The rediscovery of HMS Investigator: Archaeology, sovereignty and the colonial legacy in Canada’s Arctic
HMS Investigator, the British Navy vessel that discovered the North-West Passage in 1850, helped to stake Britain’s claim to Arctic territory. Her crew’s colonial attitudes towards the Indigenous Inuit inhabitants of the region have been perpetuated in archaeological interpretations of the ship’s im...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/1469605312458735 2024-10-13T14:04:07+00:00 The rediscovery of HMS Investigator: Archaeology, sovereignty and the colonial legacy in Canada’s Arctic Hodgetts, Lisa M. 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1469605312458735 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1469605312458735 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1469605312458735 en eng SAGE Publications https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Journal of Social Archaeology volume 13, issue 1, page 80-100 ISSN 1469-6053 1741-2951 journal-article 2013 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605312458735 2024-09-24T04:14:50Z HMS Investigator, the British Navy vessel that discovered the North-West Passage in 1850, helped to stake Britain’s claim to Arctic territory. Her crew’s colonial attitudes towards the Indigenous Inuit inhabitants of the region have been perpetuated in archaeological interpretations of the ship’s impact on local Inuit communities and in media coverage of the rediscovery of the ship by archaeologists in 2010, which framed the ship as a symbol of Canada’s Arctic sovereignty. As climate change continues to fuel international debates about the control of Arctic resources and to negatively impact the Arctic archaeological record, Arctic archaeology promises to become increasingly political. In the Canadian Arctic, a range of collaborative projects that bring together archaeologists and Inuit community groups to better understand the human history of the north have made important steps towards decolonizing our discipline and could ripple outwards to support Inuit demands for a voice in international debates about Arctic sovereignty. Should we choose, these projects could also work to change the way the past is mobilized and presented beyond archaeological circles, contributing more directly to social justice on a broader scale. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change inuit North West Passage SAGE Publications Arctic Journal of Social Archaeology 13 1 80 100 |
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crsagepubl |
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English |
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HMS Investigator, the British Navy vessel that discovered the North-West Passage in 1850, helped to stake Britain’s claim to Arctic territory. Her crew’s colonial attitudes towards the Indigenous Inuit inhabitants of the region have been perpetuated in archaeological interpretations of the ship’s impact on local Inuit communities and in media coverage of the rediscovery of the ship by archaeologists in 2010, which framed the ship as a symbol of Canada’s Arctic sovereignty. As climate change continues to fuel international debates about the control of Arctic resources and to negatively impact the Arctic archaeological record, Arctic archaeology promises to become increasingly political. In the Canadian Arctic, a range of collaborative projects that bring together archaeologists and Inuit community groups to better understand the human history of the north have made important steps towards decolonizing our discipline and could ripple outwards to support Inuit demands for a voice in international debates about Arctic sovereignty. Should we choose, these projects could also work to change the way the past is mobilized and presented beyond archaeological circles, contributing more directly to social justice on a broader scale. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hodgetts, Lisa M. |
spellingShingle |
Hodgetts, Lisa M. The rediscovery of HMS Investigator: Archaeology, sovereignty and the colonial legacy in Canada’s Arctic |
author_facet |
Hodgetts, Lisa M. |
author_sort |
Hodgetts, Lisa M. |
title |
The rediscovery of HMS Investigator: Archaeology, sovereignty and the colonial legacy in Canada’s Arctic |
title_short |
The rediscovery of HMS Investigator: Archaeology, sovereignty and the colonial legacy in Canada’s Arctic |
title_full |
The rediscovery of HMS Investigator: Archaeology, sovereignty and the colonial legacy in Canada’s Arctic |
title_fullStr |
The rediscovery of HMS Investigator: Archaeology, sovereignty and the colonial legacy in Canada’s Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
The rediscovery of HMS Investigator: Archaeology, sovereignty and the colonial legacy in Canada’s Arctic |
title_sort |
rediscovery of hms investigator: archaeology, sovereignty and the colonial legacy in canada’s arctic |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1469605312458735 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1469605312458735 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1469605312458735 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change inuit North West Passage |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change inuit North West Passage |
op_source |
Journal of Social Archaeology volume 13, issue 1, page 80-100 ISSN 1469-6053 1741-2951 |
op_rights |
https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605312458735 |
container_title |
Journal of Social Archaeology |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
80 |
op_container_end_page |
100 |
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1812809270824009728 |