Unsettled Natives in the Newfoundland Imaginary

Abstract

In Newfoundland, the last Beothuk died nearly two hundred years ago and both European settlers and Mi'kmaq have been blamed for their demise. This history is contentious, as is the way the demise of the Beothuk is represented in museums, literature and the arts, which may be regarded as public acts of remembering. Indigeneity debates here relate to other identity issues linked to resisting the subsumation of Newfoundland into Canada since confederation in 1949. Drawing on postcolonial literature studies, this chapter investigates how the theme of ‘unsettled natives’ – referring to both the subject (contemporary Newfoundlanders) and the object (Beothuk) – is portrayed in literature and art where the presence of the extinct Beothuk haunts the Newfoundland imaginary.