Can Greenland go it alone?

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0:51Thank you for downloading this podcast from the BBC. I'm Hedi Namin Aziz and Ayman Nook, the capital of Greenland. I'm here to meet a cross-section of people to find out about Inuit culture and what they want for their future.

1:09Down there we have Sasuma Anna, the mother of the sea, which is like a mythical figure in Greenlandic history or an Inuit tradition, like the protector of the sea, of the animals, the hunting, the weather, survival, everything. You know, she's a really core figure in Inuit mythology. The colonial harbor in Greenland's capital, Nuke, is home to two iconic monuments. The Mother of the Sea is a sacred figure to the indigenous Inuit people who make up around 80 % of the population living on the biggest island in the world. Akha Nibiana is an actor, artist, poet, and Nuke resident. When we talk about Sesuma Amna, the Mother of the Sea, she is the one that we want to respect.

1:55But she's also a tempered woman. You keep polluting the ocean, gets tangled in her hair. And if it's too tangled in a minute, she's going to get upset. And then there's a storm and she will not provide any animals because we don't deserve that. She can also just tell you to, yeah, nice try. She's a bit temperamental. She is. She is very temperamental. And that's how we race to respect her. The Inuit people arrived here in small migration waves from Canada, dating back thousands of years. Then in the 18th century. This statue, let me talk about that. Hans Il, he was the first missionary here. And so he was a priest.

2:33He came here in 1721. Denmark and Norway was also under the same king. And history and people in general like to tell the story as a mild colonization. But I think it's still a colonization. This is why this is called the Colonial Harbor. And this statue is maybe the most debated statue in the whole country. From a colony, Greenland became a province of Denmark, despite nuke being 3 ,500 kilometers from Copenhagen. Since 1979, it has been self-governing, but with Denmark still controlling areas like defense and foreign policy. When earlier this year, US President Donald Trump announced he wanted to buy or even annex the island, the 55 ,000-plus people living here suddenly found themselves in the international spotlight.

3:29I'm Hedi Namin Aziz and this is the documentary from the BBC World Service. In this edition of Assignment, I've come to Greenland for the first time to try and find out about the long-term future of this vast island. Can Greenland gain full independence from Denmark? First, I wanted to ask Akka Nirviana more about why the statue of the missionary, hence Ille, has become a lightning rod for Greenlanders dissatisfied with the status quo. Several times it's been painted with graffiti or with red paint. What are some of the things that they've written on it? One time it was written, decolonize. And I think it's also a reaction to the reality we still live in.

4:10I mean, we are closely connected. I think a lot of us to our Inuit tradition, but we're still very much living under colonization. There's so many layers. You have somewhat Christian background, but at the same time, it's also hunters. It's also people relying on the weather. It's also people speaking Galatians in our mother tongue, but it's at the same time also us having to get education in Danish. Also this, who is Greenlandic enough or Inuk enough? I don't think. That's actually something we've talked about as well. We've seen a mix of people here in Nuk who appear to be both Inuit and of Danish origin.

4:47How do you define what a Greenlander is? I think that's a really hard question. And I don't think I can tell other people how they should define themselves. I mean, do they have Inuit roots and everything? It's not up to me to tell them who they are or who they are not. I know that I am Inuk. I am Greenlandic. We have 300 years of common history with Denmark, and it's also hard for me to tell some Danes who've been here, maybe for all of these 300 years with their family, that they are not Greenlandic. I don't know. I really want to be careful in telling people what they are and what they are not.

5:26It's a beautiful place, but it's isolated. It's at the edge of the world, some would say.

