{"id":263874,"date":"2025-03-21T15:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T15:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/21\/greenland-races-into-new-era-without-losing-grip-on-inuit-traditions\/"},"modified":"2025-03-21T15:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T15:51:09","slug":"greenland-races-into-new-era-without-losing-grip-on-inuit-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/21\/greenland-races-into-new-era-without-losing-grip-on-inuit-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenland Races Into New Era Without Losing Grip on Inuit Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/18\/multimedia\/18int-greenland-dispatch-01-ctqp\/18int-greenland-dispatch-01-ctqp-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Greenland Races Into New Era Without Losing Grip on Inuit Traditions\" title=\"Greenland Races Into New Era Without Losing Grip on Inuit Traditions\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The three bundled up figures, puny against the vastness of miles of snow, trudged toward a hole they had cut into the ice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Their sled was parked nearby, and the woolly dogs that pulled it were huddled on the frozen ground, barking for food.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Man and dog had to move carefully out here. In some places the ice was three feet thick, in others, it cracked like crystal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This trio of Greenlanders, and their hungry, howling sled dogs, were following a tradition \u2014 ice fishing in a glacier fjord \u2014 that members of the Inuit community have been doing for eons. And this moment out in the clean, white snow was a quiet respite from a world changing around them at dizzying speed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One of the bundled up Greenlanders \u2014 Laila Sandgreen \u2014 had just hired 10 Filipinos to work at her cafe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Her husband, Hans Sandgreen, a hardcore ice fishermen of few words, is investing in a growing fleet of expensive snowmobiles for the family tourist business, which faces more and more competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Their son, David, was accepted to a top flight economics program in Denmark. But he recently dropped out, saying he \u201cmissed the snow, the fishing and the hunting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In their town on the west coast of Greenland, the Sandgreens shop at well-stocked grocery stores and have high-speed internet, a nice house and a beautiful kitchen. But each of them still knows how to shoot a gun, steer a sled and skin a seal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI feel free out here,&#8221; Ms. Sandgreen said. \u201cI don\u2019t have a phone dinging in my pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Their family story is, in a way, Greenland\u2019s story. It\u2019s a place trying to hold on tight to its culture while racing forward into a new era, and Greenlanders say they don\u2019t want to have to choose either\/or.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even before President Trump catapulted this enormous island, the world\u2019s largest, into the news by suggesting that the United States take it over, change has been sweeping through.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">New international airports are opening, immigrants are streaming in and the island\u2019s deeply buried minerals are attracting feverish interest. There are more hotels, more cars \u2014 and more cruise ships disgorging thousands of tourists to throng tidy, windy streets in search of that perfect sealskin souvenir or iceberg tour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">All this change is becoming a test of how intact Greenland\u2019s unique heritage will emerge, and it connects with the island\u2019s politics, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.veriangroup.com\/da\/insights\/opinionsmaling-groenland-2025\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">recent opinion poll<\/a> found that 85 percent of Greenlanders do not want to join the United States. Yet many people said in interviews that they didn\u2019t want to keep relying on fishing and Denmark forever, either.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Denmark colonized the island more than 300 years ago and still controls the police, the courts, foreign affairs and defense issues. Increasingly, Greenlanders are pushing for full independence and their own trade relationships.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Beyond that, climate change is remaking the landscape. Every Greenlander has his or her own story about the rainier summers, the thinner ice, the glaciers melting and the permafrost getting squishier, which sometimes collapses a road. The whole island is warmer and more accessible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ilulissat, where the Sandgreens live, is a good place to witness all this. The town\u2019s icebergs are attracting a surge of tourists and outside labor to serve them. A local legend, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/eng.geus.dk\/explore-geology\/learning-about-geology\/explore-ilulissat-icefjord\/portrait-of-the-ice-at-ilulissat\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">backed up by Danish geologists<\/a>, is that the specific iceberg that sank the Titanic might have floated south from around here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">All this growth and attention brings its challenges. Small communities on the island\u2019s fringes continue to wither away, as people gravitate toward bigger towns like Ilulissat where there is work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the capital, Nuuk, which looks like a little Danish town and which recently opened an impressive new international airport, Greenlanders are having the same big conversations about how to navigate the transitions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe\u2019re really good at adapting to new environments,\u201d said Qupanak Olsen, a champion of Indigenous rights who lives in Nuuk and was just <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/12\/world\/europe\/greenland-election.html\" title=\"\">elected to Greenland\u2019s Parliament<\/a> this month. