What's so special about Greenland? I went there to find out
It's June 21, not only the longest day of the year but also Greenland's national day. So after touching down at the newly minted international airport in the capital, Nuuk – an eye-catching arrangement of crayon-coloured buildings anchored to bedrock beside the Labrador Sea – I head straight out to join the celebrations. There's nothing like crisp Arctic air and brilliant sunshine to banish jet lag.
I've arrived too late for the annual seal hunt and kayaking show but I'm just in time for the carnival at Nuuk Stadium. On a tiny stage beside the astroturf oval, performers alternate between Greenlandic and pop songs as children pile onto inflatable playhouses or swing from straps tied high up a light tower. Like a maypole but way more perilous.
National Day celebrations at Nuuk Stadium. Picture: Kendall Hill
In the city centre there's a band jamming on the balcony at Daddy's bar above a busy square where pop-up stalls sell hot dogs, fairy-floss and craft beer to revellers.
That evening I head out with US colleagues – just arrived on the new direct flight from Newark, New Jersey – to Foodlovers Streetfood, Nuuk's sole food truck, which serves local lamb, scallops and fish (and whale) with chips. Then we swing by a local hall to see veteran rockers Inua play to a crowd so packed we can't even squeeze in. Around 10pm there are fireworks but it's broad daylight so they appear as smoky explosions in a bright blue sky.
The national day celebrations are modest – Nuuk's population only hit 20,000 in January, around a third of the island total – but they feel uniquely Greenlandic. And I assume that this year they'd be more significant given Trump's renewed threats to simply annex the world's largest island. But Greenlandic sovereignty is far more complex than that.
Ice floes float past the colourful buildings and homes in Nuuk.
'We have just been a plaything or toy for the last 300 years,' explains Qupanuk Olsen, arguably Greenland's most famous person thanks to her viral social media channels. 'We are used to just being seen as an object that you can just decide over, as if we have nothing to say for ourselves.'
Olsen launched Q's Greenland, her viral education and travel series, five years ago after travelling to more than 30 countries and realising 'people know nothing about Greenland'.
When Trump declared last December that he needed 'full control' over Greenland for national security, Olsen says Greenlandic people thought it was a joke. He'd made similar threats in 2019 that came to nothing. 'He's so not serious,' she says.
But then Trump Jr visited Greenland in January, followed by vice president Vance. 'That's when we started to realise his words are not just words, they're becoming a reality.'
For Greenlanders, national day was complicated long before Trump stumbled onto the scene. Colonised by Denmark in the 18th century, they've officially been Danish citizens since 1953 – though Greenland's parliament is largely autonomous today. While polls earlier this year showed 84 per cent of islanders want independence from Denmark, very few are interested in becoming US citizens.
Olsen, elected to the 31-member parliament in March as a member of the pro-independence Naleraq party, used to be 'a huge royalist' – she even served in the Danish navy – and an enthusiastic participant in national day celebrations. But no more.
'How can you call it your national day when we're still under Denmark?' she says. 'There's not even any difference between Danish people and Greenlandic people. I cannot call myself an Inuk, an Inuit, on paper.'
Greenland still relies on Denmark to fund around 20 per cent of its annual budget, but the island's current tourism boom, coupled with its lucrative fishing industry and deposits of rare-earth minerals, are fuelling hopes for its eventual independence. The timing is the tricky part.
Olsen, the territory's only mining engineer (she earned her masters in Kalgoorlie, of all places), estimates it could be 20 years before Greenland's resources potential begins to be realised. 'Greenland is like a huge mine deposit just waiting for the right price. So right now it's not our way out.'
It will be a delicate balancing act between exploiting the island's mineral resources – mostly buried beneath an ice cap almost 3000km long – and the deep-seated Inuit respect for nature.
'What we value in life is going hunting and fishing, being one with the nature,' Olsen says. 'We'd rather be out in the wild and be one with the nature than anything else.'
When I ask about her hopes for the future of her homeland, her answer is simple but also complicated. 'I really want my children to grow up in an independent country where they know that that their voice is just as worthy as any human being on Earth.'
The writer travelled to Greenland as a guest of HX Expeditions.
