"When US President Donald Trump referred to Greenland as "a piece of ice" during his recent speech at the World Eonomic Forum in Davos, the remark jarred: Greenland has been inhabited for close to five millennia and is home to over 56,000 people, mostly of Inuit descent. It also echoed a longstanding pattern by colonial powers to apply their own ideas of land ownership to places that were already inhabited, often overlooking established local systems."
"It's a pattern that reveals a deeper divide two very different ways of understanding the significance and use of land. Greenland's Inuit hold land to be shared collectively, rather than privately owned, an idea that fundamentally conflicts with Trump's desire to buy or otherwise acquire the country. Historically, in many Indigenous societies, people saw themselves as stewards of the land, managing it through seasonal hunting and harvesting, safeguarding water sources, and maintaining ancestral sites."
"Landscapes that didn't match European ideas of land use were labeled "unused," "wild" or "uninhabited" and thus, available. Since 1970, the United American Indians of New England have observed National Day of Mourning that coincides with Thanksgiving DayImage: Sue Dorfman/ZUMAPRESS.com/picture alliance A 2023 study in the journal of Australian Historical Studies shows that in the 18th century, British officials used "uninhabited" to mean a land without a sovereign or "civilized" government, not a land without people."
Greenland has been inhabited for close to five millennia and is home to over 56,000 people, mostly of Inuit descent. Colonial powers often applied their own land-ownership concepts to inhabited places, overlooking established local systems. Indigenous societies commonly view land as collectively shared and stewarded, managed through seasonal hunting, harvesting, safeguarding water sources, and maintaining ancestral sites. European empires treated land as property that could be claimed, bought, or transferred between states. Landscapes that did not match European land-use ideas were labeled "unused," "wild" or "uninhabited" and deemed available. Eighteenth-century definitions of "uninhabited" focused on lack of sovereign or "civilized" government rather than absence of people.
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