Dartmouth Commencement 2012: Biography of Aqqaluk Lynge

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Aqqaluk Lynge (courtesy Knud Josefsen)

Doctor of Humane LettersGreenland human rights leader, politician, and writer

Greenlander Aqqaluk Lynge is an Inuit human rights leader, politician, and writer. He has represented the Inuit of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and the Far East of Russia as chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council from 1997 to 2006 and 2009 to the present. He was the first leader of the Greenland socialist party, Inuit Ataqatigiit, which he co-founded in the 1970s, and has promoted the rights of indigenous peoples both in Greenland and globally since his youth. He was first elected to the Greenland Parliament in 1983, and has served as a member of Parliament and minister of various portfolios.

He has been instrumental in the development of Dartmouth’s increased visibility in Arctic science and policy, was keynote speaker in 2007 at a Hood Museum exhibition, served as a Dickey Fellow in 2008, and in 2009 participated in the Dartmouth-Carnegie Endowment for International Peace conference on Climate Change and Arctic Security. Lynge is also widely published, having written poetry and essays, and also books on politics.

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