A university professor in Saskatchewan who was born and raised in Greenland says she has faith in the resilience of Greenlanders following threats of a takeover by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year.
“You think that we are small, but we are big-hearted, big-spirited individuals,” said Karla Jessen Williamson, a professor of educational foundations at the University of Saskatchewan.
“Our Inuit ancestors have been strong enough to be able to make a living in the Arctic, which is one of the most hostile environments in the world, really, and we take a huge pride in that,” Jessen Williamson told Global News.
The 72-year-old professor grew up as one of nine children, living in Greenland for much of her youth before moving to Saskatoon in 1978 to pursue an undergraduate degree.
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With Trump’s persistent Greenland annexation threats a couple of months ago, it cut deep for Jessen Williamson, who said she took them seriously immediately.
“Family-wise, it was a shock to the system altogether,” she said.
“And that shock became really anxiety about everything.”
She went on to obtain that degree and a master’s in education at the University of Saskatchewan before attending the University of Aberdeen in Scotland for her PhD. She later returned to Saskatoon, becoming the first Inuk to be tenured at a Canadian university.
Jessen Williamson says she maintains her identity and uses it to fuel her lessons in the classroom.
“We belong to the lands, and where you are born onto the lands, it’s very important to keep that going because without that identity, who are you really?”
Before each class, Jessen Williamson makes sure she can explain her lessons in her native Greenlandic language, known as Kalaallisut, before teaching.
She explains that she does this so that her ancestors can understand her lessons, too.
For Jessen Williamson, language is one thing she never wants to give up, likening it to Greenland’s fight for sovereignty.
While threats from Trump have since cooled, something Jessen Williamson owes to global leaders putting pressure on the situation, she says she doesn’t think they’ll ever go away.
“Knowing his personality, I think he will be holding some kind of card that’s going to jump up anytime that he feels like irritating or being on top of things, that’s my thinking.”
Greenland has a population of 57,000, with roughly 90 per cent identifying as Inuit.
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Saskatchewan professor praises roots, Greenland’s resilience following U.S. threats