5:38I want to know more about how Akka sees Greenland's future. But although it's high summer here, with almost 24 hours of daylight, the weather is notoriously unpredictable. So although it's been dry so far today, rain is predicted, so I'm not going to press my luck too far. Akka has kindly invited me on a short drive back in her rather rickety old car to her home, which overlooks the harbor. It's a wild boom in tourism. There's so many tourists Like I mean we usually have tourists But not on this scale It's really wild Trump was not good for our nerve system But he was good for business I guess So this is the old part of Nuke And right across from it Where those people just came out Is where you buy traditional food You buy like seal And fish

6:41yeah so the house is uh this pretty red house on top of a little hill and you have some stairs going up is this a typical house in the area yeah i would definitely say so like we don't have a lot of flat ground so you where these houses back in the day was permitted was where you could do it without having to remove a hill, which you can also see this area surrounding us, a lot of houses with these tall stairs. You're getting your steps in.

7:12So Greenland's had a huge spotlight on it this year, and you also mentioned lots of tourists coming in way more than before. Do you think that's helpful? Yes and no. I think this whole attention can be used for our benefit at some point. But I also think we have to be careful. I think it's also about balance because you have opened up this place to the whole world now. I mean, it's not like it's been excluded, like no one was allowed to come. But we got a new airport here in Nuuk. So it's more accessible now. You're wearing this shirt that says Greenland is not for sale. Do you believe Greenland should push for independence?

7:54I think it depends on how you define independence. Because I think when you want to build a small nation like this, you will need allies. You will need business. You will need a lot of things. But for example, Trump says, I will make every Greenlander rich if you just join America. Did you hear about the American influences coming down here and handing out$100 bills? Yeah, to kids. To kids, yeah. How did people react to that? People were furious. Especially because it was handed out to school kids. Because that felt like, oh, so that's how you're going to do it. Through influencers. But it was also really a media stunt to be like, hey, but they love us.

8:36Look at that. They're wearing MAGA hats. And they hate Denmark. So I think it's easy to sell that and make Denmark the enemy. That's a really bad idea. ACA has introduced me to some interesting ideas about who the Greenlandic people are but what about this huge island they inhabit which has the lowest population density in the world to find out I'm driving to the small campus of Nukes University where the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources is located the institute is researching the geology but also the extraordinary animals, from the reindeer and polar bears through to the whales and seals, and much more besides.

9:18My name is Thomas Arming. I'm the chief consultant and leader of the office here in Nook. On the way to Thomas's office, we pass amazing pictures on the walls of some of the marine life found in the fjords and seas around Greenland. All these pictures are species you can find here in Greenland. Some of them are odd-looking, some of them are more familiar, like whales, Greenlandic shark. Yeah, some of these don't even look real. Yeah, I bet they are. What is that? It says caught at a thousand meters depth in Greenland. Black, it looks like a shark. I'd say more looks like one of these very deep going fish.

9:59They have a tendency to look with big teeth and big mouths. Wow, it's like something out of a horror movie. Thomas Vaming's real area of expertise is the geological makeup of the island. That's attracted great interest from Donald Trump and mining companies around the world. Thomas is showing me a chart on his wall which explains some of the different materials. What you have then are what they call raw material minerals and then you have what we call gemstone minerals at the bottom here. And I think in terms of Greenlandic, what is special is what we call this one, odiolite. It's pink. It's pink, yeah, and the pink part of it, yeah.

10:38And in that pink part is one of the places where you find these what we call rare earth metals. Okay. That is one of the commodities that a mine in South Greenland is looking for, the Tambreeze Project. Graphite is also something that we're looking at in South Greenland. Graphite is used for batteries. That goes into car batteries and stuff like that. Can you tell us something about the topography of Greenland? Like how much is covered by ice? 82 % of Greenland is covered by ice. The non-covered ice area is about the same size as France. Wow. So we actually do have a lot of non-covered ice area.

11:15Up north, because you have permafrost in some places, and the water in the earth stays permanently frosted or iced in the ground, even if it's summer, one meter or two meters below the surface. And that is quite difficult to penetrate. It's rock hard. Development is a bit hampered by the climate because you can most probably only work three months a year, some places. While in the UK or Denmark, wherever, you can build a harbor within a year. But a small harbor here, you might have to use three years. And the longer time it takes for things to get started, well, the longer time you have to wait for a cash flow to come in.

