Former editor of Sermitsiaq and creator of Parcafolket Per Danker, Espergærde, has died on Monday, March 23, 2026, aged 92.
"Per Danker peacefully passed away with his family around him after 92 good, wonderful years. He was happy and productive right up until the end – and he sends you all his loving thoughts", the family writes on Facebook.
Per Danker was a trained radio technician and engineer. He had worked in Narsarsuaq and at the Loran station Orssuiagssuaq near Tasiilaq, before coming to Nuuk in 1966 as a telecommunications engineer at Greenland's Teleservices (Tele Greenland, Tusass), where he ended his career with the title of export manager.
From 1969 to 1982, in addition to his work in the Telecommunications Service, he was associated with Sermitsiaq – most of the years as an editor. At first unpaid, but eventually with a weekly fee of 200 kroner.
It was during this period that the newspaper grew and went from being the local newspaper in Nuuk to a nationwide newspaper. It was a period that Per Danker has described with great humor in the anniversary article “There once was a local newspaper”, which Tidsskriftet Grønland published in 2018 on the occasion of Sermitsiaq’s 60th anniversary.
The Parca people
Per Danker will be remembered in particular for Parcafolket – the little drawings that poked fun at life in Greenland for better or worse, often with a loving jab at those in power. The idea was already nurtured during the long winter evenings in Orssuiagssuaq in the early 1960s and became a permanent feature in Sermitsiaq for many years, where the first drawing was published on October 17, 1969.
The Parcafolket became a very big part of Per Danker's life. He continued to draw the Parcafolket after his years in Sermitsiaq. In recent years, the drawings were published on Per Danker's Facebook profile, among other things.
Per Danker was generally active until the end. As late as Thursday last week, he participated in the annual (Christmas) luncheon of the Association of Greenland Journalists, of which he became chairman in 2009.
Per Danker will be buried from Mørdrup Church in Espergærde on Tuesday, March 31 at 11 a.m.
