# Greenland

An episode of [The Children's Hour](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1373480705), 12 Oct 2026, 1 h 00 min.

Audio: https://media.blubrry.com/childrenshour/ins.blubrry.com/childrenshour/TCH_Greenland_podcast.mp3

Take a trip with The Children's Hour to Greenland to learn about the world’s largest island and the people who live there. We’ll explore Greenland’s culture, landscape, and hear music in the Greenlandic language. Find out the history of the Greenlandic people from the first migrations until today in this Greenland podcast and radio show for kids.

## Transcript

[0:00] I wore winter boots every day for two years. I hate climbing trees. I'm Deborah Goldstein,
[0:07] host of the podcast The Big Fib, and half of those statements were indeed fibs. On every
[0:13] episode of The Big Fib, we bring on two grownups. One is an expert and the other is a liar. And
[0:19] it's the job of our human child contestant to help us figure out who is who, because no one
[0:24] can spot a liar better than a kid. We've had episodes on everything from Minecraft to mythology
[0:30] and from Lego to libraries. Join me and my robot co-host Lisa on the Big Fib on Apple podcasts
[0:37] or on gzmshows.com. Coming up on The Children's Hour, we're taking a trip to Greenland to learn
[0:45] about the world's largest island and the people who live there. We'll explore Greenland's
[0:51] culture, landscape, and hear music in the Greenlandic language. Our guest is children's book author
[0:57] Naja Lund Aparico, whose book, Seasons by the Lake, takes young readers through a year of
[1:03] life on the island. We'll find out the history of the Greenlandic people from the first migrations
[1:08] until today. Celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day with The Children's Hour and learn with
[1:14] us about Greenland. This episode has a learning guide at childrenshour.org. Look for Greenland.
[1:21] The Children's Hour is an independent production of The Children's Hour Incorporated, a New
[1:25] Mexico based non-profit. We're distributed by Native Voice One, the Native American radio
[1:31] network. It's time for the Children's Hour. Kids Public Radio. What is a Greenlander's
[1:45] favorite cereal? I don't know what. Ice Krispies! It's time for the children's hour! Kids Public
[1:57] Radio!
[2:05] Hello, Bonjour, buenos dias, g'day, guten tag, konichiwa, ciao, shalom, dobre dia, hello to all the
[2:17] children of the world. We live in different places from all around the world. We speak
[2:25] in many different ways. Though some things might be different, we're children just the
[2:31] same, and we all like to sing and play. Hello, bonjour, buenos dias, g'day, guten tag, konichiwa,
[2:44] ciao, shalom, dobre dia Hello to all the children of the world. There are children in
[2:53] the desert and children in the towns and children who live down by the sea. If we could meet
[3:01] each other to run and sing and play, then what We are good, me
[3:11] Hello to all the children of the world Hello to all the children of the world
[3:41] That was Hello to All the Children of the World by Wee Sing. I'm Katie Stone. You're listening
[3:47] to the Children's Hour. I'm here with a lot of great kids at the Outpost and on Zoom. Hello,
[3:51] everybody. Hello. And who do we have with us today? Hi, it's Thorfinn. Hi, it's Asa.
[3:59] Hello, it's Amadeus. Hi, it's Luminata. Hi, it's Nina. Hi, it's Vander. Hello, it's Max.
[4:07] Hello, it's Killian. Hi, it's Keaton. Hello, it's Kaibia. Hello, it's Teddy. Hi, it's Xander.
