Essay

Watercolors and posca pens create the beadwork and outlines on watercolor paper in like circles on the water. Different shades of blue illustrate the sky and water. Symbolism and duality are woven throughout this painting. In the center, an Inuk woman is looking towards the future while sitting in the water. She is wearing a necklace inspired by my great grandmother’s beadwork, where the white beads are used to tie the red, blue and pink beads together. The white beads are traditionally used in North Greenland, where my ancestors come from. At the edge of the beadwork tears are suspended, as a symbol of the sorrow of the past, but also to represent the saying; “when you cry, the tears will wash your eyes and make you see life clearer again”.

The woman sits in the ocean and creates circles on the water, illustrating how trauma and resilience can be passed on from one generation to the next and affect communities and individuals. The woman has stretchmarks on her sides, to show how the body resembles the reflections of water, but also to attempt to normalize what are seen as bodily imperfections. Tunniit (traditional Inuit tattoos) mark the woman’s thighs and arms, just like our foremothers and many Inuit who are currently reclaiming their traditional markings. The placement and amulets vary from where in Greenland you are from, just as the direction of the markings. The amulets may turn downward or upward, depending on whether you want to live your afterlife in the ocean or in the sky. The markings chosen in this piece are not historically or culturally correctly placed, the markings; tulugaq, qulleq, tuukkat and ivaluit are made to represent my mother, because when we share these patterns, our spirits will be able to recognize each other in the afterlife.

When you ask people about Greenland, with relation to the Arctic environment, the most common answers are on its beautiful landscape, icebergs, ocean and wildlife or the social issues. However, there is not enough knowledge on how colonial history has influenced contemporary Greenland and Inuit in Denmark, from a criminological perspective.

As a criminologist with an Inuk mother and a Danish father, my research interests encompass how colonization has informed violence against Inuit women in Denmark. As part of this process, painting has become therapeutic, giving me a way to create representations of Inuit women. As I draw and paint, my art is shaped by intergenerational trauma, feminism, resistance, decolonization, Inuit culture and history, always with a woman at the center of the piece.

Returning to like circles on the water, where the theme of the chosen painting is intergenerational trauma and resilience, I wanted to offer some broader contextualization to intergenerational trauma from a criminological perspective, as it relates to Greenland and in the hope that my artwork might offer avenues for thinking through these more pressing conversations.  

Intergenerational trauma is when unresolved historical trauma is passed on. Historical trauma is defined as: wide-spread, experienced by a certain cultural group, which creates suffering on a collective level, and is caused by outsiders of the community (Wesley-Esquimaux, 2004). The theory behind intergenerational trauma originates from studies of Holocaust survivors and more recently, the theory has been applied to Residential School survivors in Canada (Menzies, 2017).

Studies have identified that trauma can be transferred biologically, just as the mothers’ and daughters’ eggs are formed during the grandmother’s pregnancy. Trauma can also be connected to blood memory, these are memories we are born with, and can also be transferred culturally, as individuals might be affected by patterns within their family or from environmental habits. Just as in criminology, social learning theory describes how children can copy observed behavior (Bandura, 1976).

To connect intergenerational trauma to a Greenlandic environment, it is important to first understand how Denmark colonized Greenland, and the different tools of oppression targeted towards Inuit, to control and assimilate the population and which caused historical trauma.

The colonization of Greenland began in 1721, when the Danish-Norwegian priest Hans Egede founded a mission to Greenland. However, when Denmark became a member of United Nations in 1945, the pressure from the contemporary world to decolonize grew, and in 1953, Greenland transitioned from a colony to a Danish county (Mølholm Olesen, 2019). During this transition, the increase in the Inuit population meant a greater expense for the Danish government, as they would have to ensure the same living standards for Inuit in Greenland as the Danish population in Denmark. Therefore, one of the recent examples of historical trauma, is “the spiral campaign”. Beginning in 1966, the Danish government enforced contraceptive coils (IUD) on up to 4,500 Inuit girls, in some cases as young as 13 years of age, and many without consent, to control and curb the Inuit population (Krebs, 2022).

Another example is “the experiment children”. In, 1951, the Danish government conducted a social experiment and sent 22 Inuit children to Denmark to be assimilated and receive a Danish education with the purpose, to return to Greenland and become forerunners in the development of Greenland. The initial idea was to send Inuit orphans to Denmark; however, the Danish government were unable to find enough orphans, therefore 16 children were removed from their families (The Guardian, 2022). The experiment, however, was by all accounts unsuccessful, the children lost their language, cultural identity, and relations to their families.  

These are the most famous examples of the Danish colonization of Greenland, which continue to influence contemporary Greenland. Yet, other examples exist, such as “the legally fatherless”, where children born outside wedlock in Greenland between 1948-1972, were denied by the Danish state the ability to know the identity of their fathers, receive economic support, or inherit from their Danish fathers (Institut for menneskerettigheder, 2024). Furthermore, the policy of “forcefully removed Inuit children in Denmark” has seen Inuit children forcefully removed from their mothers by municipalities that apply a parental test (FKU). This test is incompatible with Inuit culture and as a result, Inuit children are removed at a rate 5-7 times higher than ethnic Danish children (Institut for menneskerettigheder, 2024).

With approximately 56,000 inhabitants, intergenerational trauma in Greenland influences both individuals and communities. Some of the most researched symptoms of trauma are its effect on DNA, brain chemistry, emotions, behavior and wellbeing, notably through depression, addiction, ptsd, survivors guilt, anger, low self-esteem and internalized depression (Brown-Rice, 2015). Greenland has one of the highest rape (Karsberg, 2012) and suicide rates measured by capita in the world (Katajavaara Seidler, Schurmann Tolstrup, Bjerregaard, & Crawford, 2023). Additionally, Inuit in Denmark are three times more likely to become a victim of a crime and are more likely to be exposed to sexual violence compared to ethnic Danes (Baviskar, 2015). Therefore, not only from a criminological perspective, but in general, it is important to understand the past, to prevent the high crime rates in Greenland and the high risk of crime for Inuit in Denmark, while also aiming to decrease (and ideally eliminate) the rising racism and inequality towards Inuit in Denmark.

Greenland is so much more than the negative headlines portrayed in the media, which are on the rise after Donald Trump was elected president and proclaimed in now uncertain terms his desire to acquire Greenland. Where like circles on the water comes in, is not only to showcase the incredible nature that Greenland has to offer, but equally that Inuit are a diverse and yet deeply connected people, with a rich culture and history which has been passed on through generations. The importance of art, and my art, is to confront and enter into conversation about the historical complexities colonization and trauma surrounding Greenland.