Here's an odd thing. An installation named "Truelove" (not, you note, "True Love" which should raise suspicions that there is more to this than a Mills and Boon romance) stuck in the tidal ooze of the River Hull. It's a strange story of married Eskimo couple Memiadluk and Uckaluk being brought to Hull on the whaling ship Truelove in 1847. They were then exhibited in native costume and with canoes and so on; supposedly to make people aware of the poor conditions of their homeland in towns and cities in North England. On their way home the next year Uckaluk died of measles on board ship, she was fifteen years old. The heads are copies of casts which are on display in the Maritime Museum along with posters of their "visit".
The installation is sited at the mouth of the Hull where the old harbour was and where many whaling ships including the Truelove would have landed. The artist is Stefan Gec.
The title of the today's posting comes from a poem "The Esquimaux" by Caitríona O'Reilly.
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An interesting tale. Wasn't measles an awful disease. So many stories of people who died from it.
ReplyDeleteI imagine they had never come in contact with the disease before. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteOn this side of the pond the Inuit's (Eskimo is considered a slander by some) story is they were kidnaped by the whalers and they may have been related as family.
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