Elisapee Sheutiapik journeys to Sisimiut and discovers a place in tune with its native language and

Iqaluit mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik, who recently returned from Greenland, wonders why Iqaluit can't be more like its twin city of Sisimiut, a leader in the promotion of Greenlandic language and culture.

Sisimiut, population 6,231, has been twinned with Iqaluit since 1987.

"If I blocked out the houses, which are different, it might as well have been my own territory. It's rocky just like here," Sheutiapik said. "But I was impressed by how strong the language is."

Everywhere she went in Sisimiut, Sheutiapik said she heard and saw Greenlandic and, to a much lesser extent, Danish.

Unlike Iqaluit, Sisimiut is primarily a hub for education instead of government. There's the Knud Rasmussen College, a folk high school with a focus on Greenlandic culture, a language centre that offers language courses and interpreter-training programs, a vocational school, a women's school, Greenland's only elementary school for the deaf and a technical college.

While in Sisimiut, Sheutiapik visited the "amazing" technical college where she was surprised to hear technical classes being taught in Greenlandic.

Students spoke very little English, which Sheutiapik said was "mind boggling for me" because fluency in English is usually seen as a necessity to get ahead in scientific or technical fields.

Sheutiapik would like to see renewed exchanges take place between Sisimiut and Iqaluit for the two cities' municipal councils as well as for elders and youth.

But Sheutiapik said it's impossible to do anything without scheduled flights between Canada and Greenland.

"That's the key," she said.

To get to Greenland, Sheutiapik took an indirect route, traveling mainly by sea.

Sheutiapik flew to Resolute from Iqaluit on Sept. 5. Then boarded a cruise ship and sailed from Resolute to the Greenlandic communities of Uummanaq, Illulissat and Sisimiut, as a guest of the Annenberg Foundation.

According to its web site, the U.S.-based Annenberg Foundation exists "to advance the public well-being through improved communication" and encourages the development of ways to share ideas and knowledge.

A main focus of the trip to Greenland, Sheutiapik's first, was climate change. Sheutiapik found the effects of climate change in Greenland to be very similar to those in Nunavut – longer periods between seasons, less snowfall, an earlier melt and overall shorter winter season.

However, Sisimiut is generally much milder than Iqaluit, with temperatures ranging from 20 C in the summer to – 35 C in the winter.

Sisimiut is the most northerly town in Greenland to remain ice-free during the winter.

Apart from education, Sisimiut's main business is fishing. The Royal Greenland factory is the largest in Greenland and houses the most modern shrimp-shelling operation in the world.

Sisimiut has a longer history than Iqaluit, dating back to 1764.

In 1801 a smallpox epidemic raged through the west coast of Greenland, killing a large number of Sisimiut's inhabitants.

But the community quickly rebounded due to good hunting and fishing. Until the end of the 1800s, its economy was based on whaling, as was the case in the Eastern Arctic.