Arcadia
Poles of Exploration and Exploitation: Olaudah Equiano in the Arctic
This essay proposes that Olaudah Equiano’s account of a 1773 Arctic voyage doubles as a critique of exploration and exploitation.
This essay proposes that Olaudah Equiano’s account of a 1773 Arctic voyage doubles as a critique of exploration and exploitation.
Apart from a diverse and previously unknown fauna, explorations and receding ice caps have uncovered a sought-after abundance of natural resources in the Arctic region. Historian Elena Baldassarri argues that the exploitation of these resources not only constitutes a threat to the non-human world, but also to the Inuit people. This is a chapter of the virtual exhibition “The Northwest Passage: Myth, Environment, and Resources.”