KABLOONAS

KABLOONAS
Burial of John Franklin. Author: me

KABLOONAS

Kabloonas is the way in which the Inuit who live in the north part of Canada call those who haven´t their same ascendency.

The first time i read this word was in the book "Fatal Passage" by Ken McGoogan, when, as the result of the conversations between John Rae and some inuit, and trying to find any evidence of the ill-fated Sir John Franklin Expedition, some of then mentioned that they watched how some kabloonas walked to die in the proximities of the river Great Fish.

I wish to publish this blog to order and share all those anecdotes that I´ve been finding in the arctic literature about arctic expeditions. My interest began more than 15 years ago reading a little book of my brother about north and south pole expeditions. I began reading almost all the bibliography about Antarctic expeditions and the superknown expeditions of Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton, etc. After I was captured by the Nansen, Nobile and Engineer Andree. But the most disturbing thing in that little book, full of pictures, was the two pages dedicated to the last Franklin expedition of the S.XIX, on that moment I thought that given the time on which this and others expeditions happened, few or any additional information could be obtained about it. I couldn´t imagine that after those two pages It would be a huge iceberg full of stories, unresolved misteries, anecdotes, etc. I believe that this iceberg, on the contrary than others, would continue growing instead melting.



martes, 24 de abril de 2012

JOHN RAE, UNA VIDA DE PELÍCULA. JOHN RAE, A FILM LIFE



Mi acercamiento a este gran explorador ha sido a través del fantástico libro de Ken McGoogan "Fatal Passage". Esta foto la tomé en la catedral de Kirkwall donde yace enterrado. La escultura habla por si sola, el explorador yace tumbado descansando con su vestimenta de exploración, cubierto con su manta junto a su carabina.

La vida de John Rae  podría ser un buen guión para una película, sin tener porque decorarla en absoluto. El traslado a la gran pantalla de todos los logros y de los acontecimientos en los que estuvo envuelto serían de por sí asombrosos y fascinantes para el público en general. Empezando por su casual involucración en las tareas de exploración del ártico Canadiense y terminando por la pública controversia surgida a través de las declaraciones realizada por este hombre donde se ponía de manifiesto que algunos de los supervivientes de la expedición de John Franklin de 1845 habían finalmente recurrido al canibalismo como último recurso de superviviencia. John Rae recorrió enormes distancias en solitario en invierno, se enfrentó solo a lobos hambrientos a millas de distancia de cualquier posible auxilio, se enfrentó a la controversia diálectica con tamaños oponentes como Lady Franklin y Chrales Dickens, y un largo etc.

El hecho es que esta aparente atrocidad era bastante habitual por aquellos lares, especialmente durante los largos inviernos árticos donde la escasez de caza, el frío y el aislamiento proporcionaba el escenario ideal para recurrir a esta solución de manera frecuente. Existen múltiples registros en diferentes diarios de viaje que ponen de manifiesto esto, entre otros, los propios diarios de viaje de John Franklin u el Dr. John Richardson de la expedición a la costa noroeste de 1819.

My approach to this great explorer has been through the fantastic book by McGoogan ´Fatal Passage´. I took this photo in the Kirkwall Cathedral where he was buried. The only sculpture seems to speak, the explorer lies resting on his exploration clothes, covered with a blanket and near his carabine.

John Rae´s life could be a good script for a film, withiout retouching it at all. Doing an adaption to the screen of all his achievements  and the events on which he was involved would be amazing and fascinating for the general public. Begining with his casual involvement with the Canadian  arctic exploration and finishing with the public controversy arisen through his declarations where he revealed that some of the last survivors of the John Franklin Expedition of 1845 had finally resort to the cannibalism as their last resource to survive before died of starvation. John Rae covered huge distances alone and on winter, he faced alone hungry wolves far from any possible aid, he faced the dialectical controversy with such opponents as Lady Franklin and Charles Dickens, and a long etcetera.

The fact is that this seems to be atrocity was more than common on this places, especially on the long arctic winters where the lack of hunting, the cold and the loneliness creates the ideal stage to resort to this solution frequently. There are a lot of references on different  travel journals  that show this fact, the journals of John Franklin and John Richardson about their expedition in 1819 to the north arctic coast.

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