Encounters on the Passage: Inuit Meet the Explorers

by Dorothy Harley Eber

Inuit elders who grew up in camps on the shores of Frobisher Bay can tell you what happened when Martin Frobisher arrived with his vessel in 1576: "He fired two warning shots into the air. So right away there were some grievances." Frobisher's shots were the opening salvos in the search for the Northwest Passage, a search that lasted for more than four hundred years and riveted the Western world, particularly in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. In Encounters on the Passage , present day Inuit tell the stories that have been passed down from their ancestors of the first encounters with European explorers. In many of these stories the old cosmogony is still in place, with shamans playing starring roles opposite "the strangers intruding on the Inuit lands." Dorothy Harley Eber presents stories told to her about the expeditions of Sir Edward Parry, Sir John Ross, Sir John Franklin, and the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, and sets them squarely in historical context. In the case of the disasterous Franklin expedition, new information opens up another fascinating chapter on the Franklin tragedy. Collected over twelve years on visits to communities in Nunavut, these remarkable stories of expeditionary forces and their dealings with native peoples will be new and exciting reading for those interested in the search for the Northwest Passage, the Franklin tragedy, and traditions of oral history.

Genres: History, Canada, Nonfiction, Travel

196 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting perspective on arctic exploration from the Inuit point of view. I like that the author always names both the storyteller and the translator. Unfortunately the kindle edition had a lot of formatting issues and most of the images were removed.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kindle adaptation is annoying but the book is interesting

[Alissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look at history and the passing of time.

[AskHistorians]

In this book, Dorothy Eber examines the oral traditions of the Inuit in Canada’s north as they have maintained and passed on stories of initial contact with white Europeans. She particularly focuses on the narratives surrounding the 1576 Frobisher expedition, Edward Parry in 1822, and the Franklin Expedition in 1845.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating