Apology may be coming for legally fatherless Greenlanders

Greenland’s government will decide whether to issue a formal apology to roughly 8,000 legally fatherless Greenlanders, whose biological fathers—often Danish—were not required to acknowledge them before 1974, DR reports.

Jørgen Kristensen, a sled dog musher from Ilulissat, is one of them. He grew up in the settlement of Upernavik Kujalleq without knowing his Danish father’s identity.

“All children need a father. How can you live without one?” he asks.

The new government included the issue in its platform, stating that an ongoing historical review of Greenland-Denmark relations will produce a separate report on the legally fatherless and adopted children by the end of 2026. A decision on an official apology will follow.

Until 1974, Greenland’s laws did not require fathers to acknowledge children born out of wedlock, leaving them without rights to their father’s name or inheritance. The rule changed in 1963 for West Greenland and in 1974 for North and East Greenland.

Kristensen, known for his sled dog racing victories, says his dogs taught him to forgive. As a child, he noticed his light hair and blue eyes set him apart. He was teased in school but found acceptance with his stepfather, a hunter with sled dogs.

“The dogs didn’t care how I looked,” he says.

As an adult, he located his biological father in Denmark, but the man rejected him.