad came home from work to check, I hid under the bed, remember Pilunnguaq Kleist Aronsen.

The first memories

The family lived in Aasiaat in the years 1985 to 1997. This is also where Pilunnguaq Kleist Aronsen's first memories come from. Hers mother Martha Rosa Olsen, born Andreassen, was a stay-at-home mother in Pilunnguaq's early years. But when she was about five years old, her mother returned to the job market, and that meant that Pilunnguaq and her younger brother had to start at daycare. An experience that has stuck with her.

- My little brother and I held us close together, and tried to find our place among them other children. This is also probably why we are so close today, she says.

Pilunnguaq also had a close relationship with his two grandmothers. With one, she went to bingo and church services. With the other got she a very special gift on her first day of school: a plane ticket to Denmark in in connection with a baptism in the family. The tension trembled. She never had been there before - and never flown in a big plane. How would that be?

- There I had my first experience of turbulence. Ajoq, I had closed my eyes and just cried, says Pilunnguaq Kleist Aronsen.

She spent a month in Denmark with her family.

- My cousins spoke Danish, and I tried to imitate the sound. I was just talking gibberish, she laughs.

- When I went home, I was startled by the sight by my little sister. It was summer and she had gotten so tanned that I was a little shocked, she laughs at the memory.

A good decision

Pilunnguaq Kleist Aronsen began his schooling at Aasiaat's primary school, Gammaqarfik. She was the quiet and shy one in class, but she loved school and still remembers several of his primary school teachers as important and significant.

When she was when she was about 12 years old, she was told that the singing choir “Aasiaat Nipaat” was looking for children to the choir. Despite her reluctance, she found the courage and showed up for the test. Best decision ever.

- I loved it and always showed up the practice days. I fell in love with singing, she says.

A few years later, in 1997, her father got a job in Sisimiut. Since the mother is too sisimiormoiq, it made good sense for the family to move to the city.

- I moved a little later than my family, when I was on tour with the choir in Denmark. I clearly remember how I felt at the airport after the tour where I had to say goodbye to them. I cried the whole trip to Sisimiut, she says.

A new city and new surroundings. Away from friends and weekdays that she was used to.

- I experienced a culture shock, and had a hard time in elementary school. That meant I had to achieve higher grades, in order to progress, she says.

New path in life

Pilunnguaq Kleist Aronsen applied for a place at the high school – but was refused. But ajunngilaq, she knew it well. She was 17 years old.

- Instead, I got a full-time job in a shop and worked for three years, she says.

In 2002, Pilunnguaq received news that pleased her. She had become pregnant.

- In 2003 I had a son, she says.

The child changes Pilunnguaq's entire life path. She began an evening school to achieve higher grades. The goal was clear: One secondary education.

- I started at GU in Aasiaat. My son was two years old old, when we both traveled to Aasiaat, says Pilunnguaq Kleist Aronsen.

High school requirements were heavy and Pilunnguaq had to make a difficult decision. She sent her son back to Sisimiut, where he was to live with her parents - a choice that was necessary.

And she finished. With a student cap richer, Pilunnguaq applied to nursing school.

- But after two years I decided that I wanted to have my son back. I stopped the education, she says.

Pilunnguaq got a job in the retirement home and concentrated on it and her child.

The night watch

One day had she night watch. Everything proceeded as usual - the familiar routines and duties the retirement home followed their usual rhythm. The television was on in one of the the rooms, and suddenly an advertisement caught her attention: The National Dress School was looking for new students.

The sight brought her back to the confirmation day, when she was first fascinated by the national costume she wore. She had wondered: How did it turn out? made and sewn? At the time, she hadn't thought anything more about it. But now, more years later, the ad rekindled the curiosity.

When she got time off, she went straight to Majoriaq for to apply for a place – without having slept. Again Pilunnguaq had had night shift and she slept off the night's hustle and bustle at home when the school rang for one few days. They ask her if she was interested in going to the test and see if she was suitable. Of course she wants to. Before she blinked, she stopped an ulu and had to scrape the skin off a seal. She had never used an ulu on it way. She is a little startled, but at the same time filled with curiosity - curiosity about the craft, about the material and about what she now had to learn.

In October 2012, she started the education.

- When I started, I was told that I had to - during the training - make a national costume for myself, one for a child and one to a man, remembers Pilunnguaq Kleist Aronsen, who completed education in 2013.

Teacher for 11 years

When Pilunnguaq Kleist Aronsen finished, she stayed teacher at school. She had finally found her calling.

- I love needlework, where I can challenge myself myself and where I can be creative, she says.

For Pilunnguaq is leather work therapy. While she scrapes and processes the hide, she sorts also his own thoughts and lets the heavy, negative feelings slip away - as if every movement clears the mind.

When she was a teacher, Pilunnguaq met her husband, and had two more children. In total, she has three children.

Pilunnguaq Kleist Aronsen became the 1st of December new head of the National Dress School, which is based in Sisimiut.

One of Pilunnguaq's big vision is to ensure better conditions for leather work. She explains that the sealskins today are of poorer quality, without anyone knowing why.

- When I was a student, we could complete over 40 skins in one month. We can no longer do that because the skins quickly split or is destroyed. Now it's my job, and find out why, says she.

Pilunnguaq sits in a position she knows well. Day after day she works to preserve the tradition surrounding the Greenlandic national costume, so that it is not lost. One day at a time, one task at a time. It's slow, but it's also the way traditions survive on - through care, persistence and love for the craft.