The Land Was Always Used: An Inuit Oral History of the Franklin Expedition

The Land Was Always Used: An Inuit Oral History of the Franklin Expedition

Edited by Connie Gunn

Gjoa Haven: Nattilik Heritage Centre, 2024

Reviewed by Russell A. Potter

When I heard back in 2018 that there was to be a new project to collect testimony about the Franklin expedition from Inuit elders in Gjoa Haven, I was tremendously excited. First, because a project of this kind had long been a dream of my late fiend Louie Kamookak, and secondly because I held out hope that local traditional knowledge might yet add key elements to the Inuit testimony about the Franklin expedition. In many ways, the finished book of this project exceeded my expectations; it's beautifully produced and richly illustrated, in a large format that lends itself to sidebars and connections amidst the imagery. At the same time, though, the actual amount of new information about the Franklin story is fairly modest, and in most cases adds only a slight degree of clarity or context to what we've long known from the oral stories collected in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Traditional Inuit territories (19th century), from the book

The book opens with, and draws heavily upon, the oral testimony collected in the 1850's, 60's, and 70's by Franklin searchers such as McClintock, Hall, and Schwatka. Its first figure is Pooyetta, who along with his wife Tooktoocheer was among the first Inuit to come upon the remains of the Franklin expedition and its men. There are conflicting surmises about his discoveries -- and whether the boat he found and the bodies he discovered were actually at the same place -- but here, they're treated as the same, in a narrative that draws on accounts given to Hall and Schwatka.

From there, the book steps back to give a general introduction to the Inuit presence in Qikiqtak (King William Island), the Franklin expedition, and the stories gathered over the years. In a sidebar, the editor makes an important point about difference between the older accounts transcribed by nineteenth-century searchers and those collected as part of this new oral history project:

"Inuit are particular about getting their facts straight, and very careful to tell a story in the way that story was told to them ... Inuit recognize that stories about Franklin and other Qablunaat are shadows of the originals told by their ancestors, and are reticent to speak of something they may not know enough about ... During interviews for the book, Saul Aqsaluk Qirngnirq abruptly ended more than one anecdote with 'That's all my father knew or 'That's the end of that story.'"

All this is prelude to the main body of the book, which is organized into six chapters, ranging from "We are the Descendants" to "A Nice Place to Be" to "They Perished Here Too." As the titles imply, the focus here is on contemporary Inuit from Gjoa Haven, their perspective on these now-distant events, and their relationship with the land and its creatures. It's fair enough to observe, as the editors do here, that the lost Franklin expedition was really just a small blip in the long and continuous memory of the people, which was -- sensibly enough -- more concerned with hunting, fishing, and the ways of the land and climate. The book is certainly a rich source of Qauijimajatuqangit -- Inuit traditional knowledge -- from this region, but while the sites associated with Franklin are given prominence, it's the necessities of daily life that stand at the center. As Gjoa Haven elder Martha Pooyatak says in the quote that gives the book its title, "The land was used before I was born. It was always used."

Patsy Klengenberg's trading post

The second chapter, "They Kept On Coming," mixed brief quotes from the historical testimony (Kok-lee-arng-nun and Seepunger among them) with a series of brief accounts from the elders, keyed to a map of the island. This continues into the second chapter, which focuses on Terror Bay; the link there is Patsy Klengenberg's fur trading post there and the recollections of some of his descendants; again, historical voices mingle with those of present-day elders. What's added is certainly a strong sense of place, though little of this new testimony adds any detail to the Franklin story. 

Along the way, numerous sidebars introduce elements of Inuit culture and knowledge, from "preserving fish" to "Inuit navigation" to "Inuit and Qablunaat Burial Practices." Gorgeous photographs, many by the well-known photographer Michelle Valberg, appear alongside well-reproduced historical maps and sketches; as a visual document, the book certainly gives readers a strong sense of the place in which these stories transpired. Here and there, the words of the elders add an interesting element to the tradition, as when Saul Aqslaluk Qirngnirq recalls a person seeing two boats "still covered with their loads":

"The men gathered at the camp and they all went to the boats. The loads were covered -- hadn't been unloaded and there was nobody else around. When the covers were removed, they revealed guns on top of the load. They later learned that they were guns as they didn't know what guns were ... they smashed the wood off against a rock to salvage the metal."

This testimony certainly rings true, and adds some possible insight into there having been not one but two boats at the infamous "boat place."

Saul  Aqslaluk Qirngnirq and Dave Woodman, 2002

The final chapter, "Working Together," details some of the work accomplished in modern times by searchers working in collaboration with Inuit and using the historical testimony as a guide; it culminates in the discovery of the ships, and goes on to offer a brief account of the continuing move toward collaboration and co-curation of found artifacts that has made the past few years much more of a shared endeavor, with benefits to Inuit as well as to the larger communities of Canada and the world.

It's a worthy book, perhaps best read in the spirit with which it was assembled -- that of learning, listening, and imagining these histories in the fullest possible context of the land and the people, guided by the voices of the elders. It's tempting to pick through it looking for just those bits that add something to our imagining of the Franklin story, but that would miss the larger point of the book.

Finally, a word on availability; for now, the book can't be obrained through any of the usual online channels or book chains. Co-published by the Nattilik Heritage Centre and Parks Canada, it was printed by Friesens in Altona, Manitoba, and the ISBN prefix is one that's been used in previous publications by Parks Canada. The NHC is currently working to find ways to make it more readily available; I'll certainly update readers here if and when I hear further details.