Shanawdithit was a woman who bore witness to the death of her world in the early nineteenth century, creating the only first-hand account we have of the Beothuk people from the Island of Newfoundland. Professor Julia Laite's lecture seeks to narrate the history of her fascinating and important life, alongside the history of her island, which was England’s first transatlantic colony. It will illuminate the profound connections between the hyper-extraction of the island’s resources, the hyper-exploitation of its settlers, and the violent and totalizing dispossession of Shanawdithit’s people.

Julia Laite is Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London. Her most recent book The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey (2021) won the Golden Dagger for Non-Fiction from the British Crime Writer’s Association. She has published widely on the history of sexual labour, migration, and crime history, and works as a historical consultant in British media. Her new book project, A Woman at the End of the World, will tell the life story of the Beothuk woman Shanawdithit, the dilletante ethnographer William Eppes Cormack, and her own Newfoundland ancestors.

This lecture series explores aspects of the global processes of decolonisation, from the earliest European colonial expansions to the political and economic upheavals of the 20th century. We will examine the colonisation of Newfoundland, plus the economic consequences of decolonisation in the 20th century, considering how former colonies navigated independence, economic restructuring, and global trade. We would like to thank Gresham College for their partnership in developing and hosting this series.