Reconciliation commission between Greenland and Denmark moves closer

A reconciliation commission between Greenland and Denmark appears closer after Monday’s meeting in Greenland, where Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic government leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen spoke about the need to address the past.

Frederiksen said the process should not be treated as something that can simply be completed and closed. Greenlandic-Danish history, she said, contains both positive elements and “really dark chapters.”

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I do not think we will ever put a full stop to the Greenlandic-Danish history. For me, it is not a question of something being dealt with and then concluded.

The Danish government has already launched a historical investigation. Frederiksen has also apologized in the spiral case and in the case involving the so-called experimental children, 22 Greenlandic children removed from their families in 1951 and sent to Denmark as part of a Danish social-psychological and cultural policy project.

“The first compensation payments are now being made,” Frederiksen said. The next step would be a formal reconciliation process, although its precise structure remains undecided. Denmark and Greenland will examine how other countries have carried out similar work.

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The first compensation payments are now being made.