Thursday, June 21 was Greenland’s 4th
National Day (essentially an independence day, like our July
4)—meaning although we had no work, I was awake an hour before
normal to make it to town and experience the celebrations firsthand.
At 7am Roar and I raced down the hill
and caught a cab to take us to City Hall, where about a thousand
people were waiting for 7:30 to hit. A band began to play and a
number of people in Greenland’s national costumes (see the picture
below) held flags proudly, and started a parade down the main street
of town. As they proceeded to play and march, people flooded from the
Bloks and their homes to join in the parade of people, with no
distinction between those who were joining in and those who had
initially been there other than the band itself. Cheering and
laughing, the mob made its way down to the Colonial Harbor right near
my office, where more people were waiting and standing on all
available surfaces to hear the speeches and music. For the next hour
or so a chorus sang traditional music and the mayor spoke to the
people about... well I’m not quite sure, because she spoke in
Greenlandic mainly, with tiny bits in Danish that I could pick up on.
During the speeches I looked around the waiting crowd in interest—for
a day which celebrates Greenland’s independence from Denmark, there
were a lot of Danish people cheering and smiling, holding Danish and
Greenlandic flags. The entire concept of the day still a lot of the
people I have spoken with, as often do the social dynamics of the two
cultures within the country.
Here is an explaination I found online
which details exactly what happened four years ago:
'On
21 June 2009, Greenland assumed self-determination with
responsibility for self-government of judicial
affairs,
policing,
and natural
resources.
Also, Greenlanders were recognized as a separate people under
international
law.
Denmark
maintains control of foreign
affairs and
defence
matters.
Denmark upholds the annual block grant of 3.2 billion Danish kroner,
but as Greenland begins to collect revenues of its natural resources
the grant will gradually be diminished. It is a step toward full
independence from Danish rule. Greenlandic
became
the sole official language of Greenland at the historic ceremony.'
After a while the canons were fired,
scaring the wits out of everyone waiting in the crowd (and the few
kayakers who had decided they would get a better view from the water
looked as though they were about to leap in themselves), and the
crowd of a few thousand started winding back up the road towards
town. Although a chunk split off at the church, the majority walked
back up to City Hall, where the municipality had set up thousands of
tables and chairs and had people manning tables with coffee, tea,
bread, cheese, and butter for everyone. People walked all about
eating breakfast and shaking strangers’ hands with a sturdy
‘Congratulations’, from the heart. I spent a while watching
everyone interacting before wandering back down to port to see if I
could catch a few of the visitors from the cruise ship which was due
to come in that day (a German Hapag-Lloyd Kreuzfahrten ship, the
Bremen) and see how the logistics of a ship being in the Atlantic
Harbor would work.
The first visitors I passed seemed a
bit shellshocked over everything that was happening, as they were
being offered free food and access to free entertainment with music
and cultural as well as sporting events which were planned throughout
the day by the municipality. As they wandered towards City Hall, I
noticed the jewelry vendor (Anne) who was normally outside my work
had opened and was looking quite bored, so I engaged her in
conversation about the National Day as well as cruise visitors.
We spoke for a few hours as cruise
visitors passed by from the shuttles to the tour operators and barely
gave her a glance. She explained how her operations existed—she
would spend the winter months having stones shipped from the
northernmost world settlement that her mother had been from to Nuuk,
where her friend would polish them, and then she and her husband
would carve and create pieces from those stones. I listened as she
told me the stories of each piece—the stone it was from, the
settlement she had collected it in, how she had designed it, where
the proceeds would go and to whom, and how long it took to create.
All the while, she made only two sales—to a local Danish woman, and
to a local couple who had recently moved to Nuuk from Burundi and
Denmark, and told stories about adapting from African life to
European, to now Greenlandic.
After discussing how I could best talk
to visitors and how she could better sell her product, I purchased
two pieces she had created—agate stone from the north settlement,
with four stones fashioned into a necklace and three into a matching
bracelet. She refused to take the full amount she had originally
quoted as it was ‘National Day’ and I had spent time chatting,
which isn’t a common thing in Greenland—unlike a lot of ports,
the price here is the price, and that doesn’t really change. Later
it was commented that I had to have spent at least 800 kroner ($160)
on the pieces, whereas she only charged me 100.- total ($20). I look
forward to picking out more of her pieces later in the summer.
As I wandered back towards home, I
noticed a giant crowd surrounding the field outside the Bloks. As I
got closer I realized it was a football (soccer) match between two
older teams who didn’t seem to adept at sport. Curiously, I joined
in the crowd standing along the perimeter and smiled at the people
who had climbed on top of almost all the surrounding buildings and
structures to watch—and were getting very into the game, cheering
as a pass was completed or a person ran ahead. I later found out it
was the Alzheimer’s Society against the local sports club—and the
Alzheimer’s Society won the game, much to everyone’s excitement.
After spending a while at a cross
street where a local artist played on his guitar and people danced
uninhibited, I headed back towards the house, stopping for a long
while to sit in the grass at the top of the mountain pass and look
out over the harbor. Around me were thousands of dandelions on the
steep hill leading down to the port, and I laughed that this was
perhaps the last image that anyone would have had of Greenland, this
close to the arctic circle—laying on a hill, yellow dandelions all
around, in 60 degree weather...
...with hundreds of mosquitoes deciding
to attack me.
Guess you can’t have it all.
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