Nuuk, Greenland — The road south from Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, runs out at the tip of a blizzard-scoured peninsula stretching into the Labrador Sea. Icebergs drift beyond the sea ice toward the open ocean, carved off the glacier some 100 kilometers away at the head of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord.
Locals call this spot “the edge of the world.”
For local Inuit artist and researcher Vivi Vold, it is a place of spiritual power, somewhere she comes to connect with nature – intrinsic to her Greenlandic identity.
“It reminds me that I am Inuk, that I am Greenlandic… when I am in doubt and want to reconnect with myself and my Greenlandic identity, I find solace in nature,” Vold told VOA.
In her work, Vold researches Inuit “ways of knowing” and how they differ from Western concepts.
“I sense that there is more pride now than earlier. The pride has always been there, but it seems like now there is more acceptance of it. Everything I do as a researcher is about the land and the nature; hunting, the climate, and the way we think,” she said.
Greenlandic pride
A resurgence in indigenous pride can be felt across Greenlandic society. The eyes of the world are on this Arctic island, thanks largely to U.S. President Donald Trump.
In Greenlandic politics and media, in the pubs and coffee bars, and on social media, the conversation is about the island’s future. There is excitement – but also trepidation.
President Trump has repeatedly said that America needs to take control of Greenland from Denmark for, in his words, “international security.”
“I do believe Greenland, we’ll get, because it really has to do with freedom of the world… And you know what, the people don’t like the way they’ve been treated by Denmark. They don’t like the way they’ve been treated by Denmark and they do like us,” Trump told reporters Saturday on Air Force One.
Meanwhile, Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, attempted to build European solidarity in the face of the challenge posed by Trump’s comments Tuesday, visiting Berlin, Paris and NATO headquarters in Brussels in the space of a single day. Local media reported that France offered to send troops to Greenland in a show of unity with Copenhagen, but the offer was turned down.
A poll released on Wednesday, commissioned by the Danish Berlingske newspaper and the Sermitsiaq newspaper in Greenland, suggested that 85% of Greenlanders do not want to be part of the United States, with 6% in favor and 9% undecided.
However, almost half of respondents said they saw an opportunity with Trump’s interest in Greenland, with the other half seeing it as a threat.
The poll did not ask respondents whether they wanted to break ties with Denmark and become independent. A 2019 survey suggested that more than two-thirds of the Greenlanders want independence at some point in the future.
Danish colonization
A statue of the Norwegian-Danish missionary Hans Egede stands over the capital Nuuk. Greenlanders have lived under varying degrees of Danish rule ever since he landed here in 1721.
In recent years, the statue has been daubed with graffiti calling for its removal and for Greenland’s independence from Denmark. Nevertheless, in a 2020 poll, 62% of Greenlanders voted to keep the statue in place.
Greenland’s government is now largely autonomous and pushing for full independence. Under the terms of an agreement with Denmark, the territory has a right to hold a referendum on the issue.
“Things are changing in the world. We don’t know yet. But we need to have that discussion in Greenland without the outside world requiring us to give an answer to the end goal,” said Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for resources, business, justice and gender equality.
“We need to be able to discuss amongst ourselves how will independence look like, what kind of welfare do we want, what kind of democracy, what kind of institutions should guard it, what kind of constitution. We want those debates for ourselves,” she told VOA.
Independence challenges
Could Greenland stand on its own? Just 57,000 people inhabit the island’s 2.1 million square kilometers. Denmark pays an annual grant of around $800 million dollars, which makes up half the Greenland government’s revenue.
Trump may balk at the cost, said Marc Jacobsen, a researcher at the Royal Danish Defense College in Copenhagen.
“I’m not really sure if they are aware of what the cost is to keep a high living standard in Greenland with the welfare system as we know from the Nordic states. So, in comparison with the Inuit in Alaska or for instance [the indigenous people] in Puerto Rico, it’s a different living standard in Greenland. And that comes with a cost,” he told VOA.
