When knowledge becomes freedom: Became a tourist guide to get to know Greenland

She is at the moment. Grounded. For once she is not overthinking - a rare luxury. She is just there. Crawling around, making strange noises, being a bit animal, a bit human.

Her face is painted black and red. The black symbolizes the spiritual world. The red blood, love and temperament. Josepha dances a mask dance. It is raw. It is animalistic. Crossing boundaries. Some are frightened by her, others laugh - often both.

In the dance, she feels a freedom. A permission to simply be and let go of everything that is otherwise held back. The body takes over, the head finally shuts up.

At the same time, the experience contains something greater. A joy to help revive a tradition that was banned during colonization and that stretches back more than 4,000 years.

Meet Josepha Kuitse Kunak Thomsen - mother, mediator, academic, tourist guide and mask dancer.

She carries our culture, nature and history in her face and in her stories - conveyed with warmth, humor and an Arctic perspective. Through words, images and presence, she invites us closer to Greenland, both as an Arctic guide and as a voice on social media.

She grew up in Nuuk, but now lives in Denmark with her two children. From here she creates content about a country she misses but has never left in her heart. In the middle of it all, the most important thing is: being a mother to Sialuk and Anori.

Nuummioq from Narsaq

Josepha Kuitse Kunak Thomsen was born in 1987 in Maniitsoq. When she was three years old, the family moved to Narsaq, where she has her earliest memories.

- They are fantastic, there was a lot of outdoor play. A lot in the river, behind the community center, where we caught the little fish. The smell of sand and warm garbage cans, that's Narsaq, remembers Josepha Kuitse Kunak Thomsen.

Narsaq offered a quiet childhood with a lot of freedom.

- All these little memories of nature, where you spent a lot of time outside because you were just allowed to run around and then you just had to go home when it was fairly dark. The city wasn't that big back then, so you went on an adventure and came back, she says.

Josepha's parents are Roland and Dora Thomsen.

- My mother has changed her name today to Karine, but people know her as Dora, says Josepha Kuitse. Her father was Danish and her mother is from East Greenland.

- My father worked at Inuili and many different places later on, so people know them quite well. My mother worked in different places, the municipality in Narsaq, and in Nuuk she worked partly at Synoptik and Egmontgården, she says.

Josepha has two older sisters from her father's side, who are Faroese.

- I have a total of four older sisters, an older brother and a younger brother. I am the second youngest, she says.

This meant that she had more freedom compared to her other siblings.

- I remember my sister had to be home at nine o'clock, but I never had a specific time I had to be home, I wasn't that rebellious either. I read a lot of books, and I liked going to the youth club Qilanngaq, but I was also very quiet and calm. But I have always been the annoying little sister, says Josepha Kuitse Kunak Thomsen.

In 1994, when she was seven years old, the family moved to Nuuk, where Josepha lived until 2008.

The public school was both in Ukaliusaq and The Nuussuaq School

- I was the hyper rabbit of the class, she says.

Her classmates asked her how she had so much energy. Later in her adult life, she found out it was ADHD.

- I remember trying to be mysterious, but I couldn't figure it out, I couldn't sit still. Everyone had to know what I was thinking at all times. And it's always been that way. I've had friends who have been hurt because I can't hold things back, she says.

An acting dream

Elementary school was okay. In her free time she read a lot of books, but otherwise she spent a lot of time outside on Radiofjeldet in Nuuk.

- I had a friend who lived nearby and we played Pocahontas a lot. We ran around barefoot and were nature people and played by the lakes, recalls Josepha Kuitse Kunak Thomsen.

When she grew up, she wanted to be an actress. It did something to her when she made people feel something.

- I thought it was exciting to make people laugh, cry, feel something. When they felt something, I did too. It gave a dopamine rush, a joy - and when you cry, you sometimes also solve something along the way, she says.

There she was. A quiet girl, but also a sweet one. A compassionate girl, with room for everyone. She got that part from her mother - the one who always baked birthday cakes, held big coffee parties and made Thai food for her and all her friends.

- There were always last-minute children who ate with us, she says.

She lived in a supportive home. Her father was the type to get you what you needed. If you wanted to paint, he found paint. If you wanted to read, he found books.

Like all other teenage girls, however, hormones were also running wild.

