Kristine Raahauge
{{Short description|Greenland politician (1949–2022)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| birth_date = November 26, 1949
| birth_place = Ilulissat, Greenland
| death_date = February 7, 2022 (aged 72)
| death_place = Kolby Kås, Samsø Island, Denmark
| occupation = municipal politician, activist, Eskimologist and writer
| title = Mayor of the Nanortalik municipality
| term = 1993–1997, 2005–2009
| party = Siumut
| children = 3
| awards = Julius Bomholt Prize (2012)
}}
Kristine Raahauge (November 26, 1949 – February 7, 2022) was a Greenlandic municipal politician, activist, eskimologist and writer. She represented the Siumut party.
Early life and family
Raahauge was born in 1949 into a seal-catching family in the remote village of Ilulissat, Greenland. She was the oldest of seven children.{{Cite web |last=Tornberg |first=Alf |date=2022-04-02 |title=Hun blev født i en sælfangerfamilie og endte som borgmester |url=https://www.information.dk/moti/2022/03/foedt-saelfangerfamilie-endte-borgmester |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=Information |language=da}}
When she was nine years old, Raahauge and her family moved to the town of Nanortalik. Her isolated home village is now depopulated.
On March 25, 1972, Raahauge married Paul Raahauge, a schoolteacher born in Denmark.Lodberg, Torben. (2001) Grønlands Grønne Bog 2001/02. Kopenhagen: Grønlands hjemmestyres Informationskontor. p. 116. {{ISBN|978-87-89685-16-8}}. They had three children Anja, Brit and Axel.{{Cite web |last=Bertelsen |first=Kaia |title=Dødsfald – Kristine Raahauge 72 |url=https://www.samsoposten.dk/da/pages/64-mindeord-og-maerkedage/posts/61451-dodsfald-kristine-raahauge-72 |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=Samsø Posten}} In 1976, the family moved to Kolby Kås on Samsø Island, and they both worked at a boarding school where 60 Greenlandic children attended.
Museum career
Raahauge and her husband moved to Nanortalik, where he worked at the local school. She became a member of the Greenland Museums Committee from 1991 to 1995. She was later employed as Director of the Nanortalik Museum until 1993.
Political career
Raahauge was a member of the Siumut political party. In 1993, Raahauge was elected Mayor of the Nanortalik municipality.{{Cite book |last=Sørensen |first=Axel Kjær |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UiLFMfm1R9AC&q=Kristine+Raahauge |title=Denmark-Greenland in the Twentieth Century |date=2007-11-05 |publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press |isbn=978-87-635-1276-3 |pages=180 |language=en}} She served as mayor until 1997.{{Cite web |title=Kristine Raahauge blev borgmester igen |url=https://knr.gl/da/nyheder/kristine-raahauge-blev-borgmester-igen |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa (KNR) |language=da}}
Raahauge ran for office in the 1995 parliamentary elections and was elected to the Inatsisartut for a term. During her term, she fought against centralisation and to preserve local self-government. She chose not to run again in the 1999 elections.
In 2004, after the resignation of Tage Frederiksen,{{Cite web |title=Usikkerhed om ny borgmester |url=https://knr.gl/da/nyheder/usikkerhed-om-ny-borgmester |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa (KNR) |language=da}} Raahauge was re-elected mayor with the four votes from Siumut and two from Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA). She served until the 2009 administrative reform, where the number of municipalities in Greenland was reduced to four.
Awards
In 2012, Raahauge was awarded the Julius Bomholt Prize from the Ministry of Culture for her book Cultural Encounters at Cape Farewell: The East Greenlandic Immigrants and the German Moravian Mission in the 19th Century, which she researched with Danish museum employees Einar Lund Jensen and Hans Christian Gulløv.
Death
She died in 2022 in her home at Kolby Kås on Samsø Island, where she and her husband had returned to. She was 72 years old at the time of her death.{{Cite web |last=Tornberg |first=Alf |date=2022-03-10 |title=Mindeord om Kristine Raahauge |url=https://www.sn.dk/art661685/roskilde-kommune/navne/mindeord-om-kristine-raahauge/ |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=Sjællandske Nyheder |language=da-DK}} Her ashes were scattered over Samsø Bælt.
References
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Category:People from Ilulissat
Category:Greenlandic Inuit women
Category:Greenlandic women curators
Category:Greenlandic women writers
Category:Greenlandic educators
Category:Greenlandic independence activists
Category:20th-century Inuit women
Category:21st-century Inuit women
Category:20th-century Greenlandic politicians
Category:21st-century Greenlandic politicians