[4:15] Hi, it's Amaya. Hello, it's Lucas D. Hi, it's Ron. Hi, it's Marcel. Well, everyone, thank
[4:23] you so much for being here today out there in Listener Land here on Zoom and here at the
[4:28] Outpost. I am so excited about our topic today because I keep hearing about it in the news,
[4:34] but I don't really know that much about it. It's Greenland. Have you guys been hearing
[4:40] about Greenland lately? Yes. You to know. A lot of headlines. Quite a bit. It's a country,
[4:46] I think, although it's a big island. We are going to learn about Greenland. What do you
[4:50] all know about Greenland? Looks icy. Looks cold, doesn't it? I see pictures and it looks really
[4:56] kind of what we would say is foreboding, right? It's got these big mountains. It's really,
[5:02] really, really cold. Yet, whenever you see pictures of Greenland, it's always so- colorful
[5:09] even though it's Greenland and that's because it's just got a really colorful culture like
[5:14] people make it really beautiful and when I see things online it's often about glaciers and
[5:20] a lot of freshwater of the planet is actually in Greenland in glaciers. So we have a ton
[5:27] to learn about Greenland and our guest that we have coming up is an author of a new children's
[5:33] book. It's called Seasons by the Lake Adventures in Greenland. Her name is Naja Lund Aparico
[5:39] and she's gonna be with us for the whole hour. We're gonna learn about Greenland. This is
[5:44] the Children's Hour. Stick with us. You can find our learning guide for this episode at
[5:48] childrenshour.org. Look for Greenland.
[8:14] The music you're hearing today on the show is from Greenland. That was Diisaq by Hinnarik Kammanilu.
[8:21] You're listening to the Children's Hour. I'm Katie Stone here with a whole lot of great
[8:26] people at the outpost and on Zoom. And the kids crew and I are with Naja Lund Aparico. She is
[8:34] a Greenlandic Inuk with a background in international relations. She's a children's book author and
[8:40] her book is just beautiful and it teaches us about Greenland. It's called Seasons by the
[8:47] Lake Adventures in Greenland. Welcome to The Children's Hour Naya. Oh, thank you, Katie. How
[8:54] did Greenland get its name? The lore says that it comes from Eric the Red, that was the Norseman,
[9:01] the Viking that came to Greenland in 982, and that he wanted to attract more of his fellows
[9:08] from Iceland or Norway to make a settlement there. So he named it Greenland, even though
[9:15] it was icy. He was actually a fugitive. They wanted, you know, his head basically for committing
[9:21] a crime. So he was escaping Iceland and then he found Greenland to be away from everything
[9:28] else until his sentence was basically over and he could return. But by then he already had
[9:34] kind of created a society. And I think they were there for about 500 years. I would like to say
[9:41] that for me, Greenland's not that green. Like they say Greenland is just icy where Iceland
[9:47] is green. I don't think it's true. For me, Iceland is black because of the volcanic, you know,
[9:55] rocks and then Greenland has more color. Is Greenland mostly ice all over it? Oh yes, of
[10:03] course. It's covered by the ice sheet. The Greenland ice sheet is huge. It's ginormous. I think
[10:09] it's 85 % of all of Greenland is covered in ice. And people can only live at the edge,
[10:15] like the coastline. And so because of that, there's no street, a lot of roads in between
[10:21] the towns. The ice is as thick as a mile. We have to fly or we have to go by boat. What
[10:27] are we going to see? We get off of our airplane, apparently, or our kayak in Nuuk, and what
[10:34] will we see? Is it really all white and full of ice? That's kind of what we imagine. If
[10:39] you come during the summer, it's not going to be all white. And the first thing you're going
[10:44] to notice is it's very rocky and there are no trees. So imagine everything's visible, the
[10:51] whole ground, everything's visible. Everything's right close to the water and it's just gorgeous.
[10:56] Wait, there's no trees in Greenland? We have a lot of like shrubs, you know, smaller because
[11:02] they have to keep tight to the ground to stay alive all through the winter. We have imported
[11:09] trees down in the South that look like evergreen trees, but they're very short. Wow. I can't
[11:14] imagine a place with no trees. I've seen pictures of Greenland and your buildings are so colorful.
[11:22] Yes. In the beginning, when we had kind of the missionaries and, you know, the tradesmen,
[11:29] color was used for coding. Like what was health, think was like yellow. The buildings were yellow.