- I had a very sad feeling at the time. And then you were sitting and listening to the rock band “Evanescence”. No, I have the most horrible music video where I didn't know the lyrics and tried to sing along. Many years later I found the video, hajjaa, she laughs.

Wanted to get away from Greenland

After primary school, Josepha traveled to Denmark to attend high school. She wanted to get away from Greenland, but quickly realized that she couldn't be away from here anyway. So she went to high school in Nuuk.

- I was used to being able to be myself and that there was room for who you are. I didn't really experience the same understanding in Denmark, she says.

After high school, Josepha traveled to San Francisco and became an au pair.

- On the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge, there was California. For me, California was just ‘Orange County’ - the teen series, the dream place, she remembers.

Back in Denmark - with memories of sun, teenage problems and a suitcase full of experiences.

- I started at Roskilde University. I listened to those who said that you were worthless if you didn't get a university education and that I would never be able to make money as an actor. I had low enough self-esteem to believe that, says Josepha Kuitse Kunak Thomsen.

But she couldn't concentrate in class.

- I had this dream that if I get a PhD, I'll be smart, and then I'll feel smart because I've always felt stupid. And then I got a PhD, but I still felt stupid. Hajja. Then of course I found out that it's not a piece of paper that makes me smart, she says.

Josepha has a master's degree in experiential communication and psychology from Roskilde University.

In search of Greenland

Josepha Kuitse Kunak Thomsen cannot speak Greenlandic today. She says that when her family moved from Narsaq to Nuuk as a child, she was bullied.

- A lot, because of my South Greenlandic dialect. That's why I stopped speaking Greenlandic altogether, because it hurt. And then I was also bullied because I only spoke Danish, she says.

Josepha has always had the feeling that she had to struggle to know enough about Greenland.

- But where do you learn it? I found out that if I became a tourist guide, I would be forced to learn it, says Josepha Kuitse Kunak Thomsen.

She started working as a tourist guide in Ilulissat in 2014. Here she experienced freedom in the middle of Disko Bay, known for its many whales, seals and lush ice fjord.

- The total freedom... the feeling you had as a child. You let go, and you're just so small and indifferent. It may sound silly, but the fact that you, as an individual, just don't care, it's a fantastic feeling, she says.

After six years at university, in the middle of her master's thesis, Josepha dropped out and moved to Iceland and got a job at "Icelandic Mountain Guides" in Reykjavik, where she became a travel agent. There she sold tours from Iceland to Greenland.

- It was very exciting. I was hooked. I was very passionate and at that time I had my Instagram for five years, where I talk a lot about Greenland, she says.

After a year in Iceland, she moved to Bornholm and resumed her studies, and also ended up writing her master's thesis on how to communicate sustainably about Greenland.

Josepha has worked extensively in the tourism industry. Among other things, she has been a teacher at Campus Kujalleq, worked with Destination South Greenland and created content for social media to promote South Greenland. She has also been a tourist guide in Ilulissat and throughout South Greenland, served as general manager at Hotel Aurora in Nuuk and has worked for the Nukiga association, which worked to tell positive stories about Greenland in Denmark.

- I was also in Nomad Greenland for a short period last year. But I went down with stress and I was in the middle of a divorce. I was a lot alone with the children, and I worked a lot. I went down in the end. I ended up quitting, says Josepha Kuitse.

Romance novels are being replaced by autobiographies

Today, Josepha lives in Denmark with her two children and is getting to know her new life. All emotions are welcome - ajunngilaq, that's life.

- That thing about trying to find yourself again after having children... You have to learn to let go of everything you want. All your interests are ignored. I'm working on learning to just sit and read a book, knit a little, have fun. It takes practice, says Josepha Kuitse Kunak Thomsen.

She still reads books. However, the romance novels have been replaced with autobiographies and books about Greenland.

- Recently I tried reading romance novels, but I've become so pessimistic about love that I couldn't relate to them at all. Instead, I found a book by Peter Freuchen, "My Greenlandic Youth". It's super funny, he writes really entertainingly, she says.

Josepha is still learning about her Greenland - about how it once was, and how hard life has actually been. One day at a time, with smiles and tears... and a few giggles along the way, always with Greenland in her heart.