Greenlanders embrace pre-Christian Inuit traditions as a way to proudly reclaim ancestral roots

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — Sitting on the pelt of a polar bear hunted by her family, Aviaja Rakel Sanimuinaq says she’s proud to be part of a movement of Greenlanders reclaiming their Inuit traditions and spirituality.

The shaman, who has Inuit facial tattoos, works with spiritual healing practices to help people connect with their ancestors and heal generational trauma. A sign outside her studio in the Greenland capital of Nuuk conveys her role: “Ancient knowledge in a modern world.”

In recent years, Greenlanders like her have been embracing pre-Christian Inuit traditions, including drum dancing and Inuit tattoos. For some, it's a way to proudly reclaim their ancestral roots. It's also a way to reject the legacy of European Christian missionaries who colonized Greenland in the 18th century and suppressed their traditions, labeling them as pagan.

“The sacredness of Christianity is still sacred in my eyes. But so is Buddhism, so is Hinduism, and so is my work,” Sanimuinaq said in her studio, surrounded by skulls of seals, raven feathers and medicinal herbs. They help the "angakkoq," or shaman, communicate with “silam aappaa” or the other world — the spiritual world.

“That’s where I stand – that the arising of our culture, and us as a people, is also to get the equality within our culture, to acknowledge that our culture is legit; that it has to have a space here.”

The Inuit have survived and thrived for generations in one of the most remote, vast and  rugged places on Earth, hunting for seals, whales and polar bears. Their traditional religion is animist.

Inuit believe that “every animal and bird, every stone and every piece of earth, the rain and the snow all have a spirit and a right to be respected,” authors Gill and Alistair Campbell write in their travel book, “Greenland.”

About 90% of the 57,000 Greenlanders identify as Inuit and the vast majority belong to the Lutheran Church. A Danish missionary brought that branch of Christianity to the world’s largest island more than 300 years ago.

Greenland is now a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, and Greenlanders increasingly favor getting full independence — a crucial issue in a recent parliamentary election.

Some say Greenland’s independence movement received a boost after U.S. President Donald  Trump pushed their Arctic homeland into the spotlight  by threatening to take it over.

“We don’t have to walk silenced anymore,” Sanimuinaq said. “That’s the change we see — that the voice we get out in the world has been forbidden even within our country. Now that we’re opening, we have more freedom.”

The spiritual and social value of Tunniit — the traditional Inuit tattoos

The suppression of Inuit drums and facial tattoos were part of a broader effort to Christianize and assimilate Inuit into the European way of life, said Asta Mønsted, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She researches Inuit oral history and its connections to Greenland’s archaeology.

“Drum songs and drum duels were central to Inuit spiritual and social life, but the missionaries viewed them as pagan practices and superstitions that needed to be replaced with Christian hymns and prayers,” she said. “Drums were confiscated or destroyed in order to break the connection to the pre-Christian beliefs.”

In some parts of Greenland, though, the drum songs and knowledge of drum-making were preserved without the church’s knowledge.

“Tattoos were also linked to Inuit cosmology and rites, but missionaries labeled them as pagan and especially viewed the facial tattoos as a defilement of God’s creation,” said Mønsted. “They promoted the European ideal, where the human body should remain unmarked.”

"Tunniit," the traditional Inuit tattoos, were etched by poking sod from soapstone lamps onto the skin with a needle or by dragging a sod-covered sinew thread underneath the skin.

Women generally got tattoos as they experienced menstruation and childbirth, viewing them as protection against illness and malevolent spirits, Mønsted said.

But resistance to Inuit tattoos deterred many Greenlanders across generations from getting them; some who had tattoos hid them, fearing repercussions.

Growing up, Therecie Sanimuinaq Pedersen recalled how her grandmother covered her facial tattoos in soot because she didn’t want to be alienated from her community.

Therecie only got the tattoos that now cover her face — the way she remembered her grandmother’s — after her daughter, Aviaja, got them in recent years.

“The tattoos I have goes from mother to daughter for thousands of years,” Therecie said in Greenlandic, translated by her daughter. “I have the same as my grandmother — that’s my heritage."

These days, when she’s out on Nuuk's streets and encounters others displaying Inuit tattoos, she feels encouraged, especially when she sees them on young Greenlanders.

“When I see them, it’s like we have a connection,” she said. “Without knowing them, and them knowing me, we say hi. Some come, give a hug, and say thank you.”

Inuit drum for conflict resolution and restoring pride in ancestral tradition

For the Inuit, the "qilaat" played a crucial role in conflict resolution through drum duels.

The drum, Mønsted said, had three main functions: for entertainment and socializing, as a tool for the shaman during their seances, and as part of a pre-colonial juridical system.

“In the drum duels, opponents used songs, insults, and exaggerated body movements to argue their case before the community, which would stand in a circle ar ound them,” Mønsted said.

She said the crowd’s collective laughter often determined the winner without the need for a formal ruling.

While some duels helped ease tensions, others ended in public humiliation, sometimes forcing the losing party to leave the community and become a "qivittoq” — a person living in nature outside of society. This exile could be tantamount to a death sentence in the frigid Arctic environment.

Greenland was a colony under Denmark’s crown until 1953, when it became a province in the Scandinavian country. In 1979, the island was granted home rule, and 30 years ago became a self-governing entity. But Denmark retains control over foreign and defense affairs.

The former colonial ruler is accused of committing abuses against Greenland’s Inuit, including removing children from their families in the 1950s with the excuse of integrating them into Danish society and  fitting women with intrauterine contraceptive devices in the 1960s and 1970s — allegedly to limit population growth.

Some Greenlanders believe the recent global attention on their mineral-rich country and a unified call for independence from Denmark has allowed them to speak more openly about abuses committed by their former colonial ruler. Some have grown closer to their rich pre-Christian Indigenous culture.

“Our culture is very spiritual ... I want to bring that back,” said Naja Parnuuna, an award-winning singer-songwriter.

“I want to be in that wave with my fellow young people… I feel like we’ve been looked down for so long, and we really haven’t had a voice for a long time.”

Growing up, she said she felt that it was “cooler to be a Dane, or to speak Danish, and was ashamed to be Greenlandic and follow Inuit traditions. “Maybe not embarrassing,” she said, “but it was taboo or weird to do the drums or be Inuk.”

Her father, Markus Olsen, is a former Lutheran pastor who was dismissed from his church position in 2022 after he allowed drum dancing during a National Day service at the Nuuk Cathedral. He knew that was risky but did it because he believes the quilaat, the Inuit traditional drum, needs to be reinstated into its valued position in religious services and other aspects of Greenlandic life.

Olsen, who wears a collar with a small qilaat and a crucifix, takes inspiration from the Latin American Liberation Theology movement, which holds that the teachings of Jesus require followers to fight for economic and social justice. He also takes inspiration from the Rastafari legend Bob Marley, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights activist Malcolm X.

Parnuuna feels inspired by her father. She began to embrace her roots through her music, which encourages Greenlanders to value their Inuit culture and history.

“The more I practiced my art, singing and writing songs, I began to realize how important it is to accept … my roots, to have more self-respect, to have higher self-esteem and in that way have a healthier way of living and a more positive view of the world,” she said.

“It’s important to bring that back, so that we can love ourselves again.”

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