Horny History: The Spiralkampagnen
It’s real history, as told by some horny dude in my inbox and me
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This story contains sensitive content on the genocide of Inuit People through restricted reproduction. Reader discretion is advised.
“Give us today our daily seal.”
When Danish-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede arrived on the shores of Kalaallit Nunaat to enforce Christianity, he found an Inuit population that had no interest in him. In order to change their minds, he used threats, punishments and recommended turning them into slaves. Christianity.
The people there did not eat bread, and so became “Give us today our daily seal.”
Hans was merely the start of the genocidal colonization of Kalaallit Nunaat, otherwise known as Greenland. “For many people colonization and the violence and oppression that comes with it has been normalized,” says Aka Hansen, a feminist Kalaaleq woman educating others about decolonization.
The majority of Greenlandic Inuit refer to themselves as Kalaallit, Kalaaleq being the word for an individual person. Depending on my source quote, or who I’m referring to, in order to be the most culturally sensitive I’ll be referring to the people as Greenlandic Inuit or Kalaallit. In their language, the name for Greenland is Kalaallit Nunaat. I will mainly refer to it as such, besides in quotes or if I’m speaking on Denmark’s views and actions towards the land.
Kalaallit Nunaat was forced to be colonized by Egede and others in 1721. In the mid-1940s, a charter from the United Nations increased pressure upon Denmark to modernize the area if it was to keep it as a territory. As Denmark did not want to lose the area, or let the people there have control over their own land, they implicated many modernization programs they decided would be best for the Greenlandic Inuit people. Today Denmark controls much of the area although Kalaallit Nunaat does have self government. Whether or not people want to be entirely independent varies by person, but many state it will take time before they can afford to live without Denmark’s reigns. To recover.
The history of Kalaallit Nunaat was written by others, the Danish white, the polar explorers, and missionaries. Many Danes believe that Denmark had a relatively innocent colonial past. They didn’t. The Danish were involved in slave routes in Ghana, plantations in the Virgin Islands and caused destruction in the lives of the people of Kalaallit Nunaat.
(As a reminder I do not know these men. They are messaging a satirical Facebook profile of me as a conservative.)
As always, I would appreciate you heart reacting this post for me. More engagement means more people might see my work. ♥️
Contestant A
Laughing. The doctors are laughing at the birth control campaign. This guy is laughing about hurting women, as a joke. Laughter is power. So many men have a desire to hurt women and then laugh about it but it seems the degree to which they will hurt us is worse when it’s women of a culture they look down on.
The story continues.
Contestant B
It’s nice isn’t it, when men think of other men that need to learn history like that.
The story continues.
Contestant C
Guy C is about to derail into conspiracies. At the very end of this post, paid subscribers will be able to read his elaboration on how exactly it is “like what Democrats are trying today.”
Many of the victims of the spiral campaign are still alive, living with their trauma. Naja Lyberth set up a group for the victims to come together. “It is a gift that we have found each other, and we can heal together – on a soulful and mental level, even though many of us can never be healed physically. We are women who originally had very feminine survival energies, who were victims of male forces, male doctors and male government politicians, as if we were lambs to be victims of wolves.”
Talking about this story has led to so much realization among victims and their families. “When I heard about the forced sterilization campaign, I looked at what had happened in my own family. My sister and sisters-in-law are five years younger than me and have never had children. For the first time, I talked to them about it and they told me they had an IUD,” explained Mimi Karlsen, Greenland’s Minister of Health.
“It gives so much empowerment – to regain my own strength and resources to fight for myself and for other women. It is very healing for us to act without powerlessness, guilt, and shame, which were bound and frozen in our bodies for decades,” says Naja.
In October 2023, 67 women sent a compensation claim to the Danish government. An investigation on IUD placements between 1960 and 1991 came to an end on November 26th 2024. It was announced that only 15 women would be compensated. 143 victims have now sued the Danish state. Their case will go to trial in 2025. Denmark has recently also paid compensation to 6 surviving Greenlandic Inuits who were part of the group taken from their families in the 1950s.
Politician Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam is trying to teach Danish people their colonial history. “So when I try to make them aware. . . that there are actually inequalities, that the things that they’ve been taught their whole lives – that they’re ‘good’ colonizers trying to teach savage people how to live a good and healthy life – it’s difficult for them to understand or admit that it might not have all been good,” she said.
Although many Danish people are willing to learn, some do not want to give up their view of the past. Looking for information on this story, I ran into some Danes who insisted the spiral campaign was a conspiracy, despite the government of Denmark acknowledging it. Despite the masses of academic research on this topic. Despite the stories of the people.
Many Kalaallit women who speak up face criticism and accusations of a motivation of hatred for the Danish people. Aka Hansen, who works to educate others on Kalaallit Nunaat about what it means to decolonize shares her view of the Danes. “Of course I don’t hate the Danes. It’s similar to when feminists are asked if they hate men. That’s not what it’s about. It’s actually freeing us from a system that’s oppressing us. Of course I don’t hate Danes. I don’t. However I think it’s very hard when Danish people insist on having a racist worldview. I think that’s very problematic anywhere in the world.”