[11:35] Red, think that was like churches and then green with schools. It was coded. We don't use that
[11:43] anymore, but color is big for houses. You're listening to the Children's Hour and today
[11:48] we're learning about Greenland. Our guest is Naja Lund Aparico and she's written a book
[11:55] called Seasons by the Lake: Adventures in Greenland. It's a picture book, but it has a lot in it
[12:01] to learn for all of us. There's a learning guide that comes with this episode. You can find it at
[12:06] childrenshour.org. Look for Greenland. We've got more coming up. Stick with us. This is
[12:13] The Children's Hour.
[20:34] That was Pilerineq-Tikineq by Sume. And before that, you heard another by Hinnarik Kammanilu
[20:43] right here on The Children's Hour. You're listening to The Children's Hour: Kids Public Radio. We'll
[20:49] be right back. The Children's Hour is a production of The Children's Hour Incorporated. We're
[20:55] a New Mexico based nonprofit organization supported by listeners just like you. You can learn more
[21:01] about us at childrenshour.org. The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs supports the
[21:07] Children's Hour. Experience the magic of New Mexico's many cultural traditions at museums
[21:11] and historic sites statewide. More at nmculture.org slash traditions.
[21:20] Teachers and parents listen up because all episodes are now available in Shorts. They each come
[21:27] with a free learning guide and activities that meet educational standards. Listen to the
[21:34] Children's Hour Shorts wherever you get your podcasts or at childrenshour.org slash shorts.
[27:27] That was the single Kalaaliuvunga by Sume. You're listening to The Children's Hour. Our
[27:34] guest is Naja Lund Aparico. She is the author of Seasons by the Lake: Adventures in Greenland.
[27:41] She is Greenlandic Inuk and she is here with us on The Children's Hour. Let's go over to
[27:47] Nina. How did the Inuit people end up settling in Greenland? We are mostly indigenous Inuit
[27:53] in Greenland that came from around year 1100 that migrated from Canada. Inuit are nomadic
[28:02] people and there've been several migrations, six or five migrations in total that goes all
[28:08] the way back 4,500 years ago. And our last migration, the Thule people, they came around year 1100.
[28:17] And then there several theories why they came. It could be that they sought the marine mammals
[28:23] that were going that way. or that they didn't have space in Canada, that they had maybe fights
[28:29] with other groups or tribes. So it's theories that we know of. Was there a land bridge between
[28:36] Canada and Greenland for the migration to happen or did everyone come over on kayaks? I think
[28:43] the land base was ice, the sea ice. So up by Canada between Canada and Greenland's really
[28:49] very tiny. distance that freezes over in the winter. So it's been possible to cross. And
[28:56] for us, sea ice is land that freezes over in the winter. Wait, so you're saying that when
[29:02] you're up in the north of Greenland, you consider these big glacial icebergs almost, like you
[29:10] consider that land. Well, there's a difference between icebergs and sea ice. That's the sea
[29:16] frozen over in very, very deep, deep depths. Glaciers are coming from the Greenland ice
[29:23] sheet. They fall off the Greenland ice sheet. So those are the icebergs. Are there a lot
[29:28] of animals in the Greenland ocean? Lots of marine mammals. Definitely. Lots and lots. There's
[29:36] all sorts of seals. We have whales. We can see whales from our windows just out in the fjord.
[29:43] We consider polar bears as marine mammals because they live on the sea ice and a lot of sea birds.