There are hopes that the global attention now focused on Greenland will unlock investment to exploit its vast mineral wealth, which includes graphite, uranium and valuable rare earth metals.
“The problem is pretty much that they are staying there at the moment because nobody’s investing in getting them out,” said Ulrik Pram Gad, an expert on Greenland’s mineral wealth at the Danish Institute for International Studies.
“And that’s not a question of Greenlanders not wanting it or Denmark not allowing it. It’s a question of the only supply chains that exist concerning many of these resources are in China. And the Western world, you might say, cannot present a credible business model to the private companies that would in principle be able to use these materials.”
Tourism
A new international airport opened in November, making access to Nuuk much easier. International flights currently depart for Denmark, Canada and Iceland – but United Airlines is due to begin direct flights from New York later this year.
Greenland’s stark beauty is attracting more tourists.
“The international airport in Nuuk has opened up; there will be another one in Ilulissat where the fantastic ice-shelf glacier is. So there are opportunities for growth in tourism. There’s really a lot of desire for relations not just to the U.S., but to Canada, to Iceland, to Europe, to everybody. And if this turns into that, I think many Greenlanders will be happy,” Pram Gad told VOA.
For now, fishing is Greenland’s biggest industry by far, making up around 85% of total exports. It is deeply entwined with the Greenlandic way of life.
Jesper Jacobsen runs a fishing cooperative in Nuuk. In the depths of the January winter, customers drop in to buy cod and halibut, along with duck and reindeer meat brought in by local hunters. Whale, bear and walrus are sometimes available.
“We have fish and we have natural resources,” Jacobsen said. “And the Americans could pay a lot of money to rent the northern part of Greenland. They could use it for their military. Then we will have our independence because the Americans will pay a lot to rent the northern part of Greenland,” he told VOA.
“Make Greenland Great Again”
A ‘Make America Great Again’ or MAGA hat hangs in Jacobsen’s office, given by Donald Trump Jr.’s entourage when the U.S. president’s son visited Greenland in early January.
The visit continues to cause a stir. YouTubers arrived in the wake of the younger Trump’s visit, handing out U.S. dollars and hats bearing the slogan ‘Make Greenland Great Again.’ Some locals criticized the social media stunt. Others welcomed the attention.
“I don’t want to be a part of Denmark. I don’t like [the] Danish. They took children and they colonized us,” said 20-year-old student Hans Louis Petersen, proudly showing off his “Make Greenland Great Again” baseball cap.
Scandals
Petersen referenced a 1950s social experiment run by the Danish state, where Greenlandic children were taken to Denmark, sometimes without the full understanding of their parents. Many struggled to re-integrate when they returned.
Separately, in recent years it emerged that Danish doctors in the 1960s and 70s had implanted IUD contraceptive devices in Inuit women and girls without their permission, allegedly to limit population growth. A group of 67 Greenlanders is currently seeking $6.3 million in compensation from the Danish state. An investigation into the program is expected to be published later this year.
The scandals have further fueled the campaign for independence.
“I think there is a lack of understanding of the impact of these cases in Greenland,” said Greenlandic Minister Naaja Nathanielsen. “It’s not ancient history, it’s current history. We right now have women, men, families that are directly affected by the actions of the Danish state in the past. It’s traumatizing and some of them have not been able to become mothers.”
“This is not some cases that should be solved in a courtroom. They should be solved politically and with the proper amount of respect and understanding and assuming responsibility for the hurt inflicted on the Greenlandic people. And it’s absolutely necessary for us to move forward,” Nathanielsen told VOA.
Outside forces are building pressure on the government. The island’s prime minister, Mute B. Egede, has repeated the same message when questioned on Trump’s aim to take control of the territory.
“We have said very precisely that Greenland, and us in this country, do not want to be Americans. We don’t want to be Danes either,” Egede said in a televised debate on January 20.
“We are Greenlanders. We will stand firmly as Greenlanders and cooperate with the West. We will also cooperate with other countries in the world,” he added.
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