The discrimination and oppression isn’t over. Greenlandic Inuit children are currently 5-7 times more likely to be placed in foster care by Danish authorities compared to ethnic Danes. Mentor Immanuel, an association that helps with placement cases, is trying to fix that. The organization tries to help children be reunited with their families and helps families prevent their children from ever being taken from them. Njannguaq, a board member, explained, “We saw that the decision to remove the child from the parents was made by assumptions. Prejudice, classic Eskimo-orientalistic representation of the parents and not at least undocumented claims and fictive diagnosing. Undocumented claims and assumptions about alcoholism, domestic violence, incest and fictive psychological diagnosing of the parents made by the caseworkers who don’t have the authority to do so. Which all correlates to prejudice where the typical western view of Greenlanders are that they are subalterns. That they are people who need to be helped or are unable to do anything by themselves.”
A recent case against Keira Alexandra Kronvold, whose child Zammi was removed from her only hours after giving birth due to a Danish parenting competency test, has brought much attention to this issue. The officials writing that, “Keira draws on her Greenlandic background, where even small facial expressions carry communicative significance. However, as the child is to grow up in Denmark, it is assessed that Keira will have difficulty preparing the child for the social expectation and norms necessary to navigate Danish society.” In Inuit culture facial expressions carry much more meaning than in Denmark. A yes could be raise your eyebrows and a no to wrinkle your nose. Pernille Benjaminsen, a Greenlandic legal expert, explains how the tests are biased as they can be difficult for people who don’t speak Danish to understand, Greenlandic culture has different values, and Greenlandic people communicate in vastly different ways than Danes.
Researcher Karen Margrethe Dahl notes that differences in culture can cause misunderstandings between caseworkers and parents, such as parents who behave passively and withdrawn to caseworkers as a sign of respect. “Parents can feel misunderstood and criticized for something in their parenthood, that they perceive as normal in Greenland.” UN Special Rapporteur for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay highlights that, “biases against Inuit parents have resulted in their being wrongly assessed as having cognitive disabilities.”
Ongoing protests are taking place against the forced removal of Greenlandic children by the Danish authorities. Although Keira’s case has sparked more protests, the protests are about much more than that. They are about decades of unfair treatment. A group of women who help plan these protests explained that when Inuit children are taken, “they are often placed in Danish homes with minimum contact to their Inuit parents. This means they lose their culture, their language, and their identity. This is an attack on Inuit rights.”
Greenlandic Inuit have one of the highest suicide rates. Aka Hansen wants people to question why. “Now talking about suicide rates, it always bother me that we never talk about the why. I think we need to be better on reflecting and asking that question ‘why is it so high?’”
How can a people go through what they have without lasting trauma?
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Sources:
Grønlandske Børn Bliver Oftere Anbragt End Danske Børn Karen Margrethe Vendelbo Dahl, Thilde Baden Rasmussen
People of Greenland are Protesting the Forced Removal of Their Children Ole Ellekrog
Inuit Greenlanders in Denmark Minority Rights Group
Northern Development: Modernization with Equality in Greenland Nils Ørvik
Meeting the Greenlandic people – Mediated intersections of colonial power, race and sexuality Kristine Køhler Mortensen
‘If I don’t do it, who will?’: Greenlandic MP defends actions in Danish parliament The Guardian
The IUD Program in Kalaallit Nunaat as Colonial Genocide Naja Dyrendom Graugaard, Josephine Lee Stage, Victoria Pihl Sørensen
For sled dogs and women Anne Norkjær Ban, Charlotte Krolekke
Repositioning Power Relations in Indigenous Social Work Education Bonnie Jensen, Steven Arnfjord
Speaking up for women in Greenland spiral-case: “We were frozen in our bodies for decades” United Nations
The silenced genocide: Why the Danish intrauterine device (IUD) enforcement in Kalaallit Nunaat calls for an intersectional decolonial analysis Naja Dyrendom Graugaard, Amalie Høgfeldt Ambrosius
Greenland women seek compensation over involuntary birth control BBC
How journalism forgets: on the journalistic representation of colonial biopower in Greenland Bolette B. Blaagaard, Stine W. Adrian & Signe A. P. Nordsted
Red paint instead of celebrations UNRIC
Decolonization Video 3 Aka Hansen
Decolonization Video 11 Aka Hansen
Decolonization Video 9 Aka Hansen
Decolonization Video 25 Aka Hansen/ Njannguaa
Decolonization Video 29 Aka Hansen
‘Like knives penetrating me’: Greenland’s victims of forced contraception seek justice France24
Groenland : la stérilisation non consentie de milliers de femmes inuit Amnesty International
Rättsprocessen mot Danmark växer efter spiraltvånget
The Danish decolonisation of Greenland, 1945-54 Nordics.info
“In Women’s hands” Feminism, Eugenics and Race in Interwar Denmark Victoria E. Phil Sorensen
Degeneration, Protestantism, and Social Democracy: The Case of Alcoholism and “Illiberal” Policies and Practices in Denmark 1900–43 Anders Sevelsted
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