The Wreck-site: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:50, 2 March 2025

Gjoa Haven holds the wrecks of HMS Terror and Erebus, material traces of long-standing Inuit-Qablunaat (non-Inuit) encounters. These sites are not static ruins but shifting spaces where history, knowledge, and materiality intertwine—whether through the repurposing of shipwood into tools or broader structures like Inuit Land Claim Agreements. The wrecksite, like my research, is shaped by layered histories and ongoing transformation.

Like a wreck, my research is shaped by seasonal forces—shifting ice and weather alter what can be known. But wrecks do not just decay; they become foundations for new growth. Similarly, the BearWatch project entangles science-based conservation, Inuit self-determination, and co-management, making research itself a contested space. It is both a site of "becoming reef," opening new possibilities, and "becoming heritage," embedded in power-laden histories that shape its course.

See how, a process of wayfaring reconceptualizes the idea of "final workshops" from projects coming to an end, towards being stories-so-far that are always also another point of beginning.

Turn to "Another Point of Beginning"

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[File:Landmark.png|thumb]]
-Althought the wrecksite can be seen as a familiar trope in the post-humanities and "blue" literature, it is in this case not a metaphorical figure. Around Gjoa Haven, two such sites, harbouring the shipwrecks of HMS Terror and HMS Erebus exist in proximity to the community. These sites speak to longstanding (knowledge) encounters between Qablunaat (non-Inuit people) and Inuit across time and space. Whether such encounters materialize through site-specific instances, by for example the repurposing of wood from these shipwrecks to create traditional objects, or through more generally encompassing structures like the Inuit Land Claim Agreements, the wrecksite refers, for me, to the materiality of cross-cultural encounter across time and space.
+Gjoa Haven holds the wrecks of HMS Terror and Erebus, material traces of long-standing Inuit-Qablunaat (non-Inuit) encounters. These sites are not static ruins but shifting spaces where history, knowledge, and materiality intertwine—whether through the repurposing of shipwood into tools or broader structures like Inuit Land Claim Agreements. The wrecksite, like my research, is shaped by layered histories and ongoing transformation.
-The wrecksite emerged as a complex body in which the apparatuses of (inter)national science-based polar bear conservation, Inuit self-determination, polar bear co-management and monitoring, but also the Bearwatch project, my knowledge-land-scape and your decisions are entangled. The shipwreck is a figure that gestures towards the dynamic interplay of all such material agencies.
+Like a wreck, my research is shaped by seasonal forces—shifting ice and weather alter what can be known. But wrecks do not just decay; they become foundations for new growth. Similarly, the BearWatch project entangles science-based conservation, Inuit self-determination, and co-management, making research itself a contested space. It is both a site of "becoming reef," opening new possibilities, and "becoming heritage," embedded in power-laden histories that shape its course.
-Considering the BearWatch project as multiple sites of both cultural and natural multiplicity and opportunity, allows for understanding that ethical engagement might not need to be all or nothing endeavor, but rather a vista that opens previously closed processes to the possibilities of doing things differently - even if only "here and there". Like shipwrecks, projects might be sites of ‘becoming reef’, as well as they are sites of ‘becoming heritage’.
 <div class="next_choice">See how, a process of wayfaring reconceptualizes the idea of "final workshops" from projects coming to an end, towards being stories-so-far that are always also another point of beginning. </div>
 <span class="return to cut 3 link" data-page-title="Fall 2022 Gjoa Haven" data-section-id="3" data-encounter-type="return">[[Fall 2022 Gjoa Haven#Another Point of Beginning|Turn to "Another Point of Beginning"]]</span>