I just registered for the 8th Annual Underwater Heritage Program (with the obligatory Facebook Event page) which this year is entitled “Sir John Franklin - Quest for the Northwest Passage” and will feature David Charles Woodman as key note presenter on Saturday, April 10, 2010 in London, Ontario.
Woodman is the groundbreaking author of Unravelling the Franklin Mystery: Inuit Testimony in 1991 and Strangers Among Us in 1995 in which he revisits the Inuit accounts of the Franklin expedition as recorded in the journals and papers of the Charles Francis Hall and re-examines the Inuit accounts in the light of modern scholarship and re-evaluates the importance of Inuit oral traditions in his search to reconstruct the events surrounding Franklin's expedition.
Woodman appears to have two separate talks - “Franklin and The Inuit Worldview” and “How To Become An Arctic Explorer by Accident” - before his key note presentation, image show & discussion, “In Search of Terror – Shipwreck Hunting
In the Arctic” later in the evening which is certain to be the highlight of the day for me.
With the ProCom search and the Parks Canada search so much in the news this past year, it is quite topical, and sure to be a very fascinating day.
As the event hosted by the Underwater Heritage Program, much of the day will cover underwater archeology more broadly, but in addition to Woodman's, there are are several other presentations/talks concerning the Franklin expedition: Miggs Morris, Author & Former Arctic Resident will speak on “Arctic Challenges Franklin Faced”;
Commander John Creber (Retired) Canadian Forces Navy on “Royal Navy During The Franklin Era”; and archaeologist John MacDonald will tell us “Why Franklin Failed”!
I'll be sure to take notes and provide a summary here upon my return.
Thanks to Russell for alerting me to the event, which he suggests will be certainly "be the Franklin event of the year". And almost right in my own backyard.
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