Laila Frederiksen walks along a seaside boardwalk with her two children and husband, Christian Kuluk Frederiksen, in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk.

A nurse by profession, she’s one of many Greenlanders who have thought a lot — especially in recent months — about independence for her Arctic home. She supports independence, but thinks it will take time.

“I don’t think, right now, we are ready,” Laila said. “Maybe in 10, 20 years from now, I think we’re going to be independent.”

The conversation about independence has been going on for decades, as Greenland has slowly taken over its domestic affairs from Denmark. Discussions about full independence were turbo-charged earlier this year, when US President Donald Trump’s comments about acquiring Greenland focused international attention on the world’s largest island.

“We need it really for international, world security,” Trump told a joint session of Congress in March. “And I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”

A survey this winter showed that the vast majority of Greenlanders did not want to be part of the United States. But it also showed that many people did not want to be part of Denmark, either.   

“We don’t want to be Danes, we don’t even want to be Americans. We want to be Greenlanders,” said Múte Egede, Greenland’s prime minister at the time, responding to Trump’s comments. 

Greenland became a Danish colony in the 1700s, and fully a part of the Kingdom of Denmark in 1953, with Greenlanders gaining Danish citizenship. Most people and most political parties there support eventual independence. But there’s a debate about how quickly the territory should work to get there. 

The Frederiksens are one example.

“We found out that we do have a very big difference of opinion on independence,” said Laila’s husband, Christian Kuluk Frederiksen.

He wants independence as soon as possible. She thinks improvements to infrastructure, education and the economy need to come first.

But she sees eventual independence as necessary to preserve Greenland’s cultural identity. 

“I remember my grandfather, when he was young, life was a lot different back then,” she said.

Many in her grandfather’s generation lived, at least in their early years, in sod houses in small  settlements. They, or their relatives, hunted seals on kayaks. The Frederiksens live in a modern house in Nuuk, and Leila traveled to Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, to study to become a nurse. 

Life in Greenland, Laila said, is becoming more Danish. 

“It’s a Danish way of life, Danish way of speaking, Danish culture,” she said.

“Of course I’m concerned that our identity as Greenlanders, our language, our culture will disappear very fast if we don’t [make] … dramatic changes,” she said.

Europe’s influence on Greenland can be seen in a statue of the Danish-Norwegian Christian missionary Hans Egede — considered the island’s initial colonizer – that still stands in Nuuk’s old harbor. 

“He’s standing up there on a hill, looking over Nuuk,” said Kuno Fencker, a member of parliament who, like many, thinks the statue should be taken down.

“We should put him in a museum,” Fencker suggested. 

Fencker is one of Greenland’s most out-spoken proponents for independence, and calls Denmark’s 1953 absorption of the territory an “annexation.”

“The people of Greenland were not asked,” Fencker said. “It was absolutely against all the decolonization processes of the UN back then.”

Greenland got its own parliament and government in 1979, and began taking over its own domestic affairs. A landmark 2009 act spelled out Greenland’s right to self-determination, and laid out a pathway toward potential independence. This became a top issue in Greenland’s March election, as the attention triggered by Trump’s comments was at its peak. Fencker’s Naleraq party, which favors quick action toward independence, got the second most votes, doubling its seats in Parliament.

“I had some kind of a hope that we could work towards, in a proper way, more independence for Greenland, and eventually ask the people of Greenland what they want,” he said.

Fencker penned a bill calling for a referendum on independence, but it hasn’t been put on the agenda for the upcoming parliamentary session. His party did not make it into the governing coalition, and he now believes Greenland is no closer to independence than it was prior to the election.

Three of the four parties in the governing coalition, however, do support independence as part of their platforms.

“Of course I’m pro-independence, but we have to be very careful when we push that button or sign that document,” said Justus Hansen, a member of parliament with the pro-business Democraatit Party, the biggest party in Parliament right now.

Hansen’s office is in East Greenland, which is remote even by local standards. He recently had to take a helicopter and then a plane to the capital to get a diagnosis for cancer. Eventually, he had to travel to Copenhagen for treatment.

Hansen said that the lack of a highly trained local workforce is one reason Greenland isn’t ready to go it alone.

“We are only 56,000 souls here in Greenland in a very vast and very big area,” he said. “We don’t have enough people who are well-educated.”

Both Hansen and Fenker agree that Greenland needs a stronger economy before it can stand on its own. About half of the government’s budget each year comes from a block grant from Denmark.  And more than 90% of its export revenue comes from one source: seafood.

“That’s why we need to diversify the economy,” Fencker said. “And we need to utilize our resources much better than we have done.” 

A January poll showed that 56% of Greenlanders said they would vote “yes” on an independence referendum if it were held immediately.

But a significant number of people did not support independence. In dozens of interviews this summer, a minority of people told The World that they liked having access to Denmark’s resources, like universities, or said they feel the island is still dependent on Denmark in other ways. 

Anne Marie Hviid, who was strolling through a mall in Nuuk last month, pointed out that almost everything in the store windows was imported. She said she’s not personally for or against independence, but doesn’t think it would work. “We are too few people,” she said. 

Greenland’s new parliamentary session is set to start this week. 

Proposals are on the agenda that could  strengthen the island on its road to independence — by giving the territory more authority over its financial regulations, and boosting development of the economy, infrastructure and education.

But there is no legislation set to be considered on the topic of independence itself.