[29:49] You have polar bears? We do. We don't see them much in town though, but in the South where
[29:56] I'm from, they come with a, we call them pack ice. That means it's the ice that comes from
[30:01] the East Greenland, basically from the North Pole area. And it travels with the Gulf stream
[30:06] around the South and further up North. And that brings polar bears. Naja, you're Greenlandic
[30:13] Inuk. That's a very special culture. And I'm sure there are certain things that define
[30:18] your culture. Our culture is very traditional indigenous culture, which means our living
[30:25] is based on the marine wildlife, means our ancestors and still today, hunted seals, whales, seabirds,
[30:34] you know, we're living off fish. So it's very marine based and we were going around with
[30:41] umyaks and khayak. So that's kind of the bigger pictures of what Inuit life is. To me, what
[30:48] defines and what really sets it apart from bigger Western places is that we don't consider nature
[30:55] a place to be bought. In fact, you can't own land in Greenland. You can't buy land. Our
[31:02] land is communal, meaning everybody owns all of Greenland. We can't go in and say, I want
[31:08] to buy this piece of lot. What you can get is you can get a permit to build on that piece
[31:12] of land, but you never own the land. And that makes you kind of responsible for your neighbors,
[31:19] your neighbors are responsible for you. It's a sense of everybody's a part of it. I suppose
[31:25] no one knows that actually. Probably, probably not. With nature, we don't consider it something
[31:32] that we have to control. We just live through the rhythms and let that decide, the nature
[31:38] decide, can we go out today? I mean, we mostly go out every day, but we're not the bosses
[31:44] of nature. The nature is our boss and we will happily comply with what it's giving us. This
[31:51] is The Children's Hour. Stick with us. You can find our learning guide for this episode at ChildrensHour.org.
[31:57] Look for Greenland.
[34:09] That was Kaakkukkakkit by Hinnarik Kammanilu. You're listening to The Children's Hour and today
[34:15] on the show we're learning about Greenland. Our guest is Naja Lund Apariko. She's a Greenlandic
[34:22] Inuk and she's also written a book called Seasons by the Lake: Adventures in Greenland. It's a
[34:28] picture book for kids, but really all ages can learn a lot. What inspired you to write the
[34:35] book you wrote? As a child, I played a lot outdoors because our communities are so small and everything's
[34:43] pretty like local. So we get a lot of freedom to play, you know, go to the lake. My mom and
[34:49] dad, they probably just let us out the door and we could just go to school, like walk on
[34:54] the way and then just not even come home after school. So you just do your thing until it's
[35:00] dinner time. Then you go home. When it's winter, we get to build little Iglu's or we fish down by
[35:07] the creek or it's just a lot of outdoor adventuring by ourselves. So my children's book, Seasons
[35:12] by the Lake, it's about, you guessed it, seasons and life adventures down by the lake year round.
[35:20] Every year is different, but mostly we have four seasons. They're just not equal. We have
[35:26] long winters, very long winters. Sometimes it's nine months. Is it dark all the time in your
[35:32] winter? The higher up north you are, the closer to the North Pole, the darker and longer it
[35:38] is with no sun. So you don't see daylight at all. Give us an example. What time does the
[35:44] sun set on a winter day in December? So if you're up in Qaanaq, I think the last time you see
[35:50] the sun would be sometime in November, maybe even October. Like it never comes up. It never
[35:57] comes up if you're really close to the North Pole. It gets almost daylight. It's like twilight.
[36:02] but not quite sun. It doesn't rise at all. People who grew up there are used to it. Once the
[36:09] winter solstice hit, the light comes back really quickly. What is the average temperatures outdoor
[36:16] in Greenland? Just like in United States where the differences between the North, if you're
[36:23] in Alaska, and down if you're in Texas, it's very different. Obviously we're not hot, hot,
[36:28] hot and long summers the way they are here in United States. But in Nuuk where I'm from,
[36:34] which is in the south, in the summer we get as high as about 55, 60, and that's really
[36:41] hot. And then in the winter we can get as cold, this is in Celsius, minus 25 Celsius. So it's
[36:50] negative 13 degrees Fahrenheit. The 65 degrees was in Fahrenheit. That's crazy. But in the
[36:56] north, it's going to be a lot colder. We have to put a lot of layers, as you can imagine.
