Lecture with author Iben Mondrup: My childhood in Greenland

Iben Mondrup spent her childhood in Godhavn on Disko Island, where her parents were part of the Danish workforce tasked with modernizing Greenland. The policy at the time aimed to Danicize the population: Danish language, Danish culture, and Greenlandic heritage set aside. From today's perspective, it appears a racist policy, though well-intentioned at the time - and criticism of Denmark's role has grown steadily in recent years as Greenland has achieved Home Rule, Self-Government, and now moves toward full independence.

The lecture explores what it felt like to grow up amid this policy as a child - and simultaneously paints a picture of a period in Danish-Greenlandic history when many Danish families settled in the country, and where especially the children had to find their way in a foreign world.

Iben Mondrup was born in Copenhagen in 1969 but grew up in Qasigiannguit, Qeqertarsuaq, and Nuuk. At 18, she returned to Denmark and studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, graduating as a visual artist in 2003. Since then she has published 8 novels - she debuted in 2009 with "Ved slusen" on the milik publishing label and has since received, among others, the DR Novel Prize 2015 for "Godhavn" and the Blixen Prize 2017 for "Karensminde". She is also behind the TABITA trilogy, and her latest novel "Hvordan kan vi" came out in October 2025.