11:49And that basically also means that the investors have to be risk-taking. This is the documentary from the BBC World Service.

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12:37Bye.

12:41I'm Hedi Namin-Aziz on assignment in Greenland. We saw some scary species at the National Geological Survey, but the fish that Greenland really relies upon for its economy are more familiar, particularly cod and halibut. Fishing accounts for 90 % of the country's exports, so it's hard to stress enough its importance. I've come down to the harbour where several fishermen are mending their nets in the sunshine. Ulrich is one. Right now it's the cod season for the whole summer until September. We went out fishing yesterday and caught two tonnes of cod. Which markets are the fish you catch more? We don't know where the fish ends up, but they take them to Denmark and then to other countries from there.

13:31Do you think you get a fairer price for your fish? It can become better if we get control of all of it, if we could sell them from here to other countries instead of selling them from Denmark. Do you think that would be enough to support Greenland if it became independent? No. No? No. Of course it can in the future. Greenland can make it on its own. Do you think mining and tourism would help with that? Yes, mining. And mining? Yes, mining and tourism is the future. And fishing, of course. It has to continue. Are you a supporter of independence? Yes, of course. In the future, but not right now.

14:10How far in the future are we talking? I don't know. You don't know? 20 years, maybe. 20 years? Yes. But if you could do it right now, you'd want to do it? No. No? We need help from Denmark. What about becoming part of the US? No, we want to be independent as Greenlanders. Maybe we can work with them in the future. As Ulrich said, much of the fish caught in Greenland is exported to Denmark, where it's sold on to other parts of Europe, although some is also processed in Iceland and elsewhere. When fishing is such a key industry, you're going to have a pretty important trade body, and I've secured an interview with its president.

14:49So I've come to the headquarters of the Fishermen and Hunting Association, and it's got a great view over the bay, and like everywhere else, you have to go up some middle steps to get up there.

15:06My name is Nikolai Yamierson. I've been a professional fisherman and hunter my entire life. When I was nine, I caught my first seal, and when I was an adult, my first polar bear. I was actually on a walrus hunt far offshore. I was getting some tea and a warm meal after a long hunting day. When I got off my boat, I saw a polar bear a long way away, and I started to run after it with my rifle. It eventually swam to the sea and he was fighting with a harp seal around 10, 15 metres away from the ice edge. I was very careful to not get too close because the polar bear is a very fast animal that would certainly attack me with no hesitation.

15:49I have preserved the skin and the skull and all the meat was eaten. There's nothing that we throw away when we catch animals. How do you square your fishing and hunting traditions with 21st century sensibilities about certain animals. People outside Greenland will often see whales and polar bears as creatures to be cherished, but they're all hunted here on the island. Do you understand why some people might feel upset by that? As you've seen, Greenland is a vast country with a very diverse environment, meaning that many places you won't be able to sustain other industries like agriculture. You cannot grow crops in Greenland.

16:30We live off fishing and hunting, and because of that we sustain life to survive. The Danish government subsidizes Greenland with something called the Block Grant, which is in the region of 10 ,000 US dollars per person per year. The profits brought in from fishing would not be enough to maintain the current standard of living on the island. The association told me that although the Greenlandic government is now the owner of many of the big fish processing companies, they're still running such a way that they cannot control the prices local fishermen are being paid for their catch. The seafood companies are making a profit of three to four times what our fishermen are getting paid.

17:13So the tax earnings for the government are very much reduced, and our analysis showed a clear difference of prices fixed in Greenland compared with our neighbouring countries. And where other countries have adopted 12 nautical miles as their border for the basic coastline, in Greenland it is three nautical miles. It means that huge trawlers are fishing very close to the shores because of the regulations. So revenue from fishing might be increased, but more cash could also be raised from Greenland's nascent tourism industry. Around 160 ,000 tourists came to Greenland last year, so at the moment it's still pretty niche, even if Aka remarked at the start of the program on how many more tourists she was seeing this year.

