Islanders seize chance to spotlight their cause

In one corner, friends discuss this month's visit by Donald Trump Jr, while in another, coffee is being roasted, as the northern lights dance across the dark early evening sky.

- Miranda Bryant

Suddenly, a group at the neighbouring table erupts into excited squeals. The rest of the coffee shop responds enthusiastically.

"There was a big catch of narwhals," explained Aka Hansen, an Inuit filmmaker. "Welcome to Greenland." Trump Jr's brief visit to Nuuk, the Greenlandic capital, and comments by his father reiterating his interest in acquiring the world's largest island and threatening military action to do so, have sparked mixed opinions in this Arctic autonomous territory.

But what nobody seems to disagree on is the global spotlight it has put on Greenland, its geopolitical strategic importance, and its relationship with Denmark, which formerly ruled the island as a colony and continues to control its foreign and security policy.

It is a moment the pre-existing independence movement - and those whose years of protests against racist practices against Greenlanders, both current and historic, have for so long gone ignored - do not plan to waste.