During Greenland’s colonial period (1721–1953), a large number of ethnographic and archaeological culture heritage of Greenland was collected, in both legal and illegal manners, and left the country with Arctic explorers and missionaries. Since the early twentieth century there has been growing interest among the Greenlanders to bring this heritage back home.
In order to establish repatriation processes in Greenland, the Greenlandic Home Rule was established in 1979. One of its first political areas to focus on was cultural heritage management and museum responsibilities.
Three years later, the first Greenlandic Museum Act was enacted. This provided Greenland with complete authority over its cultural patrimony and was the legal foundation for repatriation of cultural artifacts, especially from Denmark.
The same year, the renowned multi-year repatriation project ˈUtimutˈ (ˈReturnˈ) was initiated. From 1982 until it was finalized in 2001, about 30 000 archaeological, ethnographic, and cultural artifacts from the National Museum of Denmark were returned to Greenland.
Since ˈUtimutˈ, smaller repatriation processes have been a continuing effort from Greenland National Museum & Archives. With the new Museum Acts of 2010 and 2019, these cultural heritage efforts were intensified and included natural heritage.
Today’s presentation by Dr Christian Koch Madsen outlines and reflects on the past and current Greenlandic repatriation policies, processes, and challenges – from the political to the mundane – as well as future trends and directions.
Dr Christian Koch Madsen is Deputy Director of Greenland National Museum & Archives. He is an Arctic and landscape archaeologist whose research focuses on settlement, land- and sea use patterns, and long-term human ecodynamics in Greenland’s later prehistory (Norse and Inuit).