This dissertation investigates the ways visitors to Haida Gwaii (sometimes called the Queen
Charlotte Islands) have written about the islands. I argue that accounts by visitors to Haida
Gwaii fashion the object that they seek to represent. In short, visitors' stories do not
unproblematically reflect the islands but determine how Haida Gwaii is perceived. These
perceptions in turn affect the actions of visitors, residents and governments. I contribute to
that representational process, striving to show the material consequences of language and the
ways discourses shape Haida Gwaii.
The dissertation consists of three sections. "Early visitors" focuses on the last quarter
of the eighteenth century, studying the earliest documented visits by Euro-American mariners
and fur traders. "Modern visitors" concentrates on the last quarter of the nineteenth century
and the beginning of the twentieth century, when some visitors were busy imposing colonial
forms of government and social organization, while others were resisting these projects.
"Recent visitors" concentrates on the final quarter of the twentieth century, examining the
campaign to save a portion of the archipelago from clearcutting and efforts to develop
alternatives to resource-extractive economic practices. By examining three case studies for
each period, I argue that the ways visitors imagine the islands have been transformed in each
of these periods.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/13172 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Martineau, Joel Barry |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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