Benutzer:Shi Annan/Qalaherriaq

Qalaherriaq (Vorlage:CircaVorlage:SndJune 14, 1856), baptized as Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua, was an Inughuaq who served as a guide for the HMS Assistance, afterwards becoming the first Greenlandic Inuk to visit the United Kingdom.

Name

Qalaherriaq was known by various names. Qalaherriaq or Qalaherhuaq are approximations of his name's pronunciation in his native dialect of Inuktun, rendered as Qalasirssuaq in standard Greenlandic. This was rendered Kallihirua in contemporary sources, and frequently abbreviated "Kalli".Vorlage:Sfn He was named Erasmus York (after Captain Erasmus Ommanney and Cape York), before his baptism in 1853 as Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua. Other spellings of his name include Caloosa, Calahierna, Kalersik, Ka’le’sik, Qalaseq, and Kalesing.Vorlage:Sfn

Early life and European contact

Crayon drawing of Inughuit hunters by Qalaherriaq, 1850s

Qalaherriaq was born to Qisunnguaq and Saattoq Vorlage:CircaVorlage:Efn members of an Inughuit band near Cape York and Wolstenholme Fjord in northwestern Greenland. He had a younger sister, alongside possibly another younger sibling, both of unknown name.Vorlage:Sfn His band, situated near auk-hunting grounds,Vorlage:Sfn would encounter various British ships in the search for Franklin's lost expedition.Vorlage:Sfn

Search for Franklin's expedition

Vorlage:Further information In 1845, Sir John Franklin commanded an expedition attempting to transit the final uncharted sections of the Northwest Passage in what is now western Nunavut. The two ships under Franklin's command, the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were trapped by ice in the Victoria Strait. The ships were abandoned in April, 1848, and all remaining crew members presumably died while attempting to traverse the Canadian Arctic mainland. Beginning in March 1848, by which time no word had returned from the expedition for several years, the Admirality launched a series of expeditions to locate whatever remained of Franklin's expedition.

On August 12, 1850, the brigs HMS Lady Franklin and HMS Sophia, under the command of whaler and explorer William Penny, reached the coast of Cape York. Upon sighting an approaching Inughuit kayak, the Sophia anchored. The three men aboard the kayak were invited on deck to meet with Penny's interpreter, Johan Carl Petersen, a Dane from Upernavik. Petersen inquired for information relating to Franklin's expedition, but the relatively large number of European ships previously sighted in the region, coupled with the Inughuit's great excitement aboard the vessel resulted in no useful information, and the Inughuit returned to shore.Vorlage:Sfn

Cape York landing

Painting of the HMS Assistance stuck in ice, 1853

The following day, the Prince Albert and Assistance spotted the same group of Inughuit. A landing party, including Captains Charles Forsyth and Erasmus Ommanney. They were greeted by two young men, including Qalaherriaq.Vorlage:Sfn However, none of the landing party could speak Inuktun, and were unable to communicate with the band ashore. They were shortly joined by Captain John Ross and his Greenlandic Inuit interpreter, Adam Beck.Vorlage:Sfn After a long conversation, the only ship that could be readily identified was the North Star, a supply ship which had passed the region prior during another search for Franklin's expedition.Vorlage:Sfn

Upon the officers return to their ships, Beck became notably distressed. Beck explained that the Inughuit mentioned an additional ship that had passed through the area in 1846 staffed by naval officers, which was massacred by another Inughuit band while camping ashore at Wolstenholme Fjord. Ommanney and Petersen returned to the shore to interrogate the Inughuit band further, suspecting that Beck may have invented the story, or that alternatively the band may have been responsible for the massacre. When the same information about the North Star was repeated to the explorers and denied any violence against the British, Ommanney recruited Qalaherriaq to serve as an interpreter on the HMS Assistance.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn

Interpreter service

Vorlage:Quotebox Qalaherriaq was described in Ommanney's diary as readily volunteering to go with the expedition, without even returning to camp to gather his possessions. Later British sources state that he was fully ready to "remain under the captain’s own personal care, and be with him always", and that he had stoically accepted his role as an interpreter due to a lack of surviving family; however, this account has been heavily disputed by later scholarship.Vorlage:Sfn

Significant contradictions exist between period descriptions of Qalaherriaq's volunteering to service. Snow's 1851 account, Voyage of the Prince Albert in Search of Sir John Franklin, describes him as a "young man without father or mother", while Petersen's 1857 Erindringer Fra Polarlandene describes him as being unbothered by leaving his mother.Vorlage:Sfn Qalaherriaq was originally planned to return to his family after guiding the Assisstance to Wolstenholme Fjord.Vorlage:Sfn

Upon boarding the Assistance, Qalaherriaq was washed and dressed in European clothing. He was given the name Erasmus York, although continued to be called variations of his birth name while aboard. He was seen as a curiosity and "the life of the party" by the crew, who recruited him to participate in the "Royal Arctic Theatre", a trope of theatrical performances. Ommanney described him as "an interesting specimen of uncivilised life."Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn He was the subject of a satirical article published in the Northern Lights, a ship newspaper published aboard the Assistance, where the Inuk is depicted as praising European civilization, while making various naïve and childlike statements about ship life, including a joke about him misidentifying sailors cross-dressing during a masquerade as shamanic spirits.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn While on board the Assistance, Qalaherriaq drew several detailed maps of the surrounding fjords.

