Tunumiit

The Tunumiit language, also called Iivi, Iivi oraasia, or East Greenlandic, is generally categorised as a dialect of Greenlandic, the official language of Greenland, but, having evolved over several centuries in isolation, verges on being a distinct language. ==Region==

Iivit or Tunumiit or the Eastern Inuit, live primarily in the Ammassalik region, the area with the mildest climate in King Christian IX Land. Hunters can hunt marine mammals from kayaks throughout the year. Ittoqqortoormiit was the settlement founded in 1925 by Ejnar Mikkelsen in Scoresby Sound. 80 Inuit settlers—70 persons from Tasiilaq and four families from western Greenland—were brought there by ship. The area has vestiges of former habitation, but it had been uninhabited for about a century at the time of the foundation of the new settlement. There were two other Eastern Greenland groups in the long coast between Nunap Isua (Cape Farewell) to King Frederick VIII Land, the Northeast in Kangerlussuaq Fjord and adjacent areas up to Clavering Island, north of the Iivit, and the Southeast-Greenland Inuit in the King Frederick VI Coast to the south, but these are now extinct. ==Art==

An angakkuq or spirit healer named Mitsivarniannga from Ammassalik Island created a tupilaq "evil spirit object," for a visiting European in 1905. When no harm befell him for creating and showing this object to an outsider, others began making tupilait, which evolved into a popular art form. Residents also carved Ammassalik wooden maps, that traced the Eastern Greenlandic coastline. Customary art-making practices thrive on Ammassalik Island. ==See also==