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Listening to the people of Greenland

Jess Svane	«…One of the greatest problems in Greenland of today is the communication between the eight big cities, and the 42 villages distributed on the coast of Greenland. For including/understanding well, it should be known that our littoral extends on 44.000 kilometers, which is colossal. When well even, we all are Greenlandic, we have different languages, different cultures, and different waitings…» more ...

Paul Jensen	«…The summer which is completed was one of driest than we never knew. For the first time, we had prohibitions to make fire in the district of Ilulissat… … I could not any more nourish them my dogs. Many people downtown were in the same case as me. We helped each other of course mutually, but the demand in seals and fish was too important. The fisheries were to us at this moment of a great utility. And when two years ago of that, she moved to go to settle on another village, of the six thousand dogs which the city counted, the half had to be shot down…» more ...

Lars Fleischer	«…with forty three inhabitants, we are one of the smallest villages in this part of the country. Our long term survival depends on our ability to reverse this trend. Our biggest challenge is economic. We must be able to maintain and create jobs. All ideas on this subject are welcome. In this respect, we intend to develop our fish processing plant, by introducing an area to taste our products. These are very much in demand, and the tourists will be able to get to know them, and to buy them on the spot. This should improve our sales, while at the same time improving the appeal of our town to tourists…» more ...

Adolf Eugenius Jensen	«Modern life has unfortunately resulted in a loss of our traditions. Children used to grow up with their parents and grandparents, and knowledge was passed on in this way. That is no longer the case, and playgroups and nurseries have replaced the elders. Everyone’s level of comfort has improved, to the detriment of our patrimony and our traditions. From a general point of view, I prefer the modern way of life, even if in respect of the education of the young people, there are things which can be criticised» more ...

Jacob Nielsen Storch	«No one knows what the future holds for us; we can only imagine that it will be different. There will certainly be new insects, new fish, and one can even imagine a Greenland without ice and without ice floes. When that happens, we will need to adapt. Man is made for that, whether he is a Greenlander or another nationality.Unlike other countries, we don’t have a purely economic view of our environment. We don’t hunt or fish more that we consume ourselves. We have a desire to preserve the species in the oceans and the animals which surround us for future generations. We don’t need laws and regulations to tell is how to behave – we have had this inner knowledge for thousands of years.» more ...

Ilannguaq Egede	«…Last winter, with the ice floes in good condition, I started to train a team of dogs. Just like me, my dogs were beginners. It’s not easy to control a team of dogs. I was the laughing stock of the older people. With more experience, I hope to make progress next winter, and eventually increase my income by fishing on the ice, and why not, later, with tourists. I only hope that the ice will be there…» more ...

Karl Kristian Kruse	«… Many whales pass by our coast. They are in fact increasing in numbers, except for the belugas, which have disappeared. We don’t know the reason for this, but it is clear that something has changed, and that their habits have been modified …» more ...

Polas Lyberth	«...This winter was exceptional, with conditions which we haven’t had for a very long time. In some places, the ice was one meter thick. To give you an example, our taxis could go on the ice as far as the village of Saatut, twenty three kilometres away…» more ...

Kalissi Kristen Trolle	«… At the beginning, it was exceptional, but nowadays it tends to reappear more and more frequently. When it comes, our house is shaken from top to bottom by violent gusts of wind. In the past, I was never worried about our house…… My trousers are made of bearskin, and my jacket from the hide of a dog. But many traditions are being lost – our children are no longer able to make these clothes. The young girls can’t sew. Our boots come from Canada. I’ve drawn the attention of our community to the situation. We could put in place workshops to safeguard our knowledge, but that hardly seems to interest them …» more ...

Edvard Samuelsen	«… because this warm wind removes the snow from the pack ice. The dogs can’t run on the ice, nor can they relieve their thirst with the snow, as they usually do… … My main concern is to see the snow disappear completely. Travelling on the ice would be impossible, and we’d be obliged to kill the dogs who were no longer of any use …» more ...

Aqqaluk Karlsen	«…In Sondre Upernavik, as in many villages, we don’t have possibilities for education. This forces us to send our children from the age of 13 or 14 years old to the large towns such as Upernavik to continue their studies. Sondre Upernavik has a total of eighty children, and our school can only take forty. Half of them are obliged to go and study elsewhere. In order to stay with them, the parents leave their village and move with them to the city…» more ...

Martin Rasmussen	«…The types of fish have changed. You find a lot of catfish, and there are also many more cod in winter. From an economic point of view, we work very hard, but our purchasing power doesn’t keep up. Taxes have gone up considerably, which affect us in our daily life. The European regulations cause us a lot of hardship, as we can no longer sell seal skins. Some months they are not sold at all. It’s becoming more and more difficult to live in the small villages…» more ...

Samuel Knudsen	«…The seal used to be precious and essential – we used it to feed ourselves and also to keep warm. Nowadays, it’s simply one source of food among many. People are no longer looking for seals – they’re looking for work…» more ...

Jens Otto Rasmussen	«… The village cannot provide employment for everybody – the ones without a job are obliged to fend for themselves and live from fishing and hunting. For this reason, more and more people leave the village and move to the large towns where there are more opportunities to find a job. We used to have two hundred and twenty inhabitants, compared with a hundred and seventy today.The economic situation makes things worse – the fisherman is paid for his fish nine kroner a kilo, a price which hasn’t changed in the last fifteen years, while the cost of living has not stopped rising …» more ...

Bent Petersen	«…From a political point of view, things are going a bit too fast for my liking. The government will be tempted by the development of petroleum and mineral resources. I would prefer investments in renewable energy. The damage caused by these proposed developments could cause a lot of harm to our country, which is already seriously affected by climatic changes…» more ...

Lars Petersen	«…We are increasingly obliged to use our boats for hunting during winter. Summer arrives late, the month of June is colder. In May, the most critical month of the year, I was only able to go hunting on two occasions: the ice isn’t thick enough to go on it with the dogs, but it’s too thick for our boats to pass. Between this problem and the weather conditions, the opportunities for hunting are really limited…» more ...

Finn Pedersen	«…Until 1993, snowmobiles were forbidden on the pack-ice, and people only travelled using teams of dogs. There were thus more dogs than people in Upernavik. I myself had dogs, but as for many other people, the last few years I could no longer go with them on the ice. They served no purpose for me. I had to feed them to do nothing…» more ...

Emil Bahri	«…as far as I’m concerned, education is an essential sector, which requires a real plan. Many children stop their studies at the age of fourteen or fifteen, as soon as education is no longer compulsory. Those who continue are obliged to go to schools in the big cities of the south. As a result, they are far from their families and their environment. They find themselves faced with Danish professors, who for the most part don’t speak their language…» more ...

Henriette Rasmussen	« …In the past, the Inuits knew how to interpret every meteorological change, which allowed them to foresee the weather for the coming days. Nowadays, the weather changes more quickly...» more ...