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Isortoq, East greenland
Three generations of Isortormiit women harvest a polar bear hide. Eleunaq works closely with her mother, Ella, and together they mentor Peneli, Eleunaq’s daughter, Ella’s granddaughter. To harvest a polar bear hide by hand is an arduous and delicate affair. And rare. Most hunters in most villages send their polar bear hides to Nuuk for machine-rendering. But Isortoq is not most villages. It takes these women two full days to scrape away the flesh and fat, to nimbly carve out the head and claws. As they work, I sense a growing communion. Between the women, naturally, but also, possibly, between the women and the bear.