ABSTRACT
On 21 June 2020, in Nuuk (the capital of Greenland), the statue of the Danish Missionary Hans Egede was targeted by a protest inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. Dismissed by many as “mere vandalism”, the act was considered by the new mayor of Sermersooq municipality as an indicator of the “malaise” of young generations, worthy of being publicly discussed. The new municipal portal for citizens’ participation hosted a city-wide poll to decide if the statue had to be moved elsewhere. The participatory process, although reducing to a binary option a complex issue, envisaged a possible new era of civic engagement, in a country where feeding militant activism is difficult and “public hearings” (required by planning/environmental laws) are often the main way to expand democracy beyond its representative features. The process, targeting a taboo of the public discourse in Greenland (the dissatisfaction of many for the decolonisation trends), inspired other institutions to act, enlightening new leaders – many coming from the world of performing arts – who used their mediatic visibility to interpret new generations and advocate for them. Based on field research, the chapter examines the potential of this event to affect new democracy-driven governance (DDG) approaches to participation in Nuuk. Key-words: citizen participation; Nuuk; Greenland; deliberation; post-colonialism; social movements
