(Kalaallisut saqqummissaaq sapaatip akunnerata tulliani).

The 70th anniversary on June 5th 2023 is a milestone for a constitution which, by more and more people, is seen with increasing controversy.

In 1953, Greenland was simply annexed into Denmark without asking the population.

Many Kalaallit inuit (Greenlanders) are becoming aware that the change of the Danish constitution in 1953 can be seen as an abusive act. The dark elements of the process have been described many times before. Actually, reservations were made by the famous scholar in constitutional law, Alf Ross, during the evaluation of the change. The Icelandic legal scholar Gudmundur Alfredsson also raised issues with the proposed 1953 amendments, in particular when they are evaluated against the UN framework for how to decolonize. The subject of how Greenland became a part of Denmark has been studied many times by academia since, and in many of the material there are citations from both Ross and Alfredsson.

The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) was asked to conduct an analysis of the process of decolonizing Greenland. It came because of a request made by the then Premier of Greenland, Hans Enoksen, to the Danish government and an agreement was made with the prime minister of Denmark Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The DIIS report from 2007 must be seen as biased when it comes to justifying Denmark’s actions at the time. It was only when the Danish author Anne Kirstine Hermanns released her book “The children of the empire” (Imperiets Børn) in 2021 that a more critical and easily accessible version of the process reached a much larger audience. This is quite significant as evidenced by the request made by Greenlandic MPs for funding of the translation of the book into Greenlandic that made its way into the Danish Finance Bill for 2023/2024. The book speaks directly to the empty, and not so well understood, spaces in our hearts where our colonial history resides, which makes the book a strong candidate for the history curriculum in Greenlandic schools.

“The children of the empire”, coupled with the collective thought process in connection with the 300th anniversary for Hans Egede’s arrival to Greenland, led to a strengthened belief that Denmark in 1953 simply annexed Greenland without offering any opportunity for the people to review alternative outcomes. Supporters of the Danish Realm in which Greenland and Faroe Islands are included, will often come with the same viewpoint that also the DIIS report showed in one of its conclusions, namely that the outcome would not have been different if other solutions including full independence had been disclosed. These viewpoints are often also stated with arguments such as “What was the alternative?”, “How would you have managed by yourselves?”, “How do you think you could afford it?” and so on. Unfortunately, such arguments are ripping up our already open wounds that were made in our identity, when Denmark, like a thief in the middle of the night, through its constitutional change, stole the right to claim the Greenlandic territory as an integrated part of Denmark.

The Greenland Selfrule Act of 2009, which in fact provides a mechanism for the “Greenlandic people” to choose to opt out of the Danish Realm, must be seen as the completion of the betrayal of Kalaallit Inuit. It is very clear that the Danish expectation is that this choice will never be exercised. In fact, the danes have been “very smart”: This time by leaving Kalaallit Nunaat / Greenland in a very vulnerable situation, a situation where the block grant is locked, where the definition of the “people of Greenland” remains undefined, and where we are to share all potential income from raw minerals with Denmark up to the point where the block grant has been reduced to 0. All this is making the actual process of reaching independence much more difficult. On top of this, Denmark has chosen to adopt an attitude of “You are on your own now with what you get from us”. The 2009 Selfrule Act is nothing more than a voluntary extension of the prison for the colonized soul that constitutional change in 1953 created.

A completely valid and far more dignifying alternative would have been seen if Denmark instead had chosen to work determinedly to create the possibility of having a real choice of which nationality to go for. Denmark could have chosen to work in a loyal manner to develop af basis for full independence.

The lack of respect shown by Denmark for the deeply felt need for a real choice has created a deep sense of inadequacy and powerlessness. In general we do not like the analogy where we compare the relationship between Denmark and Greenland to that of a parent and a child. The analogy does not represent what we believe should be equality in such a relationship. But in terms of describing the inadequacy and powerlessness, which is felt, the analogy fits with the scenario where the parents do not support the teenager to develop his or her ability to become an independent person, but rather worked towards keeping the teenager at home. This is unthinkable from a human rights perspective. But this is what we experience. A deep sense of inadequacy and powerlessness.

For the older generations this feeling contrasts with the spirit of the fight for independence during the 70’ies in such a way, that the sense of inadequacy results in loss of roots and identity. 50 years after the fight for independence we still cannot answer for ourselves as Kalaallit inuit. This is what we in Inuit Nutaat believe is the root cause of many of the social and health related issues that we experience today, among that one of the highest suicide rates in the world. The image of our identity and awareness of our responsibility to build a sustainable society is under pressure, suffering from the erosion caused by the lack of ownership of our own situation as a people. For the younger generation, who grew up with home rule and selfrule, we see an important need for addressing the loss of roots and identity inherited from centuries of colonial rule that has not reached a proper closure. The challenge is that the loss of roots and deep understanding cannot be resolved because the effect of the colonial system is still so visible in our daily lives. The risk of this situation is a loss of our cultural heritage, but luckily, we do see signs of a reaction towards this in the form of initiatives to mentally decolonize, and by strengthening the links to the indigenous culture.

Now in 2023 we add to the story that we have seen old issues relating to the Danish administration popping up in the past few years with children removed from their parents in order to take part in a Danification experiment, children that were adopted with vague legal circumstances, legally fatherless children, the Danish “coil campaign” to limit the increasing birth rates (and effectively stop the population from growing). These issues only add fuel to the the sense of inadequacy. In the recent months we have seen that Denmark refuses to be inclusive in the relationship with Greenland by refusing to take into consideration to appoint the “Arctic Ambassador” from within the Greenlandic administration. Now, the Arctic Ambassador is not a traditional ambassador, but mostly a secretary working in the context of the Arctic Council. The sense of inadequacy and powerlessness continues to grow while Denmark completes the betrayal of the Greenlandic people that started in the process from 1953 that led to the amended constitution.

Therefore we conclude that the manipulation from 1953 has continued with the Self Rule Act from 2009 and even up to now. Everything looks very clean and respectful from the outside, but it has never been the intention of Denmark to give Kalaallit Inuit a free choice, nor to assist in the process to work towards that choice. Denmark is acting as an overlord who has created an economical dependency which eliminates all opportunities for Kalaallit Nunaat to act with equal rights within the international community.

This is what the 70th anniversary of the constitutional amendment reminds us of, and therefore we clearly state that there is nothing to celebrate from Kalaallit Nunaat.

Inuit Nutaat, 2023.



See also:
1. Inuit Nutaat: Speech on our National Day 2021 (June 21st, 2021).
2. Inuit Nutaat: Commemorating the day UN approved that Denmark unilaterally annexed Greeland in 1953 (UN General Assembly, 499th plenary meeting, November 22, 1954)