Unedited Gaze
Kawésqar Women and Men in the journal and watercolours of Lieutenant Vereker (H.M.S. Alert, 1879)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22199/issn.0718-1043-2020-0041Keywords:
Western Patagonia, Kawesqar, Fuegians, British Empire, Travel literature, WatercoloursAbstract
The Royal Navy’s officer F.C.P. Vereker did like to paint, and he did live on board between 1865 and 1884. Since he was 15 and up to his 34 he travelled through the world engaging in different tasks, as sounding the coasts of Patagonia and Australia, or bombing the port of Fort Jesus, in current Kenya. In most of his destinations, Vereker painted watercolours, and wrote down his impressions about them and the peoples who inhabited there. Almost all of his manuscripts of fine calligraphy and attached small paintings are located at the Royal Geographical Society, in London, and all of them remain unpublished. In this article I do present for the first time Vereker’s double register, visual and textual, of his stay in the South American Pacific archipelagos in early 1879, focusing on his representations of the Kawésqar men, women and territory; they are analysed in the context of the travelogues of the period. I do argue that the singularity of Vereker’s work is meaningful as it does produce a rather nuanced narrative, distant of the barbarizing rush of British authors as Fitz Roy, Cunnigham y Coppinger.
Downloads
References
Aguilera, O. (1978). Léxico kawésqar-español (alacalufe septentrional), BFUCh, 24, 7-149. Recuperado de http://repositorio.uchile.cl/bitstream/handle/2250/132559/Lexico-kawesqar-%20Espa%C3%B1ol.pdf?sequence=1
Aguilera, O. (2017). El nombre Kawésqar, un problema no sólo lingüístico. Magallania, 45 (1), 75-84. Recuperado de https://scielo.conicyt.cl/pdf/magallania/v45n1/0718-2244-magallania-45-01-00075.pdf
Aguilera, O. y Tonko, J. (2013). Relatos de viaje kawésqar. Nómadas canoeros de la Patagonia Occidental. Temuco: Ofqui Editores.
Álvarez, A. (2016). William Low. Lobero del fin del mundo. Puerto Natales: s.ed.
Byron, J. (1768). The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron (Commodore in a Late Expedition Round the World) Containing an Account of the Great Distresses Suffered by Himself and his Companions on the Coast of Patagonia; From the Year 1740, till their Arrival in England, 1746. Londres: S. Baker & G. Leigh. Recuperado de https://archive.org/details/narrativeofhonou00byro
Camerini, J. (1997). Remains of the Day: Early Victorians in the Field. En Lightman, B. (Ed.). Victorian Science in Context (354-77). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cooper, J. (1917). Analytical and Critical Bibliography of the Tribes of Tierra del Fuego and Adjacent Territory. Edited by Smithsonian Institution. Washington: Government Printing Office.
Coppinger, R. W. (1884). Cruise of the Alert. Four Years in Patagonian, Polynesian, and Mascarene Waters (1878-82). (2ª ed.). Nueva York, NY: R. Worthington. Recuperado de https://archive.org/details/cruiseofalertfou00copp/page/n10
Cunningham, R. (1871). Notes on the Natural History of the Strait of Magellan. Notes on the Natural History of the Strait of Magellan and West Coast of Patagonia, Made During the Voyage of H.M.S. ‘Nassau’ in the Years 1866, 67, 68, & 69. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas. Recuperado de https://archive.org/details/notesonnaturalhi00cunn/page/n13
Darwin, Ch. (1839). Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World. Londres: Henry Colburn. Recuperado de http://darwin-online.org.uk/contents.html
FitzRoy, R. (1839). Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the Years 1826 and 1836, Describing Their Examination of the Southern Shores of South America, and the Beagle's Circumnavigation of the Globe. Proceedings of the Second Expedition, 1831-36, under the Command of Captain Robert Fitz-Roy, R.N. 3 vols. Londres: Henry Colburn. Recuperado de http://darwin-online.org.uk/pdf/1839_voyage_F10.2.pdf
Gusinde, M. (1951). Hombres primitivos de Tierra del Fuego (de investigador a compañero de tribu). Trad. Diego Bermúdez. Sevilla: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos.
