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. This 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.

This lecture was recorded by Julia Laite on the 30th of April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London

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.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/shanawdithit

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Shanawdithit: A Woman at the End of the World - Julia Laite

Gresham College Lectures

Shanawdithit: A Woman at the End of the World - Julia Laite