Her name is Sassuma Arnaa and she’s known as the Mother of the Sea. Depicted with wild dark hair swirling around her like a forcefield, she’s a powerful Greenlandic goddess responsible for keeping the ocean in balance.
When humans become too greedy and hunt too much, so the legend goes, she gathers the creatures of the North Atlantic together—seals, whales, dolphins, redfish, Arctic char and walrus included—and hides them in her hair, making humans go hungry. Only when a shaman takes a perilous journey down to the depths to appease her, will she relent and let the creatures out again.
The Mother of the Sea is painted on the walls of the hotels I stay in, and features in a local café I visit in Ilulissat, north Greenland, as well as the town’s stellar museum, the Icefjord Center. As well as being one of Greenland’s most important gods, she has immediate relevance today, as the country’s fledgling tourism industry continues to develop.
In 2025, a new, larger airport will open in the capital Nuuk, and in 2026, another will open in Ilulissat. That’s where I’m visiting, to find out how things are changing, and how local people are approaching something that challenges their own sense of balance.
