The writer Niviaq Korneleliussen: “With Trump who wants Greenland and what happens in the world, we are at a crossroads and we must choose what way to travel”

This interview with Niviaq Korneleliussen on Trump and Greenland is published in the number 28-29 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until 15 July 2025.

«I grew up watching Danish films, Danish programs, or reading books in English. What I have become based on this too. It is a part of me that I don’t hate. It is a part of me that is simply my destiny ». The writer Niviaq Korneleliussen she is sitting in her home in Nuk, capital of Greenland. The light in his room is white, cold, above the noise of the Milanese traffic that enters from my window it seems to me almost that from its side of the video call the verses of some birds are felt. “But I will never be Danish», He adds after a while.

The island in which he lives, in the middle of the Arctic57 thousand inhabitants in total, 18 thousand only in Nuk, this year the eyes of the greatest foreign powers focused on me has found itself. Rich in oil resources, mining and above all of rare lands, Autonomous Danish territory from the 1950s after centuries of colonizationis among the aims of Donald Trumpwho wants to annex Greenland to the United States (and does not exclude to use force).

In mid -June the American president ordered the Pentagon to move Greenland from the command center that follows Europe to the northern one, which deals with the United States, Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico and Bahamas. Almost in the same period, the French president Emmanuel Macron He flew to Nuk together with the First Minister Danish puts Frederiksen: their message is that Greenland is not for sale. At the same time, it is not exactly independent.

When I call Korneleliussen to talk about his debut book **One night in Nuuk ** (Hyperborea, translation by Francesca Turri) The fate of his people continues to re -emerge. The novel speaks of a group of twenty -year -olds who are looking for its identity: they are young queer who do not think too much about the past colonization of their country And to its aftermaths, they are hungry for the future. Korneleliussen wrote it 11 years ago, when he felt like them. At 35, he changed perspective. Threats from abroad, the structural problem of suicides between the boys, a fragmented identity between the traditions of the colonized and those of the colonizers: For her, more than ever, “it’s time to react”.

Do you think visits like Macron’s are help for your cause?
“With him there is also FrederiKsen. It is a demonstration of power in many ways. As if we could not speak for us. On the one hand we show the world that we will not be part of the United States because our greatest ally is Denmark, but the love and attention of Denmark for Greenland are subject to a condition. Everything has a price ».

What does it mean to be Greenlander today?
“There is a great debate on national identity: can you also have blue eyes and light hair? Do you have to be able to speak Greenland? For young people, looking for their identity is more difficult than western peers. We are so isolated from the world, but we are also more connected with social media. I see that we are moving towards other indigenous peoples, such as those in Canada, Alaska, or Sami in Finland. We have a lot in common with them ».

And what does it mean for you?
«I think that living here, having a strong connection with the nature and culture of these places makes me a Greenland. And the fact that I want to fight for my country and for young people who live here. It applies to me, I don’t say that there is a right or wrong way of being ».

He wrote the first Greenland novel, the second in Danish. What is his relationship
With these languages?
«The one with the Greenland is very emotional, it is my mother tongue. I feel it in my brain, in my body. The Danish is just a language that I have to know in order to be part of the world. As well as English. But I am a writer: talking these languages ​​also opens my horizon. My son is two years old, and we live in Nuk, where many speak Danish. For me it is very important that the Greenland is his mother tongue ».

How many things have they changed since it wrote this book?
«I was twenty years old, and now I have 35 and I have a child. I am an adult, while at the time I had no idea what I would have done in my life. I was at the beginning of the path to understand my place in society: you can see it in the text, she is young, fast, and angry ».

The chapters have the titles of songs.
«It was the songs that felt on the holidays then. Music is an important part in the lives of young people from Greenlander, it allows them to connect with the rest of the world ».

What were those who listened to you?
«Everything. I loved Pink and Avril Lavigne a lot. Music helped me in a way in which nothing else could have: I was interested in understanding how you can live your life without feeling wrong, or not welcome to your society. I didn’t listen to Danish music at all, now I do it more ».

For his characters, discovering his identity is also a great joy. Do we tell too often only the difficulties of the stories in the LGBTQ+community?
“I wanted some of the stories to end well. They are young, they create beautiful connections that adults often are not able to form. When I work with the boys I see this: courage. They experienced so many terrible things in their lives, but they still manage to be beautiful people for others. I find it very powerful to seek one’s happiness ».

Do your characters make much more sex than today’s guys?
«I read that the boys have less sex than us millennial, I don’t know if I understand why, perhaps for social media. When you are young, it is part of the discovery of one’s identity, as in the book. Especially if you are queer, and the opportunities to be openly gay are more restricted. It is not like in America, or in Italy (Greenland has a law against discrimination according to
sexual orientation and gender identity, ed) but we are small communities, everyone knows everyone and it can be difficult to feel different. I read that the most widespread disease of this decade will be depression … it has become more hard to live ».

Two years ago he wrote The valley of the flowers on the problem of suicides in Greenland. Has something changed?
«Unfortunately there are still many suicides. They are people you know, you see on Tiktok. Journey for the country to raise awareness of prevention, but I am a single person. We need psychologists who are from here, not only of Danes who come for a couple of months and go back. If you have experienced one or two trauma in your life, your possibility of suicidal increases between 50 and 70 percent. And here are many families who have problems, and have been ignored for generations. People try to do something, the government too. But it takes a revolution ».

To the family situations is your collective history add?
«When Denmark had to give up his colonies he did not want to give up us. We had to become part of the Danish kingdom, from the same. The systematic destruction of our society began: people moved from villages to largest cities, were forced to work in factories instead of being hunters, as they did throughout their lives. Alcoholism and violence have spread. We have lost our identity ».

Is there a way to process this trauma?
«How can the system help people who have been ignored for six, seven generations? But it’s not all black and white, we must not indicate the Danish people and say that it is their fault if we commit suicide. The problem of suicides is a great puzzle with some pieces, and you must have them all to understand the general picture ».

In the rest of the western world we are going back on the rights acquired after years of struggles. Are you also happening in Greenland?
«It’s a global thing. The hatred that has remained hidden behind closed doors is being normalized for a long time. Maybe we didn’t really fight it. It is much more visible than ten years ago: we must be aware of it. And I think we were isolated too long. Now we have returned to attention because Trump wants to buy us ».

The stories in the book are very individual for what is intertwined. Is there a sense of community in Nuuk?
«It is a normal community, with some destinies a little different from those of other countries. There are many things that happen in the world and here in Greenland that are abnormal, and we must react as a people. It seems to me that the youngest are understanding him. In the last elections they voted for many more guys than in the past. I hope we will move with compassion and respect for others. With what happens with Trump, or Gaza, we are at a crossroads and we have to choose the way to go ».

And what is his hope?
«I am afraid to be honest, thinking of all the situations that are turning to the worst. It helps me to think that people react. It is a frightening world to live in, but in the end I think there is always hope for humanity ».