Inuit Internet Personality Spreading Message About Indigenous People in Greenland

GREENLAND - An Inuk content creator from Greenland is dispelling myths about the Arctic and the world’s largest island by showcasing what it’s truly like to live there.

According to Qupanuk Olsen, host of the educational social media program Q’s Greenland, “There’s even people who don’t know that there are people living in Greenland,.”

Olsen claims she experiences the same problem whenever she travels to a new location despite being born and bred in a nation of only about 57,000 people, in reporting from APTN.

“[I’ve] been travelling to many countries around the world. I’ve studied in the U.S., I’ve studied in Australia, I’ve done mountaineering in South America and Africa… Every time I go to new places I just realize that people have no idea about anything about Greenland.”

She made the decision to take matters into her own hands and use video-sharing websites like Tiktok and YouTube to spread the word about Greenland and her Inuit culture, and in the process has gathered over 500,000 followers across platforms.

Her movies include things like the Greenlandic language, Arctic food, landscapes, and what it’s like to be an indigenous person in a place that the Kingdom of Denmark colonized.

“We want our voice to be heard as well, “ says Olsen in reporting by APTN, “When you’ve been in a colony, it’s like you feel under pressure and we’ve been industrialized so fast that it’s like our culture [hasn’t] been able to keep up.

“I think that it’s important to show our culture, to tell our own story, and change the law regarding to our own needs instead of the European or Danish law requirements because the cultures are so different from each other.”

Olsen is outspoken in her films about wanting Greenland to be fully independent from Denmark, which continues to have responsibility over the territory’s defense and external relations.

In one of her content offerings she said, “We are not European, or we definitely don’t feel European, so maybe it’s time for our independence.”

The Danish implemented a cultural assimilation plan on Greenlanders, the term for the Indigenous people of Greenland who presently make up over 89 percent of the country’s population. This was similar to the United States and Canada’s genocidal practices. Children who would undoubtedly lose connections to their culture were sent to boarding schools as part of this assimilation.

“It’s important for every nation to live after your own cultures so that’s just what we’re trying to do, to be heard, to be understood the right way and to be respected as we deserve it,” says Olsen.

The Inuit ancestors of Greenlanders traveled to the island through northern Canada and Alaska and share many similarities with present-day Inuit in North America, despite being politically deemed European.

“We have the same way of hunting, the same way of understanding the nature, being one with the nature – we have so much in common and our languages are almost the same because it comes from the same root,” says Olsen.

Canadian Inuit have flocked to the Tiktok star’s films to celebrate the interactions between two cultures.

“It’s always such a great pleasure to meet someone from the northern part of Canada or Alaska and just recognize yourself in them,” says Olsen, “I really feel a connection and they also really feel a connection when I show my videos, especially when I say something in Greenlandic, they’re often commenting ‘We say it like this.’”

In her current hometown of Nuuk, the capital of Greenland with a population of just under 20,000, her films have received millions of likes and views, earning her quite the renown.

“I’ve become really, really famous in Greenland. That is a bit annoying at the moment. I can’t go out my door without being recognized so I’m actually thinking to buy some caps today so I can just hide a little bit more. I’m getting so much attention at the moment that it’s getting a bit difficult,” says Olsen.

But Olsen, 38, says she makes an effort to avoid letting her newfound fame alter who she is. The mother of four children still works as a mining engineer during the day.

“I’m trying to be the same person anywhere I go. If I go to conferences, if I’m home with my kids, if I’m on social media,” says Olsen, “It’s really important to be yourself anywhere you go instead of putting different masks on all the time.”

Greenland will always be precious to Olsen, no matter where her popularity or videos lead her next.

“I’ve travelled to so many places around the world and realized how lucky I actually am because our nature is so beautiful. We can go out hunting, we can feel like the original feeling we all are supposed to have as human beings out in the wild,” says Olsen.

“I just feel so lucky that I live in this so beautiful country that is stunning everywhere we go. I’m just so proud of it.”