‘The Ones We Met’ explores the Franklin Expedition and the Inuit’s participation in the ships’ recovery

Depiction of what the Inuit saw after the Franklin Expedition failed in 1845. PHOTO: COLLINGWOOD MUSEUM

Until the wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were found in 2014 and 2016, the fate of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition was one of the Arctic’s darkest mysteries.

Now, the Collingwood Museum is pleased to present The Ones We Met – Inuit Traditional Knowledge and the Franklin Expedition.

This exhibition came together between the Canadian Museum of History and the Inuit Heritage Trust to explore the role of Inuit oral history in solving that mystery.

“Without the shared memories passed down through generations of Inuit, stories of sick and starving men, and an abandoned ship locked in the ice, we might still be searching for the Franklin Expedition,” said Caroline Dromaguet, president and CEO of the Canadian Museum of History.

“With The Ones We Met, the Canadian Museum of History is proud to bring well-deserved attention to the importance of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, or Inuit traditional knowledge, in keeping history alive and ensuring that critical information is not forgotten.”

The exhibition hosts photographs, illustrations and an animated map of routes charted by Europeans looking for the Northwest Passage in the 350 years before Franklin’s expedition.

Stories of Inuit encounters with Franklin and his men, and of Martin Frobisher’s voyages to Baffin Island in the 1570s are shared and these recordings include the late Inuit historian Louie Kamookak.

Kamooka reflects on the importance of oral histories and of the bleak environment northwest of King William Island, where Franklin’s ships were first trapped by ice.

Collingwood shares a connection to the search for Franklin’s ships through the participation of the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the last ship to be launched by the Collingwood Shipyards.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier was one of four ships supporting the 2014 Victoria Strait Expedition and continues to be based out of Victoria, BC.

The travelling exhibit was inspired by the Museum of History’s special exhibition Death in the Ice – The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition.

That exhibition traced Sir John Franklin’s doomed attempt to navigate the Northwest Passage, and the many efforts made to find out what had occurred in the Arctic to the British explorer and his 128 crewmen.