Self-determination, Inuit Sovereignty and Nation-State Building in the Arctic: Making Greenland Understandable

Activity: Talk or presentation typesLecture and oral contribution

Uffe Jakobsen - Speaker

Sovereignty includes the right to self-determination. But does Inuit sovereignty include national identity formation or does it transcend nationality? This paper will argue that there is not a once and for all answer to this question, since it depends on place (context) and time (past and future). Self-determination in Nunavut did not entail a separation from Canada and the establishment of an independent state (Hicks and White 2000), while self-determination in Greenland does include the perspective of an independent and sovereign state according to the constituent Greenland Self-Government Act (2009). Earlier, however, Inuit Ataqatigiit and other political parties would see an inuit state as a circumpolar organisation based on a circumpolar Inuit identity. Has Greenland since then in the views of the political parties as well as the indigenous majority population developed into a ‘nation’ and is it to be understood as, so far, a nation without a ‘state’, a stateless nation?
13 Nov 2015

Event (Conference)

TitleSecurity and Governance in the Globalised Arctic:Nordic and International Perspectives
Date12/11/201513/11/2015
LocationAarhus Universitet
CityAarhus
Country/TerritoryDenmark

ID: 154194049