Something rockin’ in the state of Denmark

SARA MINOGUE

The world’s largest island is an important part of Denmark, but it doesn’t always get the attention it deserves. On the 25th anniversary of Greenland Home Rule last week, Greenlanders took the opportunity to show their national pride in celebrations and events that were broadcast live on Danish national television.

Morning flag-waving turned into afternoon picnicking, set to the backdrop of a traditional choir at an outdoor stage by the beach. In the evening, about 600 young Greenlanders went to a free concert in Nuuk, and when local rock band Chilly Friday took the stage, almost everyone knew the words to their latest popular hit.

Later that night, in the tidy common room of a co-operative apartment building in the suburb of Nuussuaq, band members, along with artists, musicians and happy locals joined in a sing-a-long of revolutionary Greenlandic songs lead by Malik Høegh, once the lead singer with Greenland’s biggest rock band of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Sume.

Local starlet Karina Moller leapt across the room to join in. The charismatic singer was a star in Greenland before teaming up with three Alaskan musicians to form Pamyua in the mid-90s, and was delighted to be back in her homeland for the celebrations on June 21.

Iqaluit throat-singer Sylvia Watt-Cloutier was also there after performing with Madeleine Allakariallak as Aqsarniik.

“Their language is so strong over there and they’re so expressive and so passionate and poetic…,” Watt-Cloutier says. “In Greenland you always end up singing no matter where you are.”

Once a colony of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland is moving quickly towards a comfortable state of autonomy within Denmark, but the Arctic island hasn’t lost its unique identity.

Greenlanders are pushing their ancient culture into the 21st century by producing music, art and books that meet international standards, while remaining distinctly Greenlandic, and audiences are lapping it up.

Chilly Friday has released two albums in Greenland so far. Both “Inuiaat 2000” and “Saamimmiit talerpianut,” sold over 3,000 copies each, in a population of just 55,000 people.

That was enough to earn both albums “Silverplate” in Greenland, but drummer Alex Andersen points out that the enormous demand for local music makes for higher standards than elsewhere.

A Greenlandic album is declared a gold record when it sells 5,000 copies, or in other words, reaches 10 per cent of the population. A platinum award in Denmark, however, is granted after 50,000 CDs are sold, or just one per cent of Denmark’s population.

The band expects its new album to do even better. This one, still untitled, will be a tribute to 25 years of home rule, released this fall.

Andersen describes the new album as “old classics that we’ve been taking up and restyling” and says it’s something like “a birthday present” for Greenland.

“Most of the songs are propaganda songs that were written in the 70s or 80s during the beginning of the home rule,” he says. “They talk about freedom, independence from government, and hanging on to our own values.”

The album will feature nine songs recorded over the last 25 years, including one by Sume, called “Inuit Nunaat,” which Andersen says is “an old song but a very well known song that talks about the problems we had back then with the qallunaat coming and interfering with the society.”

There’s also a new song by the group, tentatively titled “Here it is.” Andersen says, “this song represents the future. All the other songs represent the past 25 years.”

Greenland’s music industry, which prints about 50,000 copies of CDs per year, is just one example of a thriving local culture industry that can hold its own in spite of the cultural pollution from Denmark, that Andersen compares to the American influence in northern Canada.

Greenland also supports the Katuaq cultural centre in Nuuk, which regularly plays hosts to plays, symphonies and concerts.

There are three publishing houses. One recent book published by Atuakkiorfik, or the Greenland Publishing Company, is titled Tamatta akuusa: a mosaic about 25 years with the home rule government, and features essays and commentary from politicians, cultural leaders, scientists and artists.

“Before Hans Egede, Greenland was an independent society,” says Finn Lynge, a politician, author, and member of the Commission of Self-Governance in Greenland, in his essay titled “Home Rule — A Revolution.”

“That’s just past history now, and will never return again. Quite simply, there are no independent nations left in the world. All depend on each other.”