Settlement and unsettlement in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Antarctica

This paper is concerned with Aotearoa/New Zealand’s changing relationship to Antarctica, and the Ross Dependency in particular. Through a consideration of post-colonial theory in the Ross Dependency, it is argued that a productive dialogue about the cultural politics of mainland Aotearoa/New Zealand can be opened up. After some reflections on the post-1945 political and cultural trajectory of the country, attention is given to the place of the Maori and their involvement in the polar continent and Southern Ocean. The adoption of Maori place-names on New Zealand maps of the Ross Dependency is considered further because it helps to illuminate the country’s awkward and incomplete post-colonial transformation. Arguably, such an adoption of Maori place-names in Antarctica contributes to a vision of bicultural harmony. However, this is not a view shared by all observers. Developments affecting the crown agency Antarctica New Zealand, alongside recent heritage projects, are scrutinised further in order to consider how Maori–Pakeha relations influence and define contemporary understandings of New Zealand’s presence in Antarctica. Finally, the paper briefly contemplates how a trans-Tasman dialogue with Australian scholars might enable further analysis into how geographically proximate settler colonies engage with Antarctica and their associated territorial claims to the continent and surrounding ocean

Post-colonial Antarctica

This chapter explores how postcolonial perspectives have informed and contributed to ‘critical Antarctic studies’. Shortly after Dodds published an essay in Polar Record entitled ‘Post- colonial Antarctica: an emerging engagement’, leading postcolonial theorists posited the ‘The end of post- colonial theory?’ in the journal PMLA (Publications of the Modern Language Association). Lambasting postcolonial theory as irrelevant, parochial and Anglo-centric, 1 their piece captured a powerful current of discontent. But for Robert Young, a leading theorist of post- colonialism and author of field- setting introductions to postcolonial theory and practice, such an obituary seemed out of place and time..

La cartographie comme prétexte : le rôle du Falkland Islands Dependency Survey en Antarctique (1945-1962)

Cet article étudie les justifications politiques et scientifiques de la cartographie de l’Antarctique par le FIDS (Falkland Islands Dependency Survey). Comme au XIXe siècle, la cartographie a en effet été utilisée à des fins politiques. Ainsi, nous verrons en quoi les cartes et les enquêtes réalisées dans l’Antarctique traduisent les anxiétés britanniques d’alors, au sujet de l’Argentine de l’immédiat Après-guerre. En tant qu’État rival, revendiquant lui aussi des terres dans l’Atlantique sud, l’Argentine avec ses enquêteurs et administrateurs, a été au cœur des préoccupations du FIDS, dont les membres devaient à la fois se préoccuper des relevés de terrain tout en surveillant les incursions étrangères en Antarctique. Il sera également question des méthodes de cartographie alors utilisées. Ironiquement, le plus grand défi géopolitique s’est finalement joué avec les USA, plutôt qu’avec l’Argentine ou même le Chili. Enfin, l’article conclut sur l’évolution du FIDS lors du traité de l’Antarctique de 1959.This paper explores the political and scientific justification for the mapping of Antarctica by the Falkand Islands Dependency Survey (FIDS). As with the Great Game of the nineteenth century, cartography was politics by another means. Thereafter, consideration is given to how the maps and surveys of Antarctica reflected British anxieties concerning Argentina in the immediate post-war world. As a rival claimant state in the South Atlantic, Argentina surveyors and administrators were a source of considerable concern to the FIDS. ln the field, however, the FIDS surveyors were expected to concentrate on surveying while at the same time plotting these foreign incursions in Antarctica. The methods and processes involved in collating information into map form are considered. Ironically, the greatest geopolitical challenge to these aspirations came from the United States rather than Argentina or even Chile. Finally, the paper concludes with the changing political and cartographic remit of the FIDS in the era of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty

Territorial nationalism and Arctic geopolitics: Iceland as an Arctic Coastal state

This paper explores the cultural and political significance of being acknowledged and recognized as an “Arctic coastal state”. Using Iceland as a case study, we consider how coastal state status had grown in significance as the Arctic Ocean has been re-imagined more as a polar Mediterranean and less as a frozen desert. By drawing on Michael Billig’s work on banal nationalism and popular geopolitics, the manner in which the ideas and practices associated with a “coastal state” are reproduced in elite and everyday contexts. However, we conclude by noting that thus far this appeal to Iceland as “coastal state” has gained greater traction within the Icelandic Foreign Ministry and Parliament, and it remains to be seen whether it will have a more popular resonance with Icelandic citizens. Whatever the future, it is a timely reminder that terms such as “coastal state” are caught up in national and even circumpolar identity projects