The role of cultural heritage in the geopolitics of the Arctic: the example of Franklin’s lost expedition

Abstract

Sir John Franklin’s ships departed from Greenhithe port in Great Britain (1845) with the aim of discovering the Northwest Passage in what is now Canada. During their journey, both ships got stuck in ice near King William Island and eventually sank. Over time, searches were held in order to find both wrecks. More recently, under the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper (2006–2015) there was renewed interest regarding what is now referred to as Franklin’s lost expedition. Searches resumed and narratives were formed regarding the importance of this expedition for Canadian identity. This article is embedded in a sociocultural perspective and will examine the role that cultural heritage can play in the geopolitics of the Arctic while highlighting the process of ‘patrimonialization’ that the Franklin’s lost expedition has undergone during Harper’s term in office. Based on discourse analysis, it brings out the main narratives that surrounded the modern searches of Franklin’s wrecks which are related to history, national historic sites, mystery, diversity, importance of Inuit knowledge and information gathering. This article demonstrates that these narratives were intended to form a new Canadian northern identity and to assert Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic.

History and philosophy of geography III: Global histories of geography, statues that must fall and a radical and multilingual turn

“…Still critically addressed by historians of cartography (Barber, 2020; Lois, 2020), the history of exploration and expeditions is also used for current political claims. Canadian scholarship discusses how the legacy of the famous Franklin’s ‘lost expedition’ of 1845–1846 has been variously mobilised by Canadian governments, especially the conservative, ‘to form a new Canadian northern identity and to assert Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic’ (Pawliw et al, 2021: 9). While these aims can be quite straightforwardly considered as imperial, it is puzzling to note parallel attempts to use this memorial heritage to ‘unite Anglophones, Francophones and First Nations under the term that they all participated in the war [of 1812]’ (Pawliw et al, 2021: 12), trying to (nationalistically) enroll the first victims of imperialism, that is, indigenous peoples, through the shared memory of ‘heroic’ imperial expeditions.…”

“…Canadian scholarship discusses how the legacy of the famous Franklin’s ‘lost expedition’ of 1845–1846 has been variously mobilised by Canadian governments, especially the conservative, ‘to form a new Canadian northern identity and to assert Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic’ (Pawliw et al, 2021: 9). While these aims can be quite straightforwardly considered as imperial, it is puzzling to note parallel attempts to use this memorial heritage to ‘unite Anglophones, Francophones and First Nations under the term that they all participated in the war [of 1812]’ (Pawliw et al, 2021: 12), trying to (nationalistically) enroll the first victims of imperialism, that is, indigenous peoples, through the shared memory of ‘heroic’ imperial expeditions. Again, the diversity of geography’s political uses is apparent in the underplaying of Franklin’s memorialisation under the current liberal government, less interested in Arctic competition than its predecessors, according to the paper’s authors.…”