18:01I'm taking a boat along the second largest fuel system in the world. So we're about to go on the boat. It's this little yellow boat with the Greenlandic flag on top. It is smaller than I expected, but it does look cozy. Okay, so we're off. I've just seen my first iceberg. We just got past it. It's not massive, but definitely eye-catching. You can get that off the bucket list. So we've slowed down a little bit, and we're going along the fjord. It looks like we're going into this narrow passage between two mountains. It's really, really stunning. You definitely get a sense of Greenland's unique beauty being out here.

18:48We've stopped. We just reached this waterfall. The water is flowing down the mountain really beautifully. Our guide is actually just wearing a t-shirt. Meanwhile, we've all got full Arctic gear and hats and jackets and still freezing. Tell us about where we are in this waterfall. We are right by the waterfall by the mountain called Somityak. It symbolizes noob. It's 1 ,200 meters high and there are people who get married on top of it. This waterfall is coming from the glacier on top of the mountain. The next stop is by the icebergs. Oh, okay. So we're going to get really up close to them. The glacier has three layers.

19:32The first layer contains a lot of salt and less water, a lot of air. So that's why it's so white. The next part is more blue, more water, less salt and less air. So the bottom is pure water. No air, no salt, pure water. Is it true that most of it is below water? You can only see 10 % of it, and the rest, 90 % of it, is down below the water. Okay. How dangerous is that to boats like this? Those boats, they are made to sail through the ice, so we can hit them without damage. They said that about the Titanic too. I'm kind of scared. We're going to ride past this huge iceberg. It's stunning. It's like this huge sculpture.

20:18You can see the white and then the lighter, cooler blue as well.

20:27While traditional pursuits like hunting and fishing are still key for many Greenlanders, there's also a passion for more contemporary ways to express their identity. The island has a very active music scene, although touring is a challenge. There are literally no roads between population centers, so to get from one to the other, you have to take an occasional boat or a very expensive plane or helicopter. Husband and wife Penny and Sebastian are key members of the metal group Sound of the Damned. I've come to meet them in their house on the outskirts of Nuuk. They feel strongly that Inuits have been deprived of their cultural identity they now want to reclaim.

21:07Can you maybe tell us a bit about your face tattoos? I got my tlokut first. So the three lines that go down from your lips to your chin. And then you have a triangle upside down and then the dots around on your forehead. Yeah, exactly. Because when you have achieved the skills to survive, you have these tattoos. It's like a ceremony. You've written a really powerful song called Inuk Umarit. Am I saying that somewhat correctly? Very correctly. Okay, great. Inuk Umarit, yeah. Okay, and it's called Taking Our Culture Back, if you translate it. What does that song mean to you, and how did it come about?

21:50It means the world to us. We wrote it together, me and my husband. Inuk, I almost said it in Greenland. Inuk, wake up, where are you? Our ancestral traditions have disappeared. Our characteristics have disappeared. Our beliefs have been replaced. Inuk, wake up, Inuk, wake up. It touched so many people. We received such positive feedback from all around the world.

22:37And this is a mythic. If you want to try. Yeah? You're welcome. It's a whale. Kenya and Sebastian have given us some rear bread. And then white whale cut up into some pieces. Yeah, this is a Greenlandic delicacy. So this is the plumber. Like in between. Yeah, I see. Like, why do you cut it up like that? Is it just a... It's very hard to chew. Ah, okay, because it's raw. And the blubber is very hard to chew, and you need to cut it like this, so it's easier for you to chew. I will give you a small one, because it might be potent. It's so tasty. It's amazing. It's really salty. I'm not used to the consistency, but it's really good.

23:21To round off the evening, Penny and Sebastian are going to introduce me to a traditional Inuit game. They're moving their chairs so they can face each other, and I suspect I might be about to watch and hear something I've never experienced before. It's an Inuit game. Okay. And you try not to laugh. Repeat each other. Oh, so it's like a challenge, and the one who laughs first is the one who loses. We call it kadachak. Kadachak? Yeah. But it's still a musical thing. Yeah. Okay, let's get a demonstration. I'm intrigued.