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mrs. Olsen has stepped away from her career as a mining engineer to become one of the most powerful voices on Greenlandic culture. She travels around the island making <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/qsgreenland\/reel\/DD2mUequr_U\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">59-second videos<\/a> celebrating Greenlandic language, Greenlandic food, Greenlander beliefs and her own \u201cpersonal decolonization process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She told a story about how, when she was making a video last year in a remote community, a man came up to her to thank her for honoring Greenlandic traditions. He quickly apologized for bugging her, saying he had no education and that he was \u201cjust a hunter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201c<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">Just<\/em> a hunter? How can you say you\u2019re <em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">just<\/em> a hunter,\u201d she remembered thinking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The short exchange bothered her for weeks. She eventually tracked down his number and told him over the phone: \u201cNever, ever say you\u2019re just a hunter. You are the most important people in our culture. I\u2019m here today, and my ancestors survived thousands of years, because of you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For a long time, Greenlanders got everything they needed from the animals they killed. Most of the island has little vegetation. There are almost no trees. Whale skin is a rich source of vitamin C, and by eating it, Greenlanders held off diseases like scurvy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Fishing remains the biggest industry, and many Greenlanders make money off it. Even people with white collar jobs, like Jens Peter Lange, a dental technician in Ilulissat, still go ice fishing in the fjords and stalk reindeer (called caribou elsewhere in North America).<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Talking to him reveals the wounds of Danish colonialism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOh, man, I used to get into so many fights when I was studying in Denmark,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Danish man is always above the Greenland man \u2014 always.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He recounted a scandal from the 1960s and 1970s, exposed only recently, when <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-63049387\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Danish doctors inserted IUDs into Greenlandic girls<\/a> without them knowing they had been fitted with birth control. He shared stories of being passed over for jobs in favor of Danes with fewer qualifications.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe need to get rid of them,\u201d he said, swiping a thick hand through the air.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Ilulissat\u2019s snowbound hillsides, new hotels are popping up and new faces appearing: the Filipino cafe workers, a Czech waitress, French, Swiss and Australian climate researchers. Ilulissat is building a new international airport that will bring in even more foreigners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lange says he likes all this. The other night he grilled reindeer for his family (and a few guests) that he himself had shot. The topic of independence came up around the table<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s a hard one,\u201d said his wife, Nielsigne Rosbach, a special-education teacher. \u201cWe don\u2019t even have enough Greenlandic doctors. We still rely on the Danes. We\u2019d have to begin completely from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hearing this, Mr. Lange grew frustrated and cited the example of the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sebrochure.dk\/halibutgreenland\/WebView\/#Halibut%20Greenland\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">local fish cooperative<\/a>, started by fishermen sick of selling their fish for low prices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cLook at those guys,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have education. But they figured it out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He leaned back in his chair, as the winds swirled outside and the kitchen smelled of rich sauces and grilled meat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEven if we don\u2019t know everything right now,\u201d he said, \u201cwe will learn.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Maya Tekeli<!-- --> contributed reporting from Ilulissat, Greenland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/21\/world\/americas\/greenland-climate-development-inuits.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The three bundled up figures, puny against the vastness of miles of snow, trudged toward a hole they had cut into the ice. Their sled was parked nearby, and the woolly dogs that pulled it were huddled on the frozen ground, barking for food. Man and dog had to move carefully out here. In some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/18\/multimedia\/18int-greenland-dispatch-01-ctqp\/18int-greenland-dispatch-01-ctqp-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64592,23724,163575,9526,23784,10923,7941,7062,203109,1782,192355,137131,43615,31263,52],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263876,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263874\/revisions\/263876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}