If a passion for identity is driving independence, colder financial calculations also play a part: there is money beneath the ice, and why should the Greenlanders share it with Denmark? But the treasure hasn’t been found yet, and in the meantime the country is very much dependent on Denmark. Before Westerners arrived, the Inuit were self-sufficient, but now self-sufficiency for such a tiny population seems impossible. Greenland is not rich, and shrimping — vulnerable to climate change — remains its biggest industry and export (although several companies are looking at the unlimited potential of marketing melted ice water). Most food is imported from Denmark; 97 percent of its trade is with the EU.
In September Hammond resigned from the government in protest over the size of Greenland’s budget deficit. She now makes light of the funding gap if the country lost its Danish subsidy. “Taking the future in your own hands has a fantastic psychological impact,” she says. “It will free us from our dependency on Denmark. An independent Greenland is much closer than we think.”
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