“We are fighting together for democracy, together with the countries that believe in democracy. (We will) not be over-run by some orange bully.”
Aleqa Hammond believes this is a crucial moment in the history of the place she calls home.
(Watch the entire interview here https://youtu.be/xFkBnuamr7o?si=VPrIZccMFYOXjnFo or click on the image below. An audio version is also available, on this website or at GraydioCanada on Apple or Spotify.)
In 2013, Aleqa Hammond became Greenland's first female Prime Minister, serving one term. She is also a former member of the Danish Parliament on behalf of Greenland. Herpolitical career began when she was elected as a member of the Greenland Parliament in 2005, serving until 2015. She held various ministerial roles, including Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs, Minister of Family, Children, and Elders and Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs.
I spoke with her just as the recent U.S.–Denmark–Greenland security agreement was being finalized. We were travelling together on an Adventure Canada expedition through the Northwest Passage and down the western coast of Greenland. She was on board as one of five Inuit cultural ambassadors.
Since the signing, the agreement has done little to quell a sense of deep mistrust in Greenland.
You can’t blame them.
The “deal” rewards months of coercion, bullying, and threats of occupation by force from the US President and his administration. His actions triggered massive protests across Greenland and led the Danish Defence Intelligence Service to officially label the United States a threat to national security for the first time.
Already, there are differing interpretations of the agreement. Trump gets the spectacle of power- or as a US correspondent for Danish newspaper Politiken said, “he was allowed to take a victory lap on social media”.
Trump declared the agreement ensures the U.S. will "FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland”, and "Massive Oil, Gas, and Mineral Exploration is getting ready to begin.”
The Prime Minister’s Office of Denmark describes a different bargain: stronger Arctic security that preserves the Kingdom of Denmark’s nominal sovereignty and territorial integrity.
But what do Greenlanders get? A vague reference to a “right to self-determination’…perhaps, someday.
Their historical mistrust of US and Danish promises is well founded in Greenland. And despite the headlines, the new agreement mostly codifies what Washington could already do. Basically, control the island’s airspace, seaspace, and economic opportunities.
So what does it all mean for the island’s future, and for the 56,800 Greenlanders? They are one of the few Indigenous populations in the world that make up the clear demographic majority in their own country. 88% of the population are Inuit or mixed Inuit-Danish heritage.
To find out, I went for a walk with Ms. Hammond on the tundra just north of Illulisat, Greenland.