Convention No. 169 Case Study: 11

• Main Authors: Oqaatsip Kimia, The Power Word, Henriette Rasmussen
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Greenland; kalaaleq
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.626.6344; http://www2.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---normes/documents/publication/wcms_118118.pdf

Programme to Promote ILO Convention No. 169 2The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies and other contributions rests solely with their authors, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by the International Labour Office of the opinions expressed in them. 3Oqaatsip Kimia The Power of the Word The title of this case study means: ‘The power of the word ’ and quotes Asineq, a Kalaaleq from eastern Greenland, who believed that the spoken word is the greatest power human beings have. As he explained to researchers in the 1920s, “this is because with words we can give joy or hurt one another for life”. He illustrated this by using the image of a wound made by a weapon, something that would still be visible after healing but would not hurt as much as a word that was once uttered. “We believe in ‘oqaatsip kimia ’ or ‘the essence of the Word’”, he said, “as something that has a power that cannot be explained. The Word is magic.”