Henriette Rasmussen

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Henriette Rasmussen (2009)

Henriette Ellen Kathrine Vilhelmine Rasmussen (born Jeremiassen ; born June 8, 1950 in Qasigiannguit ; † March 3, 2017 ) was a Greenlandic politician , diplomat , journalist , teacher , women's rights activist , human rights activist and interpreter .

Life

Henriette Jeremiassen grew up in Qasigiannguit and later attended schools in Denmark and Nuuk , where she graduated from secondary school in 1968. Then she attended high school in Nykøbing Falster , which she finished in 1970. Then she trained as a teacher at the N. Zahles seminar in Copenhagen until 1975 . She also worked as a simultaneous interpreter between Greenlandic , Danish and English , but also spoke Spanish and French . During her studies, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Young Greenlanders' Council, she became aware of the lack of representation of women and henceforth campaigned against the oppression of Danish and Greenlandic women. At that time, Elisabeth Johansen was the only female politician at national level in Greenlandic history.

In 1975 she returned to Greenland, where she found a job as an elementary and university teacher in Sisimiut . During this time she was a pioneer of the left and women's rights scene in Greenland and published the feminist newspaper Kilut , from which a whole women's movement, analogous to the Danish Rødstrømpebevægelsen , was formed. From it the Kalaallit Nunaanni Arnat Peqatigiit Kattuffiat (Federation of Greenland Women's Associations) was created. Together with her partner and her son, she moved to Barrow in 1977 to teach the Greenlandic language, literature and culture. This work inspired her to form a common union of different Inuit peoples and in the same year she co-initiated the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), in which she herself participated as a simultaneous interpreter.

In 1978 she returned to Greenland and in 1979 was appointed cultural program secretary at the Greenland broadcasting corporation Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa (KNR). Rasmussen held the office until 1982. She then studied again in Nuuk at the Niuernermik Ilinniarfik , the journalism university in Greenland. From 1980 to 1986 she was a member of the communications commission at the ICC and from 1985 to 1991 head of the school radio and video department at the school headquarters (Pilersuiffik) , which won her a radio award.

In 1983 she stood up for the left Inuit Ataqatigiit for the municipal council election for the municipality of Nuuk and was elected as the first woman of the still young party. Since the left movement was still new in Greenland, it stood alone in the middle of a more right-wing male-dominated group, but it managed to attract attention and thus gain popularity. In 1984 she ran for parliamentary elections, was also elected and re-elected in 1987. In the local elections in 1989, she received so many first votes that three more members of her party moved into the local council. In 1991 she was elected to Inatsisartut for the third time in a row and this time became Minister in Naalakkersuisut . In May 1992, in addition to her previous position as Minister of Social Affairs, she was given the work department from Marianne Jensen . The two were the second Greenlandic ministers after Agnethe Davidsen . She fought resolutely against the "danification" of Greenland.

Rasmussen continued to serve on the World Council of Indigenous Peoples , the Nordic Council and the ICC. In 1993 she was asked to represent Denmark at the UN World Conference on Human Rights. The year has been named the Year of the Indigenous Peoples and Rasmussen called for a permanent forum for Indigenous Peoples in the United Nations. Subsequently, from 1996 to 2000, she was employed as Senior Technical Advisor for Indigenous Peoples at the International Labor Organization . From this work, committees for indigenous peoples in South Africa and Cambodia were created for the first time . She still combined her work with the fight for more women's rights, for example at a 1999 women's conference for indigenous peoples in East Africa . As early as 1998 she was involved in the World Culture Report and the Indigenious Women Report of the UN. She was also an administrative member of the World Conservation Union and participated in the Earth Charter .

From 2002 to 2005 she sat again in the Greenland Parliament and in the government as Minister for Culture, Education, Research and the Church before ending her career in Greenland politics.

From then on she devoted herself to journalism again. In 2009 she was nominated for the Prix ​​Europa . She was the French honorary consul in Nuuk and was therefore awarded the Knight's Cross of the Ordre national du Mérite in 2012. In 2012 she was appointed head of programming at KNR, which she did until 2015, but even after that she initiated new programs on Greenland television. She died after a long illness on March 3, 2017 of cancer .

family

Henriette Rasmussen was the oldest of eight children of skipper Jens Emil Axel Jeremiassen (1919–1993) and factory worker Birthe Marie Margrethe Møller (* 1924). In 1969 she married the Dane Steen Lundby Rasmussen (* 1943), from whom she divorced in 1971. From 1972 to 1992 she was in a relationship with the Greenlandic linguist Carl Christian Jonas Olsen (* 1943), son of Justus Kristian Gerth and Agnes Sofie Helga Olsen, with whom she had two children, Inuk Poul (* 1976) and Nunni Navaranaaq (* 1979 ) would have. She also left two grandchildren.

Web links

Commons : Henriette Rasmussen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d biography in Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon
  2. ↑ a b c En lysende stjerne er slukket (obituary by Asii Chemnitz Narup ) at sermersooq.gl
  3. ^ Obituary by Lars Emil Johansen
  4. ↑ a b En kendt he blevet tavs in the Sermitsiaq
  5. ↑ Décès de Mme Henriette Rasmussen, consule honoraire de France à Nuuk at dk.ambafrance.org
  6. ^ Remise de décoration à Mme Henriette Rasmussen au Palais Thott at dk.ambafrance.org
  7. ↑ In memory of Henriette Rasmussen (1950–2017) ( Memento of the original from December 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at publicnow.com @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.publicnow.com
  8. ↑ Asii: Henriette var en lysende stjerne at knr.gl
personal data
SURNAME Rasmussen, Henriette
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rasmussen, Henriette Ellen Kathrine Vilhelmine (full name); Jeremiassen, Henriette Ellen Kathrine Vilhelmine (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greenlandic politician, diplomat, journalist, teacher, women's rights activist, human rights activist and interpreter
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Qasigiannguit
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 2017