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Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam

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Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam
Member of the Folketing
Incumbent
Assumed office
5 June 2019
ConstituencyGreenland
Personal details
Born (1996-10-17) 17 October 1996 (age 28)
Hillerød, Denmark
Political partySiumut
Alma materUniversity of Copenhagen

Aki-Matilda Tilia Ditte Høegh-Dam (born 17 October 1996) is a Greenlandic politician, who is a member of the Folketing for the Siumut political party. She was elected into parliament at the 2019 Danish general election, entering parliament at 22 years old, becoming its youngest member.[1]

Early life

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Born on 17 October 1996 in Hillerød, Aki-Matilda Tilia Ditte Høegh-Dam is the daughter of Kim Høegh-Dam, a fisherman and seaman, and Bitten Høegh-Dam, a schoolteacher.[1] The youngest child in the family, she has two brothers and two half-sisters on her father's side. She is half Danish and half Greenlandic with two Danish and two ethnically Greenlandic grandparents. She was brought up in Sisimiut on Greenland's west coast.[2] When she was 15, as a volunteer in Nakuusa (UNICEF's project in support of Greenlandic children),[3] she went on a trip around Greenland's coast during which she discussed politics with a friend. As a result, she decided to join Siumut, a social democratic political party. After joining the party's youth organization, her interest in politics continued to grow.[4][5]

After graduating from high school, in 2014 she began studying political science at the University of Copenhagen and graduated in 2019. In 2015, she participated in the Miss Denmark competition. Although she finished in sixth place, the event did much to draw attention to her in Greenland.[6][4]

Political career

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In the Danish general election on 5 June 2019, Høegh-Dam was one of two Greenlanders who succeeded in become members of the Folketing. Expressing strong support for Mette Frederiksen, head of the Social Democrats, she campaigned on the basis that Denmark should take more care of its responsibilities for Greenlanders. She also supports independence for Greenland.[7]

During a parliamentary debate on 3 October 2024, Høegh-Dam was asked to leave the podium by Folketing speaker Søren Gade after she broke Folketing protocol by delivering an eight-minute speech in Greenlandic, rather than Danish, explaining Siumut's political position on human rights abuses including the spiral scandal: although she had distributed written translations to other legislators beforehand, convention dictates that speeches must either be given in Danish or translated into Danish immediately afterwards.[8][9]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam". Ft.dk. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
  2. ^ "Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam" (in Danish). Miss Danmark. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  3. ^ "NAKUUSA er for alle i Grønland - uanset sprog, nationalitet og kultur" (in Danish). Naalakkersuisut. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  4. ^ a b Ahrenkilde-Holm, Thue (31 July 2013). "Folketingets yngste medlem er fra Grønland: Jeg frygter, at jeg ikke kan holde, hvad jeg lover". Berlingske (in Danish). Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  5. ^ Søndergaard, Niels Krogh (14 August 2015). "Grønlandsk miss-kandidat med politisk erfaring" (in Danish). Sermitsiaq. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  6. ^ Petersen, Ane-Marie (15 September 2015). "Aki-Matilda er på alle måder en vinder" (in Danish). KNR: Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  7. ^ "Miss Danmark-finalist bliver grønlandsk folketingsmedlem" (in Danish). Danmarks Radio. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  8. ^ "Inuit lawmaker asked to leave the podium at Danish Parliament after speaking only in Greenlandic". Associated Press. 4 October 2024. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  9. ^ Bryant, Miranda (31 October 2024). "'If I don't do it, who will?': Greenlandic MP defends actions in Danish parliament". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
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