On “wish kids” and “gift kids”: Depo-Provera and wishing kids (away) in Greenland 1991

Beskrivelse

In this presentation, I juxtapose the concept of “wish kids” (“ønskebørn”), closely related to the promotion of the nuclear family and family planning in the 20th century, with the Inuit concept of “gift kids” (“gavebørn”) as they appeared in two separate articles featuring Danish district doctors in Greenlandic news media in 1991: an op-ed defending birth control injection (Depo-Provera) use in Greenland and a background article on gift kids-practices that has its only cited source in the text, another Danish district doctor, worried. In reading the two articles together, I aim at providing insight into concrete and illustrative examples of how colonial hierarchies were confirmed through hierarchization of contraceptive practices in postcolonial Greenland and a productive case for thinking about hormonal contraception, care and caring relations in spaces marked by colonialism.

Periode	2. okt. 2023
Begivenhedstitel	Fertility Chronicles: Histories of Silence, Science and Contraception
Begivenhedstype	Konference
Placering	Odense, DanmarkVis på kort
Grad af anerkendelse	Lokal