[37:02] If you've ever gone skiing up in the mountains, you have to put a lot of layers on. And we're
[37:08] good at that. We have always layers and layers on. But in the old days, they had to use seal
[37:13] skin to keep them warm. As you might have heard, it's getting a lot warmer. The climate's getting
[37:20] a lot warmer. The hunters are the ones that are most affected because they usually are
[37:25] catching what they're hunting from the sea ice and that's disappearing. If they don't
[37:30] have sea ice, there's no basis for their traditional ways of life. So that's changing a lot in the
[37:37] communities. We've been seeing like movies and things of glaciers melting into the ocean.
[37:43] Have you seen that in real life? Have you seen any of that going on around where you lived
[37:48] in Greenland? I think the way I would see it in that area, we live in bigger cities. is
[37:55] that it's warmer. There are some winters that we don't really get snow. I mean, we do get
[38:00] snow, but it's very little compared to when we grew up in the 80s or 70s. A lot of snow,
[38:06] like it would just be for so many months, just packs, but not anymore. The voice you're hearing
[38:13] is Naja Lund Aparico. She is an author of a book that came out recently called Seasons
[38:21] by the Lake: Adventures in Greenland. Today on The Children's Hour, we're learning about Greenland.
[38:27] There's a learning guide that comes with this episode. You can find it at childrenshour.org.
[38:32] Look for Greenland.
[40:49] That was Tulugaq by Nive Nielsen and the Dear Children, Tulugak is an Inuit word that means
[40:54] raven. You're listening to The Children's Hour, kids' public radio. We'll be right back. Support
[41:01] for The Children's Hour provided by the City of Albuquerque Cultural Services Department
[41:05] and the Urban Enhancement Trust Fund. Support for The Children's Hour provided by the Albuquerque
[41:13] Community Foundation, who are helping us make our learning guides every week. You can support
[41:18] this effort too. Go to ChildrensHour.org and click donate. The Children's Hour is grateful
[41:25] to Keshet Dance Company and Center for the Arts. They're celebrating 30 years of impact in dance,
[41:30] mentorship, and social justice in Albuquerque and beyond. Learn more at KeshetArts.org.
[45:40] That was Inuinnaagavit by Nanook. You're listening to The Children's Hour. Our guest is Naja Lund
[45:47] Aparico. She is the author of Seasons by the Lake: Adventures in Greenland. How big is
[45:54] Greenland and what is the capital? It's the largest island in the world. So it's huge.
[45:59] It's big. I would say it's about a quarter, 25 % of US size, the size of US. And then, oh,
[46:08] capital is Nuuk. That's where I'm from. And it's N-U-U-K, right? Yep, that's correct. I'm
[46:15] aware of the fact that Greenland is classified as a territory of Denmark. Why is Greenland
[46:21] considered a country? Oh, it is a country. It is not an independent nation, meaning we're
[46:27] a part of the Danish kingdom. What's like the official language of Greenland? The official
[46:33] language in Greenland is Greenlandic, which is an Inuit language, just like they speak
[46:38] in Alaska and Canada. So even though the dialect or the language has developed a lot since the
[46:44] migrations from Alaska over to Canada and from Canada to Greenland over thousands of years,
[46:51] it's still very similar. I can understand a lot what the Inuit are saying in Alaska and
[46:56] in Canada. What is the population of Greenland? Do you want to make a guess? 2.4 million.
[47:04] Let's go a million thousand. 100 point a thousand. A hundred thousand, he thinks. Very close.
[47:10] It's 56,000 people for the whole country. That's it? That's it. Just so folks who are living
[47:17] here in Albuquerque know, we have almost a million people in the city. Nearly 700,000, I think.
[47:24] Oh, we're going down. Just for the smaller Albuquerque area. But I mean, that is way lower than I
[47:31] thought it would be for Greenland, I mean, wow. It's mostly Scandinavians, I would say, mostly
[47:36] Danish. Like about 20 % of the population is Danish. So maybe 8%, 5 % are foreigners. I
[47:43] think Thai are there, maybe Filipino. We do have here and there, my husband was there as
[47:49] an American, but he acclimated quickly. So not too many New Mexicans. We all might freeze
[47:56] actually, I think, if we lived there. What kind of food and natural resources are available
[48:01] in Greenland? And does a lot of the resources have to get imported from other countries?