Wolstenholme Fjord

Buried Esquimaux by Qalaherriaq, showing two Europeans standing by an Inughuit burial, 1850s

Qalaherriaq guided the Assistance to Wolstenholme Fjord in order to dispel the claims of a massacre of Franklin expedition.Vorlage:Sfn The crew encountered several abandoned igluit at the site of Uummannaq, now Pituffik. Inside one igloo, the crew found a heaped pile of seven bodies, the survivors presumed to have fled the area without burying the dead due to a disease epidemic. The crew excavated several graves, finding both Inuit and British seamen from the North Star. An officer examined a grave and removed a narwhal tusk spear placed atop the grave. The Qalaherriaq cried and begged him to put the spear back, recognizing the grave as being that of his father, Qisunnguaq. The grave was repaired by another officer and the spear, considered in Inughuit customs to be used by the dead for protection in the afterlife, was returned. Royal Navy explorers commonly looted artifacts and remains from Inughuit graves for the anthropological and racial science collections of British museums.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn

With sea conditions rendering return to Cape York impossible, the Assistance crossed Baffin Bay and wintered at Griffith Island, near the present location of Resolute. Icebergs continued to pose a threat the following spring, and the ship began the return trip to England without returning Qalaherriaq to his family.Vorlage:Sfn

Early 20th century Inughuit oral histories describe Qalaherriaq as being abducted by the explorers, with his mother mourning his disappearance without ever learning of his fate.Vorlage:Sfn The loss of a adolescent son, expected to hunt for the family, would place a great material burden on his mother and siblings, especially during an era marked by severe hardship for the Inughuit.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn

England

Qalaherriaq arrived in England in the autumn of 1851 aboard the Assistance, and was brought to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. In October 1851, he visited the Great Exhibition in London alongside Reverend Murray of the Society, one of a group of clergy and officers who served as caretakers to Qalaherriaq.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn

In November, at the recommendation of the Admiralty and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, he was placed in St Augustine’s College, a Church of England missionary college in Canterbury. Here he learned to read and write alongside a religious education. During his time at St Augustine's, he additionally served as an apprentice to a local tailor. From 1852 to 1853 he was interviewed by Captain John Washington for a revised edition of his Greenlandic linguistics text, Eskimaux and English vocabulary, for the use of the Arctic expeditions. By September 1852, he had made some progress in English but struggled with reading. He was reported to greatly enjoy writing, and made friendships with younger children in his spelling classes.Vorlage:Sfn

Qalaherriaq suffered from a chronic illness since his time on the Assistance. He coughed frequently, and by the spring of 1853 was bedridden for several days during a period of poor weather.Vorlage:Sfn On November 27, 1853, he was baptized as Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua at St. Martin’s Church in Canterbury, in a ceremony attended by Captain Ommanney and various ministers and clergy, alongside various members of "the poorer class to whom Kalli is well known".Vorlage:Sfn At some point while in England, he sat for a life-size double portrait by an unknown artist, which some decades later was donated for display at the Royal Navy College in Greenwich.Vorlage:Sfn

Newfoundland and death

Appointed by the Bishop of Newfoundland and the Warden of St Augustine's, Qalaherriaq was sent to the Newfoundland Colony to assist missionary efforts among the Inuit of Labrador. To support this, he was given a £25 per year stipend.Vorlage:Sfn He arrived at St John's, Newfoundland on October 2, 1855. Although all were Inuit languages, Qalaherriaq's dialect of Greenlandic was a distinct language from the Nunatsiavummiutitut dialect of Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, and Qalaherriaq struggled to communicate with a Moravian missionary from Labrador.Vorlage:Sfn He attended the Theological Institute (now Queen's College, part of the Memorial University. While in Newfoundland, he practiced ice skating, but continued to suffer from chronic illness.Vorlage:Sfn

He planned to accompany the Bishop of Newfoundland on missionary work to Labrador in the summer of 1856. However, after swimming in cold water at St. John's, his health declined rapidly. Bedridden for a week, he died on June 14, 1856. An autopsy was taken in the following weeks to ascertain a cause of death, concluding that he died of heart failure associated with long-term tuberculosis.Vorlage:Sfn

References

Bibliography

• Ingeborg Høvik, Axel Jeremiassen: Traces of an Arctic Voice: The Portrait of Qalaherriaq. In: Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies. 25. Jahrgang, Nr. 7, 9. Februar 2023, S. 975–1003 (tandfonline.com). 
• Peter R. Martin: ‘Kalli in the ship’: Inughuit abduction and the shaping of Arctic knowledge. In: History and Anthropology. 14. Juli 2023 (tandfonline.com). 
• Jean Malaurie: Ultima Thule: Explorers and Natives of the Polar North. W. W. Norton & Company, New York 2003 (archive.org). 

Primary sources

• Thomas Boyles Murray: Kalli, the Esquimaux Christian. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London 1857 (gutenberg.org). 
• William Parker Snow: Voyage of the “Prince Albert” in search of Sir John Franklin. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London 1851 (archive.org).