Navigating_the_“Contact_Zone”_in_a_Journey_to_Wales's_Fort_in_Hudson's_Bay_to_the_Northern_Ocean_as_a_Site_of_Cultural_Exchange

Navigating the “Contact Zone” in A Journey to Wales’s Fort in Hudson’s Bay to the Northern Ocean as a Site of Cultural Exchange In Canadian Literature, initial meetings between First Nations peoples and European explorers reveal to readers the establishment of the “contact zone”. Mary Louise Pratt defines the “contact zone” as: The space of colonial encounters, the space in which peoples geographically and historically separated come into contact with each other and establish ongoing relations, usually involving conditions of coercion, radical inequality, and intractable conflict. […] But while the latter term is grounded within a European expansionist perspective (the frontier is a frontier only with respect to Europe), “contact zone” is an attempt to invoke the spatial and temporal copresence of subjects previously separated by geographic and historical disjunctures, and whose trajectories now intersect. By using the term “contact” I aim to foreground the interactive, improvisational dimensions of colonial encounters so easily ignored or suppressed by diffusionist accounts of conquest and domination. A “contact” perspective emphasizes how subjects are constituted in and by their relations among colonizers and colonized […] not in terms of separateness or apartheid, but in terms of copresence, interaction, interlocking understandings and practices, often within radically asymmetrical relations of power (Pratt 6-7). Rather than considering the contact zone as a place where cultural discourses war for supremacy and domination over one another, Pratt instead highlights how the colonizers and the colonized may come to a mutual understanding of each other within the contact zone. Samuel Hearne’s A Journey from Prince of Wales’s Fort in Hudson’s Bay to the Northern Ocean is an example of both concepts of Pratt’s definition of the contact zone. In an initial reading, Hearne’s narrative reveals his fervent desire to conquer the New World. To Hearne, the New World is representative of both the final destination of his journey as well as the people he travels with; however, his extended stay within the narrative’s contact zone changes his understanding of his purpose in the New World as well as the pre-existing symbolic systems that he had previously sought to impose on. As the text documents the journey, Hearne’s cultural ideology within the contact zone is shown to adapt and evolve through three distinct states: defined to questioned and, finally, to being cautiously accepted. By examining Hearne’s journal entries it can therefore e argued that A Journey from Prince Wales’s Fort in Hudson’s Bay to the Northern Ocean demonstrates how First Nations peoples and European explorers initially consider one another as distinctly foreign entities but gradually uncover parallels between Hearne and his companions through their shared experiences and expressions of individuality within the contact zone. At the beginning of Hearne’s journal entries documenting his journey to find the Coppermine River, the reader is given a solidly established English worldview which is categorized by the Enlightenment ideals threaded through Hearne’s account: This I found to be much harder work than the winter carriage, as my part of the luggage consisted of the following articles, viz. the quadrant and its stand, a trunk containing books, papers, &c., a land-compass, and a large bag containing all my wearing apparel; also a hatchet, knives, files, &c. beside several small articles, intended for presents for the natives (Bennet and Brown 29). The Enlightenment is characterized by its strong belief in reason, science, proof within empirical evidence and Rationality. Hearne’s meticulous list of luggage is part of this scientific desire to catalogue his environment. His maps and those of the other explorers shaped the expectations of the Europeans, conceptualizing space and claiming areas for oneself by ordering both the physical and imaginative reality of Canada according to Imperialist impulses. Explorers were not only writing to capture the European imagination, but they were also writing as anthropologists, recording the indigenous people’s lives and customs, albeit with an ethnocentric bias. This tendency to elevate European culture over that of the First Nations people’s appears in several places within the text as Hearne cannot help from viewing the “others” in the contact zone as a group that is to be both respected yet made civil according to European values: “I have frequently seen the Indians examine their wardrobe, which consisted chiefly of skin-clothing, and consider what part could be best spared […] to alleviate extreme hunger. The relation of such uncommon hardships may perhaps gain little credit in Europe; while those who are conversant with the history of Hudson’s Bay, and who are thoroughly acquainted with the distress which the natives of the country about it so frequently endure, may consider them as no more than common occurrences of an Indian Life…” (Bennet and Brown 31). Hearne approaches the lifestyle of his guides with equal parts awe and pity as his worldview, tempered with the Enlightenment philosophy of reason, attempts to rationalize what his is viewing in an attempt to preserve it with as much accuracy as possible. At this point, Hearne’s navigation of the contact zone sees him still firmly embedded within his own ideologies, Hearne presents himself as the archetype of European explorers, detached from the unknown world around him and attempting to refit the information in front of him rather than trying to comprehend it. As the narrative progresses, Hearne is shown to gradually question his initial assessments of First Nations culture as seen in his entry on May 31st, 1771. Hearne relates that during his stay at Clowey “ great number of Indians entered into combination of those of my party to accompany us to the Copper-mine River and with no other intent than to murder the Esquimaux, who are understood by the Copper Indians to frequent that river in considerable number” (Bennet