Originally published as What's so special about Greenland? I arrived at the perfect time to find out
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The Advertiser
14 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Horizons narrow for ill-at-ease US travellers
This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to It was hard not to feel for the American couple seated behind us in the long-tail boat off the Thai coast. A chatty Englishman was doing his best to strike up a conversation and it was immediately apparent they wanted none of it, especially when he asked where they were from. We could sense their self-consciousness as they muttered their answer. The Englishman said he'd love to go there but it would be avoiding the US for another four years "because of what's been happening". The quiet Americans fell silent. They might have been naturally reticent about answering questions from a complete stranger. Or embarrassed by the never-ending drama of the White House reality TV show. Or Trump supporters, tired of defending their president. We'll never know. 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An Ipsos Consumer Tracker survey published in May found that 27 per cent of Americans report they have international travel plans in the works for summer 2025 compared to 34 per cent last year. And if Americans are dialling back their international travel plans, the rest of the world is giving the US a wide berth as well. Canada leads the pack when it comes to avoiding its querulous southern neighbour. It normally accounts for the largest number of visitors to the US during the northern summer. Last year, 20 million Canadians visited. This year, the number of border crossings by car is down by a third and visits by air are also tanking. Britons and Germans are also turning their backs on the US as a destination. Australians are also thinking twice about US trips. Last year, the US was our fifth most popular destination; this year it's slipped to seventh position. The unfavourable exchange rate no doubt weighs heavily but stories about heavy-handed treatment at the border haven't helped either. The self-imposed isolation the US is undergoing is regrettable, undermining the long-held notion that travel broadens the mind. I wonder where those two Americans in the long-tail boat are now. And whether their minds were broadened by their experiences in a foreign land, where smiling is good manners and respect ingrained. Hopefully, they shared those values when they got home. HAVE YOUR SAY: Would you be embarrassed if you were an American travelling overseas in 2025? Do you know any Americans who feel shame at the direction their country is taking? And if you're one of Echidna's handful of American readers, have you changed your international travel plans? Email us: echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - Nationals leader David Littleproud has revealed he is "definitely" willing to flip the party's support for a 2050 net-zero emissions target as he accuses the renewable rollout of "tearing families apart" across regional communities. - The Albanese government is seeking to expand the powers of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to kick MPs out of the chamber if they misbehave and reduce the number of questions Coalition members get during question time. - A group of right-wing senators who turned their backs during an Acknowledgement of Country inside the Federal Parliament have been sharply criticised. THEY SAID IT: "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." - Saint Augustine YOU SAID IT: There are compelling arguments to lower the voting age to 16. But there are also compelling reasons not to. Mark supports the idea: "The young adults of today do inherit the outcomes of government policy; they do work and pay taxes, they tend to care more about the environment on balance than older people, they tend to care more about love and issues like the treatment of refugees. If they get it right then it has the potential to make change in the political landscape." Not Murray, who suggests: "If they honestly want to improve politics they should raise the voting age to 30." Patricia writes: "A massive yes to civics education, although I prefer the term involvement. Having campaigned for community independents, I have seen the enthusiasm of people who realise they can become part of the political process. Even one-off community action, writing to or meeting with local representatives is a learning and empowering experience. People shouldn't feel that they can tick a box, walk away then complain about issues and do nothing." "When the question of voting at 16 was raised with my kids, the 18- and 10-year-old opposed it vehemently because 'they don't know enough' and the 16-year-old thought she would like to be able to vote, but 'not everyone else because they're idiots'," writes Wendy. This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to It was hard not to feel for the American couple seated behind us in the long-tail boat off the Thai coast. A chatty Englishman was doing his best to strike up a conversation and it was immediately apparent they wanted none of it, especially when he asked where they were from. We could sense their self-consciousness as they muttered their answer. The Englishman said he'd love to go there but it would be avoiding the US for another four years "because of what's been happening". The quiet Americans fell silent. They might have been naturally reticent about answering questions from a complete stranger. Or embarrassed by the never-ending drama of the White House reality TV show. Or Trump supporters, tired of defending their president. We'll never know. But during their moment of awkwardness it occurred to me that being an American abroad these days would be challenging when so much of the world is appalled by the behaviour of Donald Trump and the sycophants gathered around him - and people you meet are not afraid to tell you so. That could partly explain the 7 per cent decline in Americans planning to travel to Europe this northern summer, as reported by the European Travel Commission. While the ETC said concern about the cost of travel during a period of economic uncertainty was a factor, "worries about being negatively perceived overseas under Trump's confrontational foreign policy" also played a role. The ETC found Americans from Democrat-leaning states were more comfortable about travelling to Europe than those from Republican parts of the country. And it's not just Europe. An Ipsos Consumer Tracker survey published in May found that 27 per cent of Americans report they have international travel plans in the works for summer 2025 compared to 34 per cent last year. And if Americans are dialling back their international travel plans, the rest of the world is giving the US a wide berth as well. Canada leads the pack when it comes to avoiding its querulous southern neighbour. It normally accounts for the largest number of visitors to the US during the northern summer. Last year, 20 million Canadians visited. This