Enduring polar explorers’ Arctic imaginaries and the promotion of neoliberalism and colonialism in modern Greenland

ABSTRACT

Ideas promulgated by nineteenth century and twentieth century Arctic explorers have critical resonance today, serving to prop up neoliberal agendas in the Arctic, including Greenland. The identification of themes in the accounts of Arctic explorers allows for a fuller understanding of their Arctic imaginaries; coupling this exercise with an examination of contemporary discourse on natural resource exploitation in the Arctic makes clear the persistence of these imaginaries. This paper uses texts by Greenland explorers Isaac Ira Hayes, Robert Peary, Josephine Diebitsch Peary, Knud Rasmussen and Robert Bartlett followed by reports produced by EU Polar Net and the Brookings Institution to demonstrate the maintenance and promotion of Arctic imaginaries. Among the most prominent themes are the Arctic Greenland as an empty space, which invites and reinforces the legitimacy of neoliberal colonial activities like natural resource exploitation, and the primitiveness, near invisibility and inconsequentiality of Indigenous peoples, including Greenlandic Inuit. Enduring Arctic imaginaries lie at the root of challenges facing Greenland, as an Arctic country, in its ongoing struggle for increased self-determination.

KEYWORDS:

• Greenland
• Arctic exploration
• Inuit history
• colonialism
• natural resource exploitation

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank my colleagues at the Arctic Workshop on Work and Employment in the Arctic held in 2015 at the University of Tartu, Estonia, especially Aimar Ventsel, University of Tartu, and Pilvi Vainonen, Museum of Cultures, Helsinki; Myron King of the Environmental Policy Institute, Grenfell Campus, Memorial University, Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada; all those who facilitated my time in Greenland, especially Mette Sonnicks and Per Thomsen, University of Greenland and the University of the Arctic north2north Program; and author’s colleagues in the Department of Native American Studies, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, including graduate student Lisa Hildebrand for her assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially funded by the University of the Arctic north2north program.