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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