Arctic Yearbook 2015 | Page 107

107 Arctic Yearbook 2015 as a matter of upholding the national identity, and how the communication ascribes different subject positions to the Greenlandic people. The empirical data for the three synchronic analyses have been structured according to Naalakkersuisut’s annual foreign policy reports, which highlight a list of relevant forums and cases: 1) Regarding the status of the Greenlandic language, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous People (EMRIP) and the Nordic Council constitute the list of relevant forums. 2) Concerning the protection of hunting traditions, the European Union’s (EU) ban on seal product import and the dispute with the International Whaling Commission (IWC) stand out as exemplary cases. 3) Pertaining to the analysis of how the particular relation to nature has been articulated on the international level, the communication under the auspices of UN – the COP meetings in particular – are the empirical foundation for the last analysis. As these three synchronic analyses will show, the foreign policy communication oscillates between portraying Greenlanders as either a minority or an equal partner, which indicates a tension between modernisation and tradition within the dominating collective identity narrative. In the communication regarding the protection and development of nature this tension becomes paradoxical as the anticipated increased industrialisation - necessary if the dream of independence shall be realised – indirectly threatens the hunting traditions. Status of the Greenlandic