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An abandoned railway tracks through deep snow and the icy wind blows against the windowless frames of an empty fish processing factory in the deserted village of Qoornoq, on the edge of the second largest fjord of Greenland between pieces of ice and ice.
Once a bustling Arctic fishing village, Qoornoq is one of the many traditional Inuit sites. Greenland whose residents were forcibly relocated by their Danish colonial masters to apartments in larger cities, in what was billed in the 1950s-70s as a redevelopment exercise.
Now, for many Greenlanders, these wooden fox villages stand as evidence of some of the more painful experiences of colonialism and reminders of the goal that existed: to gain independence one day.
“It’s still a painful past for us, and maybe that’s one of the reasons why there’s so much hatred towards Denmark,” said Vittus Qujaukitsoq, a former government minister whose father who was banished from a village in northern Greenland.
The migration of Qujaukitsoq’s father and his family from his hometown of Uummannaq in 1953 was also caused by the establishment of a large US airbase in the area at that time. His father spent years suing Denmark for losing his house.
Greenlanders are still angry at Denmark “because of pride, because of the way people were treated”, Qujaukitsoq said. Now, he said, Greenland should shake off its colonial past and become independent.
It is an interview presented by the next president of the United States Donald Trump’s interest in the Arctic and visited by flying this month by his eldest son. When the younger Trump referred to the Greenlanders as having “racism”, Qujaukitsoq said it had something to do with him.
But while Greenlanders overwhelmingly support independence, they don’t want to simply take over Denmark. US as a solution to the problems of independence that can raise the island, which receives a large part of its budget in the form of aid from Copenhagen and will not rely on self-defense.
“That’s the second question, always. If you don’t belong to Denmark, you belong to yourself?” said Pele Broberg, head of the Naleraq party. But that’s not the way you should look at it.
A small opposition party, Naleraq takes the strongest line on independence. Unlike Greenland’s main political parties, it believes the island is ready to leave, and has pledged to start secession talks as soon as it is elected.
Naleraq’s independence plan – which could involve cutting the government budget in half to make up for the lost Danish block grant – also sees a major role in the US.
“What I want the other parties to do in this election cycle is to go to the US and say: ‘Look, guys, we need a defense agreement that will be implemented the second we stand up,'” Broberg said. said.
But the long-term interest of the US in the island – Trump is not the first US president to express the idea of buying Greenland – has left its mark.
When tens of thousands of US soldiers arrived in the 1950s to northeast Greenland to build Pituffik Space Base, it was a surprise for the remote, powerful city of 300 of Uummannaq. The residents were then forced to move 150km north to an even more unforgiving climate, where they had to start a new settlement from scratch.
The base, a military base in the north of America – which is closed by ice for three quarters of the year – is still important for missile and space surveillance systems, and exemplifies the importance of Greenland policy for US security.
Hearing the stories of his ancestors’ experiences growing up, Qujaukitsoq also campaigned for the government to get money to undo the environmental damage caused by about 30 military bases. US through Greenland during the second world war.
But it was Denmark that the politician felt had to pay, and his family held Denmark, not the US, responsible for their immigration.
Broberg said: “It was the Danes who did that. The founder of his party grew up in a village that was displaced in some way. “He remembers, when he was a child, people were separated, families, by these resettlement programs. It is designed for Denmark to save money.”
He said Greenlanders would be happy to see the US presence expand. “If they want to build 30 new places on our east coast, be my guest.”
“It is true that the US is protecting us, as it has done 83 years ago,” said Qujaukitsoq, who has served as Greenland’s finance minister and foreign minister. “So what’s the point of being anti-US?”
Frustration with their experience of Danish rule is a major motivation for Greenlanders’ desire for independence, said Naaja Nathanielsen, minister of justice and equality, as well as mineral resources, who said she had found “a grain of truth”. in the words of Trump Jr. about discrimination.
“It’s not ancient history,” said Nathanielsen, who is from a larger political party and believes Greenland needs many years of work before it can become self-governing. “It certainly creates a lot of anger.”
Greenlanders – many of whom live in small, remote villages in a country of just 57,000 people – all knew people affected by colonial policies or saw them firsthand, said Nathanielsen, whose father went he was removed from home as a child and sent to a boarding school. Denmark.
Copenhagen, which has ruled Greenland since the 18th century – first as a colony and granted it increasing degrees of autonomy in 1979 and 2009 – has apologized for certain cases, such as the “public trial ” of the 1950s where twenty Inuit children were brought. they go to Denmark and break away from their families in an attempt to change their identity.
A Greenlander has spoken of her family’s shock when she discovered that the reason her relative was unable to conceive was because she had a contraceptive implant inserted when she was still a virgin. without his understanding or consent.
About 150 Greenlandic women are now suing Denmark over the practice, which is believed to have been used by Danish doctors in the 1960s to reduce Greenland’s population and affected about 4,500 women.
But many of these historical mistakes are not acknowledged, Nathanielsen said, as Denmark is loathe to see itself as a colony.
He said: “It destroys their humanity. But if you don’t give people a platform and a platform to grieve, to be angry, and to hear acceptance from the one who caused all this anger, we will not get through it.
In Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, clusters of sombre concrete apartments mark the city’s outskirts, some perched on bare, windswept cliffs overlooking the Labrador Sea.
Many Inuit fishing families were relocated to such towns as part of Denmark’s socialization campaign, which sought to attract people to areas with jobs and factories, and to provide with modern equipment.
After Greenland gained more independence in recent years, some former residents of Qoornoq and their descendants began to return to set up summer homes, a breath of fresh air in the city. abandoned during the warmer few months of the year.
But many, like the Qujaukitsoq family, never returned.
He said: “It was the most painful experience they had in their lives, being denied access to their lands and their hunting grounds, which they lost,” he said.
