User:Guzmank/Statue of Hans Egede

The Statue of Hans Egede is a monument in Nuuk, Greenland. It commemorates the Dano-Norwegian Lutheran missionary Hans Egede who founded Nuuk in 1728. Funded by Greenlanders', the statue lies on a hill near the shore above Nuuk Cathedral in the historical Old Nuuk area of the city. The original statue by August Saabye stands outside Frederik's Church in Copenhagen. Recent vandalisms to the statue have generated calls for removal due to Egede's missionary practices.

Background & funding
Hans Egede's role as a Danish missionary in Greenland has prompted controversy surrounding his statue in Nuuk. Egede arrived in Nuuk under Danish patronage to convert the believed Norse people to Christianity. The Norse settlers however had moved and Greenland was settled by the Indigenous population. Egede's arrival and subsequent stay was not to the pleasure of the current communities. After roughly ten years of work, Egede returned to Denmark. This was due in part to the deaths of his men and his wife along with the strain of running the colony.

The statue itself was paid for by Greenlanders and erected in 1922. This year was chosen in particular as it was the 200th anniversary of Egede's beginnings in Greenland. They raised a private collection under secular and religious authorities as well as through donations provided by churchgoers in Denmark. Until 1953, Greenland was still a Danish colony and they did not receive self-governing autonomy until 2009. Attitudes amongst Greenlanders have begun to change overtime, with some viewing this statue under a new lens in relation to their attitudes towards Denmark.

Formal qualities
The statue of Hans Egede stands on a cobblestone base. Under his feet is a pedestal with an inscription of his name. Together, the statue stands at roughly 7 feet tall. One foot steps out to indicate a foreword motion. Egede stands up straight, holding a pastoral staff in his right hand and a bible in his left. He is dressed in the simple robes of a monk, a neutral expression on his face as he looks outward. This statue of Egede is a copy of a statue created by August Saabye in 1913 and placed outside Frederik's Church in Copenhagen. Here, Egede is in the same pose wearing the same attire, resting on the inscribed pedestal above a base, setting the precedent for the Nuuk statue.

Recent controversies
The statue of Hans Egede was doused in red paint June 21, 2020 on the national day of Greenland, or Kalaallit Nunaat as it is known in Greenlandic. Along with the red paint, the word decolonize was written along the base. Inuit symbols representing traditional Tunniit tattoos were marked on the pedestal and the pastoral staff Egede holds was turned into a whip. This was also done to the Hans Egede statue in Copenhagen.

This is not the first time the statue has been vandalized with reported incidents in 1970s, 2012 and 2015. The first reported act of dousing the statue in red paint in 1973 was followed by a plaque placed at the foot of the statue reading "Was it not he who killed our souls? Should we continue to honour him?" The group responsible released an anonymous statement saying, "It is about time that we stop celebrating colonisers and that we start taking back what is rightfully ours... No coloniser deserves to be on top of a mountain like that." A Greenlandic artist by the name of Aqqalu Berthelsen, who delivered the above message for the group, has called for all statues of Egede to be removed due to their representation of "oppression and colonisation." Police investigation into the mater led to the questioning of suspects but within Greenland, there is no clear consensus on what should happen with the statue. Many are in favor of keeping it, while others believe it should come down. The statue has also been target of a number of satirical cartoons by Robert Holmene and Kunuk Platou, among others. A poll conducted in July 2020 showed 923 people in favor of the Hans Egede statue to remain up while 600 voted for its removal, poor turnout considering 23,000 people were eligible to vote. The voting was conducted in the Sermersooq municipality alone, a municipality that includes Nuuk which is the location of the Hans Egede statue. Not counted were the people who want the statue removed but placed in a museum. Even with this vote, what is to be done with the statue is yet to be determined by local council, believing that for the statue to be removed there needs to be at least 75% of Greenlandic people in favor.