A delegation of Inuit from Canada is in Greenland for the official opening of the new Canadian consulate in the capital, Nuuk, with a stern message for U.S. President Donald Trump: “Back off.”
Those were the words of Susie-Ann Kudluk, vice-president of the Qarjuit Youth Council representing Inuit between the ages of 15 to 35 in Nunavik — the Inuit region in northern Quebec.
“We want to come together in solidarity with Greenland to show our support and to say: That land is not for sale,” said Kudluk.
She was one of more than 60 delegates who travelled from Montreal to Nuuk on an Air Inuit charter organized by the Makivvik Corporation, the legal representative of Inuit in Nunavik, to stand with Greenland in the face of Trump’s threats.
“The kind of message that I hope it sends is that Inuit, as circumpolar people, we are and have always been in these lands,” said Elia Lauzon, a 26-year-old youth delegate from Kuujjuaq, Que.
“The fact that globalization has affected us through colonization, through assimilation efforts repeatedly and we still do everything to connect with each other on a level where we see each other’s humanity, we see each other as like people of the same culture — that isn’t something that you can just erase from us by putting borders on us.”
Inuit solidarity ‘about kinship’
The delegation was arranged to ensure there would be a strong Inuit presence in attendance at Friday’s flag raising ceremony for the Consulate General of Canada.
“We are one people,” said Pita Aatami, Makivvik president. “We can work together, but we don’t want to be controlled any more. We’ve been controlled for too long.”
Canada is one of the first countries to open a diplomatic mission in Greenland following Trump’s threats to have the U.S. take over the self-governing Arctic island, which is part of Denmark — a NATO member.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand will officially open the new diplomatic post alongside Mary Simon, Canada’s first Indigenous Governor General who is Inuk from Nunavik, Carolyn Bennett, Canada’s ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark and Virginia Mearns, Canada’s new Arctic ambassador.
The Canadian Coast Guard medium duty icebreaker ship named the CCGS Jean Goodwill will also be in Nuuk for the occasion.
“This is a positive thing that we’re trying to do and to show the world Inuit are united and Inuit are very strong and we are a force to be reckoned with,” said Adamie Delisle Alaku, executive vice-president in the department of environment, wildlife and research at Makivvik.
Greenland’s Minister of Business, Mineral Resources, Justice, Energy and Gender Equality Naaja Nathanielsen, who met with members of the Inuit delegation on Thursday in Nuuk, told CBC News that Greenlanders are feeling very worried, even scared to go to bed because they don’t know what kind of world they’re going to wake up to.
She called the opening of Canada’s consulate in Nuuk well-timed and appreciated.
“We feel deeply connected with the Inuit of Canada,” Nathanielsen said. “For us, this is more than just about collaboration on a more diplomatic level, it’s also about kinship.”
The medium-duty icebreaker will be present for the opening of a new Canadian consulate in Greenland, a move that Ottawa says is a commitment outlined in Canada’s Arctic Foreign Policy.
Consulate opening overdue
Plans to open a consulate in Greenland date back to December 2024 as part of a commitment made in Canada’s Arctic foreign policy, but the official opening is taking place after Trump began threatening to annex Greenland.
“It’s a good thing that we’re finally moving to the consulate, though it’s very concerning that it almost seems to take a crisis before we actually get around to doing it,” said Rob Huebert, director of the Centre for Military Security and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary.
Huebert says he hopes the official opening demonstrates that Canada is serious about its relationship with Greenland and its nearly 57,000 residents — not that it takes U.S pressure to act.
Mere hours after laying out his rationale for the U.S. owning Greenland in a speech before the World Economic Forum last month, Trump ended up backing down on military and tariff threats against the territory, announcing instead that he had reached a framework of a future deal with NATO involving mineral rights and Arctic defence.
But Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen has since warned that Trump still wants to control the island and urged people to not become complacent.
For Johannes Lampe, Trump’s threats rekindle painful family stories of being forcibly relocated from Nutak in northern Labrador by a dog team under the provincial government’s resettlement policy.
Lampe, who is now the president of Nunatsiavut, the autonomous Inuit region in Labrador, was just nine-months-old when the relocation happened in 1956.
His message to Greenlandic Inuit, known as Kalaallit: “We will certainly do what we can to ensure your freedom, your sovereignty and your self-determination and well-being.”
Strategically and symbolically significant
Greenland is strategically important to Canada because it’s on or very close to the flight path or transit for maritime assets of key defence threats, in particular from Russia, according to Dave Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.
“Having more presence there, developing a better relationship with the people that inhabit the island — all of that is important in a wider Canadian and North American defence context,” Perry said.
Natan Obed, who heads the representational organization for Canada’s 80,000 Inuit, said he hopes the move will lead to greater collaboration between Canada and other circumpolar countries, as well as a more inclusive approach with Inuit on defence spending, including dual-use infrastructure.
Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national body representing Inuit in Canada, also said the consulate opening symbolizes a show of support for Indigenous self-determination.
“I mostly am concerned about what this says for all of the allies globally that believe in diplomacy, that believe in Indigenous peoples’ human rights, and also believe in Indigenous peoples’ self-determination,” he said.
“We have been pushing for the consulate to open for a long time.”