‘And then move on …’ the context and intentions behind the Greenland reconciliation commission

This article investigates the political context in which the Greenland Reconciliation Commission (2014–17) was established. It explores the intentions and motivations within Naalakkersuisut that drove its creation through an analysis that focuses on key dimensions of transitionality. The article argues that the context was characterized by a sense of in-betweenness or liminality that arose following the 2009 adoption of the Act on Greenland Self-Government. It contends that ambitions to cultivate individual self-reliance as well as political independence and the aim of regaining historiographic sovereignty were at the heart of the motivation behind the GRC, intended as an instrument for a national process of decolonization.