ABSTRACT
Greenland has experienced a millennium of European colonisation; and, despite moves towards independence, including limited ‘home rule’ from 1979, and self-government from 2009, Greenland remains a territorial possession of Denmark. Some of the specifics in these respects are outlined in the first section of this chapter, ‘Historical contexts’. It is also to be acknowledged that abusive attempts at forcible cultural assimilation through means of educational and social systems have been part of Greenland's story. To exemplify this, an account of the Danish state's taking, in 1951, of twenty-two Inuit children, from their homes and families in Greenland, to families and institutions Denmark, where they were to be ‘re-educated as ‘model Danish citizens’, is provided in a section entitled ‘The experiment’. Finally, and drawing on the recently concluded work of the Reconciliation Commission in Greenland, some of the ‘Efforts towards processes of truth, restitution, reconciliation, and reclamation’ are examined in this chapter's final section.
