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Listening to the people of Greenland


Hans Lars Forgensen	"Every day, helicopters fly over the fjord. All we know is that it has to do with prospecting for minerals by foreign groups. I heard this morning on the radio that the first exploration at sea has found gas. Oil cannot be far behind. I hope that my children and my grand-children will still be able to hunt, fish, and take full advantage of our nature." more...

Ole Lindhardt	"We have intense periods of heat and wind during winter. The ice and the snow disappear. We have even had rain in February. Just like at Christmas a few years ago, when the kids played and splashed about in the mud." more ...

Aleqa Hammond	"In a few years the North Pole will be ice- free in summer, and new trade routes will pass through our waters. We the people of Greenland wish to influence the arctic policy, as it should respect the way of life of the people who live there." more ...

Kristine Winberg	"We should not close our village – neither for reasons of climate changes nor because they are too expensive to maintain. Instead of moving people to towns, we should offer better hunting options and teach them how to do a better job. For example, we could create hunting camps for holidays or seminars, or study how to better export our meat. We should both help the people and give them responsibility." more ...

Navarana Kotalawala	"A section of the population and of our politicians is resolutely engaged in revitalising the country, which must now move ahead on its own, and find its own identity. Will we be capable of doing this? A poor analysis of the situation could have enormous consequences in the long term. We are living in a period which is both critical and fascinating at the same time. I hope that we will be up to the task. " more ...

Nikoline Ziemer	"The mines open, and the oil arrives. I hope that history will not repeat itself, and that these events will not occur without the involvement of the people of Greenland, as was the case in the 50’s and 60’s, where we stood by as spectators to our own development." more ...

Thomas Juul-Pedersen	"The flowers are in bloom three or four weeks early. This confirms that without doubt, spring arrives sooner, and that it is warmer. This timing difference continues, with an ice pack which forms later. The warm period is longer. The animals are trying to adapt to these changes. Nobody has the answer to the question “What will happen when there is no more ice pack in summer?” Will the polar bears adapt? Or will they disappear completely? As this situation has never arisen, we don’t know the answer." more ...

Tenna Boye

Fernando Ugarte	"Between the Canadian territory of Baffin Island and Greenland, I estimate that there are 1,500 polar bears. The last times they were counted were in 1970 and 1996. These exercises are difficult, but with a climate which is changing so fast, and a high level of hunting, the counts appear to be too far apart. 158 bears are killed every year – 98 of them in Canada. Greenland would like to see a reduction in the toal number taken." More ...

Pilunnguaq Olsen	"The summers are becoming warmer and warmer. The grass is dry and the reindeer are thinner than normal. The dryness causes an increasing number of fires. The people of the world should be more respectful as far as their way of living and consumption are concerned. Starting with the industrialists, they should be aware of the harm which they are doing to us." More…

Inunnguaq Lund

David Kleist	"The bear came into the village (which is on an island) from the east. It attacked a dog. Hans, who was outside, immediately went to his house to fetch a rifle. This was happening very close to the children who were playing on the football field. The bear was starving and aggressive. Hans faced stood in front of it, trying to put it to flight. The bear growled and continued to move towards him. When it came to within three metres of him, Hans had no other choice than to shoot it. It’s the first time that we’ve had a bear in the village in summer (June 2010)." More…

Julie Bech	"When I saw the first teachers coming to teach in Danish, I asked myself - but why are they coming to change our way of life? Nature was healthy, there was no alcohol. The people helped each other every day. We lived in perfect harmony. I miss that sometimes." More…

Ole Brandt	"Here we know the places to find the fish and the seals, and where to go to hunt for reindeer. In town, we’ll no longer have any such references. Most of the inhabitants wish like me to stay in the village, but in the very near future, they won’t have the choice. A lot of us believe that twenty years from now, our village will no longer exist." More…

Marie Svensonn	"Between the time when I was a child and today, things have changed too fast in Greenland. For example, the large sealskin teepee tent with the double roof which my mother had sewn and in which we spent our summers is now to be found in the Moesgard Museum at Aarhus in Denmark.When I took my mother there, she was shocked." More...

Birthe Jeremiassen	"In spring 2009, on their way back from the annual sledge-dog competition, a couple and their two teams of dogs fell through the ice. The rescue services left by boat from the town of Qasingiannguit, 30 kilometres from here. They were blocked several times by the ice, and were unable to get through. When a helicopter finally arrived, the woman, who was only 39 years old, was dead." More…

Villads	"An administrative decision having instructed the closure and abandon of the village, we left Akulliit on the 2^nd of April, 1962. The local authorities had informed my father that a fully-equipped house awaited us in the neighbouring town of Qasigiannguit. That’s where our life would be. We would have as much fish and seal meat as we wanted, and a comfortable house. When we arrived with my parents and my six sisters in the town, only one small room, in a building, was waiting for us. We had to be separated, and find shelter with the family, in the four corners of the town." More...

Arne Lange	"It's no longer as it used to be in the 1940's, when the cost of living was lower, and you could live only from hunting. Nowadays every hunter comes home with seal meat, but it's not something which sells. On the other hand, we have to pay for petrol, both for our boats and for heating, as well as electricity and our daily necessities. In 2010, a hunter has to also be able to earn some money." More...

Jacob Nedergard	"With two part-time jobs, we only bring home one salary. There are more jobs in town but you have to find accommodation, and apartments in good condition are hard to find. The neighbours and the alcoholism are a worry for us, as we are concerned for our children." More…

John Pedersen	"The kayak had virtually disappeared from the country. Our association helps Greenlanders of all ages to rediscover it. We train them and we encourage them, from building their own kayak, up to competitions. I sometimes go hunting in mine, from the fjord of Torssukatak as far as the glacier Eqip Sermia. The place is full of seals. From the whole town, I’m the only one who hunts like this." More...

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 ...