Un-shaming the Greenlandic Female Body

Abstract

The performance takes place in the middle of the exhibition, so that the artwork become part of the scenery. Images of Greenlandic/Inuit bodies are closely linked to travel descriptions, expeditions, ethnography and also scientific representations of otherness, particularly in the field of health and disease. The Greenlandic Inuit were placed in the category ‘natural people’, from the German ‘Naturvolk’. In representational practices by outsiders, Greenlanders were thus objectified on several fronts: notably by virtue of race, gender and class. Objectification always triggers shame. In philosophy, objectification is described as a universal feature of the formation of the human subject. The Europeans' preoccupation with the Inuit's so-called arctic hysteria is an extreme example of animatedness. The Greenlanders inherited ethnic nationalism from the Danes, and they have used it to gain self-determination and recognition as a people according to international law. The story of the Mother of the Sea is known across the Inuit Arctic.