In Upernavik there is one small graveyard which is no longer in use. Usually people in this town are buried above ground because the island is almost all rock. The most notable grave is that of Navarana Freuchen, Peter Freuchen's wife.
Peter Freuchen was a Danish explorer who lived among the the Polar Inuit (Eskimo) in Greenland for most of his adult life, in the late 1800's and early 1900's when the arctic hardly knew the influences of the white man.
Peter Freuchen was a Danish explorer who lived among the the Polar Inuit (Eskimo) in Greenland for most of his adult life, in the late 1800's and early 1900's when the arctic hardly knew the influences of the white man.
He worked with Knud Rasmussen, exploring greenland and arctic america documenting the life of the Inuit. He wrote several books among them: Arctic adventure; My life in the frozen North , Book of the Eskimos and Vagrant Viking : my life and adventure.
Freuchen married an Inuit woman, Navarana. She followed him on some of his expeditions. With Navarana he visited Copenhagen; she was eager to see her husband's home land. However, she found it difficult to understand why any woman would live in Denmark - there are no seals or walruses and everybody must buy their food from a shop. On the other hand, she was especially enthusiastic about ballet.
Navarana died in 1921 during an influenza epidemic. After her death the priests would not let her be buried in Pernavik graveyard because she was a Greenlander and not a church member. Therefore, in the dark of night her husband, with four friends, sneaked into the graveyard and buried her in secret.
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