[48:07] So we always been nature-based or traditional food has always been marine. So it's fisheries
[48:13] that are huge. It's the main income base. The biggest export to other countries is our fisheries.
[48:20] So a lot of fishermen are there. Some hunters, traditional hunters are still around, but
[48:26] they're fewer, a lot fewer now than in the olden days. Most of our import is coming from Scandinavia.
[48:32] So Denmark is where we get our food, bread, milk, all the dairy, cereals. from Denmark.
[48:40] How does Greenland's economy operate with such a small population and are there enough people
[48:45] for things like hospitals and schools? We're too few on the island. A lot of Danes from
[48:51] Denmark come to work in the hospitals, especially. Before we had our autonomy, the increased autonomy
[48:58] in Greenland, was 1979, we became a homo government, meaning that we, from being considered a county
[49:05] in Denmark. So for kids listening, every state might have, you know, a hundred counties.
[49:12] Albuquerque is in Bernalillo County. You've heard of that. Wherever you're listening listeners,
[49:18] you also live in a county, but typically a county doesn't have that much power. your state government
[49:25] is gonna have more money. So, wow, that must have been hard to be Greenland and only be
[49:30] a county of Denmark, which is pretty far away physically, actually. That was the reason why
[49:36] everything needed to change because the distance was too enormous and by getting our increased
[49:44] independence of this autonomy, we created a parliament in Greenland that made our own legal
[49:49] jurisdiction, meaning laws for our country. Healthcare wise, we still are dependent on
[49:56] the Danish healthcare workers, but every small town has a clinic of some sort. It's not like
[50:04] we're not getting healthcare. Well, now is when you get to make all the American parents
[50:09] jealous. You guys get free healthcare, right? In Greenland, it's just like a right. That
[50:13] must be nice. We don't even have to pay for medicine or anything. You can give birth, you
[50:19] know, you don't pay anything. It's free. You've been listening to The Children's Hour. We've
[50:24] been learning about Greenland. You can learn a lot more in our learning guide with this
[50:28] episode. can find it at ChildrensHour.org. Look for Greenland. Our guest has been Naja Lund
[50:33] Aparico. Her book is Seasons by the Lake: Adventures in Greenland. Naja, thank you so much for being
[50:41] with us on the Children's Hour. We learned so much from you today. Thank you so much for having
[50:46] me. You guys are amazing. Oh, I love the questions. If you want to learn more about Greenland,
[50:52] you can find our learning guide at childrenshour.org. Look for Greenland. And at our website, we
[50:59] always post our full playlist too. So you can see the music that we've been playing, which
[51:03] is all music from Greenland and almost entirely sung in the Greenlandic language. This is Upernaaq.
[51:11] It means spring, and this is by Sume.
[53:51] We've been learning about Greenland today during The Children's Hour, its history and the cultures
[53:56] of the people who live there. There's a learning guide with this episode. can find it at ChildrensHour.org.
[54:02] Look for Greenland. We have time for just one more today. This is Sauwestari. We'll catch
[54:08] you next time for another edition of the Children's Hour.
[58:40] The Children's Hour is produced by The Children's Hour Incorporated, a New Mexico non-profit.
[58:46] You can find photos, playlists, learning guides, and activities for every episode at ChildrensHour.org.
[58:53] This episode of The Children's Hour was written and produced by our interns, Daniel Lentz and
[58:58] Isaac Lacerda, with production help from Sarah Gabrielli and me, Katie Stone. Chad Scheer recorded
[59:03] our show at Outpost, and our learning guides are written by Amber Shiel. Find this one
[59:07] at ChildrensHour.org. Look for Greenland. Find our podcast wherever you listen to podcasts
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[59:32] to The Children's Hour, kids' public radio.

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