FEATURE | Greenland’s Inuit say Arctic land is shared, not owned

Ulrik Blidorf, a lawyer in Nuuk and owner of the firm Inuit Law, said Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, did not have private freehold ownership of land.

“In Greenland, you can’t own the land,” Blidorf said. “It’s been like that ever since our ancestors came here. Today you get a right to use the area where you have your house.”

Nearly 90 per cent of Greenland's 57,000 population are indigenous Inuit, who have inhabited the island continuously for around 1,000 years.

Rakel Kristiansen, from a family of shamanic practitioners, said Inuit people saw themselves as temporary guardians of the land.

"In our understanding, owning land is the wrong question,” she said. “The question should be who is responsible for the land. The land existed before us, and it will exist after us.”