and Brown 32. In light of this information, Hearne navigates the contact zone, in this case featuring a bloody massacre, as he had throughout the rest of his exploration narrative. “When I was acquainted with the intentions of my companions, and saw the warlike preparations that [they] were carrying on, I endeavoured as much as possible to persuade them from putting their inhuman designs into execution; but so far were my entreaties from having the wished-for effect, that it was concluded I was actuated by cowardice; and they told me, with great marks of derision, that I was afraid of the Esquimaux” (Bennet and Brown 33). In response to Hearne’s culturally biased assessment of their actions, his First Nations companions proceed to do the exact same thing to him by judging his words upon the basis of their own cultural understanding. This sudden reversal of roles causes Hearne to question his own place among his companions and causes him to realize that it is not his place to interfere in their fighting: Indeed, when I came to consider seriously, I saw evidently that it was the highest folly for an individual like me, and in my situation, to attempt to turn the current of a national prejudice which had subsisted between those two nations from the earliest periods, or at least as long as they had been acquainted with the existence of each other (Bennet and Brown 33). Hearne acknowledges his own ethnocentrism and accepts the cultural relativism that his companions pointed out to him. Rather than judge the actions to be taken against the Esquimaux as “wrong” and attempt to enforce his own cultural values of what is “right”, Hearne enters an agreement within the contact zone upon the validity of their actions and lays the matter to rest. Lastly, the narrative is seen to bring the interaction between Hearne and his First Nation guides within the contact zone full circle from the initial stages of Hearne’s ethnocentricity with the group’s preparation for and massacre of the Esquimaux as Hearne comes to an acceptance of the New World he and his allies must come to coexist in. Before the “battle” begins, Hearne places himself among the other warriors not as a superior but as an equal, adopting some of their customs as his own, “I thought it also advisable to pull off my stockings and cap, and to tie my hair as close up as possible” (Bennet and Brown 35). This deceptively simple action conveys a mutual understanding between Hearne and his allies, while he does not agree with their choices he still counts himself among them and chooses to engage the enemy using their tactics because he understands that it will best ensure his survival. In the heat of the massacre Hearne is finally faced with a true test of his ideological values within the contact zone when he must chose between his ideals and the stark reality of the New World when faced with a mortally wounded Esquimaux female: As two Indian men pursued this unfortunate victim, I solicited very hard for her life; but the murderers made no reply till they had stuck both spears through her body, and transfixed her to the ground. […] Indeed, after receiving much abusive language from them on the occasion, I was at length obliged to desire that they be more expeditious in dispatching their victim out of her misery otherwise I should be obliged, out of pity, to assist in the friendly office of putting an end to the existence of a fellow-creature who was so cruelly wounded (Bennet and Brown 36). The dying Esquimaux girl is a motif for the damsel in distress; however, the hero in this case takes a passive role as opposed to active engagement. The image of the Native in need of saving appears throughout exploration literature because Europeans saw these peoples as inferior and in need of civilizing; this girl is a European simple for the First Nations cry for help. The difference in Hearne’s portrayal is his acceptance of the scene around him; although he is evidently disturbed and pained by the massacre he takes passive stance as he realizes that there is little he can do here aside from entreat his comrades to slaughter mercifully and efficiently. He accepts the culture of these people as something that he cannot immediately change but can observe and learn from. Furthermore, the facet that he refers to the dying girl as a “fellow-creature” solicits a mutual understanding between himself and the First Nations people, rather than viewing her solely as an “Esquimaux” or his guides primarily as “Southern Indians” he considers them as equals since his time within the contact zone has altered the way he views the world. Hearne transitions from a role that may initially have been described as intrusive to one that is observant and increasingly understanding. In conclusion, Samuel Hearne’s A Journey from Prince of Wales’s Fort in Hudon’s Bay to the Northern Ocean reveals to the reader how the speaker’s construction of First Nations peoples evolved from one of decided separateness to something more familiar as both parties operated within the contact zone towards a common goal. Hearne’s Eurocentric worldview initially sets out to remake First Nations culture into something more reminiscent of his own yet his efforts falter as his travelling companions reveal that he is just as foreign and uncivilized as Hearne considered them. This revelation causes Hearne to reconsider his own position within the contact zone and eventually allows him to come to an acceptance that both cultures are mutually independent and significant to their people. Therefore, it is fair to say that A Journey from Prince of Wales’s Fort in Hudon’s Bay to the Northern Ocean reveals how interaction within the contact zone need not be based upon inequality and conflict but, as Pratt argues, can instead reveal relationships described “in terms of copresence, interaction, interlocking understandings and practices, often within radically asymmetrical relations of power” (Pratt 7). Works Cited Bennet, Donna and Brown, Russell. A New Anthology of Canadian Literature in English. Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pratt, Mary Louise. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge, 1992. .