year, the number of border crossings by car is down by a third and visits by air are also tanking. Britons and Germans are also turning their backs on the US as a destination. Australians are also thinking twice about US trips. Last year, the US was our fifth most popular destination; this year it's slipped to seventh position. The unfavourable exchange rate no doubt weighs heavily but stories about heavy-handed treatment at the border haven't helped either. The self-imposed isolation the US is undergoing is regrettable, undermining the long-held notion that travel broadens the mind. I wonder where those two Americans in the long-tail boat are now. And whether their minds were broadened by their experiences in a foreign land, where smiling is good manners and respect ingrained. Hopefully, they shared those values when they got home. HAVE YOUR SAY: Would you be embarrassed if you were an American travelling overseas in 2025? Do you know any Americans who feel shame at the direction their country is taking? And if you're one of Echidna's handful of American readers, have you changed your international travel plans? Email us: echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - Nationals leader David Littleproud has revealed he is "definitely" willing to flip the party's support for a 2050 net-zero emissions target as he accuses the renewable rollout of "tearing families apart" across regional communities. - The Albanese government is seeking to expand the powers of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to kick MPs out of the chamber if they misbehave and reduce the number of questions Coalition members get during question time. - A group of right-wing senators who turned their backs during an Acknowledgement of Country inside the Federal Parliament have been sharply criticised. THEY SAID IT: "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." - Saint Augustine YOU SAID IT: There are compelling arguments to lower the voting age to 16. But there are also compelling reasons not to. Mark supports the idea: "The young adults of today do inherit the outcomes of government policy; they do work and pay taxes, they tend to care more about the environment on balance than older people, they tend to care more about love and issues like the treatment of refugees. If they get it right then it has the potential to make change in the political landscape." Not Murray, who suggests: "If they honestly want to improve politics they should raise the voting age to 30." Patricia writes: "A massive yes to civics education, although I prefer the term involvement. Having campaigned for community independents, I have seen the enthusiasm of people who realise they can become part of the political process. Even one-off community action, writing to or meeting with local representatives is a learning and empowering experience. People shouldn't feel that they can tick a box, walk away then complain about issues and do nothing." "When the question of voting at 16 was raised with my kids, the 18- and 10-year-old opposed it vehemently because 'they don't know enough' and the 16-year-old thought she would like to be able to vote, but 'not everyone else because they're idiots'," writes Wendy.
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Planning a trip to the US? Don't mention the Donald
There are those who misguidedly believe that not only should sport and politics never mix, travel and politics shouldn't ever coexist either. Fat chance. As the world has witnessed with international sport over the decades, the notion that it and world events can be separated has proved historically risible, and now we witness overseas travel becoming markedly more politicised. Nowhere is it more starkly illustrated than what appears to be the weaponisation of tourism for political purposes by the Trump administration and its facilitators, who appear to be Googling overtime in search of any criticism of the president and his policies. This article, and others I've written critical of US treatment of tourists under the Trump administration in my role as travel editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, will likely render any visit by me to the United States a risky proposition. I'm not complaining. For me, it's no loss. It's still a wide, wonderful and mostly welcoming world out there, and word has it that our far more rational Canadian friends could do with a little Antipodean love in the form of a holiday there. Loading So forget about yours truly, and consider the recent case of a reader of the Traveller title of the above publications. Only a few hours before the departure of his flight earlier this month to visit his daughter in the US, Australian Bruce Hyland received notice from American immigration authorities that he would not be permitted to enter the country. This news came after having been approved to visit. 'No reason for a cancellation was provided [for the decision to refuse entry],' Hyland writes in his Traveller letter, 'so one is in the Kafkaesque situation of having breached some official procedure, while having no way to appeal the decision or determine what that procedure could be.'
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Trump's becoming the Basil Fawlty of American tourism
There are those who misguidedly believe that not only should sport and politics never mix, travel and politics shouldn't ever coexist either. Fat chance. As the world's witnessed with international sport over the decades, the notion that it and world events can be separated has proved historically risible, and now we witness overseas travel becoming markedly more politicised. Nowhere is it more starkly illustrated than what appears to be the weaponisation of tourism for political purposes by the US Trump administration and its facilitators, who appear to be Googling overtime in search of any criticism of the president and his policies. This article, and others I've written critical of US treatment of tourists under the Trump administration in my role as travel editor of the Herald and the Age, will likely render any visit by me to the States a risky proposition. I'm not complaining. For me it's no loss, as it's still a wide, wonderful and mostly welcoming world out there, and word has it that our far more rational Canadian friends could do with a little antipodean love in the form of a holiday there. Loading So forget about yours truly and consider the recent case of a reader of the Traveller title of the above publications. Only a few hours before the departure of his flight earlier this month to visit his daughter in the States, Australian Bruce Hyland received notice from US immigration authorities that he would not be permitted to enter the country. This news came after earlier having been approved to visit. 'No reason for a cancellation was provided [for the decision to refuse entry],' Hyland writes in his Traveller letter, 'so one is in the Kafkaesque situation of having breached some official procedure, while having no way to appeal the decision or determine what that procedure could be.'
