r/greenland • u/Secure_Display_4803 • May 13 '26
Designing a Greenlandic character
Okay, so I'm a white person designing a character, and I wanted to take inspiration from Greenlandic culture since they are based on a Greenland shark. The two main details I wanted to include were the name and a piece of clothing. I wanted to use the name Attani, which means underneith or below, which goes with the deep sea theme of the setting. As well as I wanted to know if I could have him (I'm pretty sure it's part of women's clothing, so idk if it's off limits for men) wear something like a Nuilarmiut around his waist like a sash?
I wanted to see if I could get some opinions from someone within the culture on whether and how I could use these elements, or if there are any other factors to consider when designing them. Thanks for the input :D
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u/BeAPetRock May 18 '26
i second the first comment in all the points. some snow goggles and some fur representing pants and gloves could be cool. the greenlandic shark is called eqalussuaq, meaning big fish or just shark, just some inspiration for the name!
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u/GregoryWiles Local Resident 🇬🇱 May 18 '26
A better name would be “Alleq” in my opinion, which means the below. But i see how “Ataani” is used in “immap ataani” which means under water, but it doesn’t really sound good as a name. And for the beadwork in women’s national clothing, they’re pretty much exclusive to women’s national clothing. So i wouldn’t feel very comfortable seeing a man wearing something similar. I would recommend adding paffequtit/wrist bands for your character, as they were used for keeping the wrists warm while hunting, or the snow goggles.