Harambour, A. y Barrena, J. (2019). Barbarie o justicia en la Patagonia occidental: las violencias coloniales en el ocaso del pueblo kawésqar, finales del siglo XIX e inicios del siglo XX. Historia Crítica, 71, 25-48. Recuperado de http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0121-16172019000100025&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=es
Harambour, A. (2016a). “Sheep Sovereignties: The Colonization of the Falkland Islands/Malvinas, Patagonia, and Tierra del Fuego, 1830s–1910s”. En Beezley, W. (Ed.). Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. New York: Oxford University Press.
Harambour, A. (2016b). Monopolizar la violencia en una frontera colonial. Policías y militares en Patagonia austral (Argentina y Chile, 1870-1922). Quinto Sol, 20(1), 1-27. Recuperado de https://cerac.unlpam.edu.ar/index.php/quintosol/article/view/867/1110
Ingram. T. (2014). Library wins fight for journal of ship with exotic battle history. Australian Art Sale Digest, 5 de noviembre de 2014. Recuperado de https://www.aasd.com.au/index.cfm/news/507-library-wins-fight-for-journal-of-ship-with-exotic-battle-histor/
Kent, R. (1923). Voyaging Southward from the Strait of Magellan. New York: Halcyon House. Recuperado de https://archive.org/details/voyagingsouthwar00kentuoft
Kusch, R. (1953 [2007]). La seducción de la barbarie. Obras completas. Tomo I (pp. 3-134) Rosario: Fundación Ross. Recuperado de https://ifdc6m-juj.infd.edu.ar/aula/archivos/repositorio/500/579/Kusch-Rodolfo-Obras-Completas-Tomo-I.pdf
Lyon, D. y Wienfield, R. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy Ships. All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889. Londres: Chatham Publishing.
Martens, C. (1834). Sketches Books of the Beagle, I y III. Cambridge Digital Library. Recuperado de https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/search?keyword=Martens%2C%20Conrad%2C%201801-1878&page=1
Martens, C. (1994). Conrad Martens: journal of a voyage from England to Australia aboard HMS Beagle and HMS Hyacinth 1833-35. Trans. Michael Organ. Sydney: State Library of NSW Press. https://ro.uow.edu.au/asdpapers/123/ ISBN 073058920X
Martinic, M. (2007). Notas históricas sobre los inicios de la pintura realista en Magallanes (1834-1940). Magallania, 35(1), 5-32. Recuperado de https://scielo.conicyt.cl/pdf/magallania/v35n1/art01.pdf
Organ, M. (1996). Conrad Martens' Beagle Pictures. General Catalogue of the Drawings, Watercolours & Oils executed by Conrad Martens in association with his voyages to South America & the Pacific Islands whilst Artist with the Beagle Expedition and on board vesels such as H.M.S. Hyacinth May 1833 - 9 February 1835. Adapted from lists compiled by D. James (1964) & R.D. Keynes (1979) 1 May 1996. Recuperado de https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=0&article=1126&context=asdpapers&type=additional
The Times, Londres, 1870-1920.
Tonko, J. (2008). Relatos de viaje kawésqar. Onomázein, 18, 11-47. Recuperado de http://onomazein.letras.uc.cl/Articulos/18/01_Tonko.pdf
Vereker, F.C.P. 1879. Journal of the Alert. Vereker Collection, vol. 5, 1878-83. Royal Geographical Society. ARCHON code: 402
Prensa
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Alberto Harambour
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All works published in Revista Estudios Atacameños (ISSN on line:0718-1043) Revista Estudios Atacameños Creative Commons International 4.0 attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence.
Authors remain the owners of their work and may republish their articles elsewhere without having to request permission, as long as they indicate that the work was originally published in Revista Estudios Atacameños (ISSN on liine:0718-1043).