July 3, 2021, marks the 300th anniversary of Hans Egede’s arrival to Nuup Kangerlua, Greenland, with the mission of reestablishing contact with the Norse settlers, who occupied this region in the southwest of the country from 986 until c. 1400. Egede’s mission was to convert the settlers from Catholicism to Protestantism. He found no trace of the Norse and instead found the Inuit. With permission from the Danish Crown, Egede shifted his mission toward converting the Inuit to the Christian faith and began the colonization of Greenland.
With diptychs made from archival images by John Møller, the first Greenlander to work as a photographer, who was active in Greenland from the early 1890s through the mid 1920s, and images made by me, I’m having photographic conversations with the past. The theme of these conversations is centered around colonialism and its long-term effects.
– Minik Bidstrup
Taqilluni naami atunngiveqaaq
Kalaallit siumut makigitsi.
Inuttut inuuneq pigiuminaqaaq
Saperasi isumaqaleritsi.
Humbleness is not the course,Kalaallit
wake up and be proud!
A dignified life is our goal;
courageously take a stand.
From the National Anthem of Greenland (Kalaallisut with English translation)
All Images © Minik Bidstrup, 400 Years Project/John Møller, Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu, All Rights Reserved
Aarlorfigissavat - Rapture
Atugartuussuseq - Civilization
Arcadia
Metropolis
Piffiit Nutaat
Kaperlaap Nalerpiaani
Lux Libertas - Light and Liberty
Luce Veritatis - By the Light of Truth
Assimilation
Subjugation
Culture
Astray
Nurture
Rejoice
Prosperity
Naalagaaffik
Courageously Take a Stand