Flotsam reimagines the national historic site of the St. Roch as a vessel fracturing under the weight of its complex history. Acclaimed for its historic voyages through the Northwest Passage, the ship played a pivotal role in Canada’s colonization of the Arctic. From 1928 to 1954, the St. Roch supplied, patrolled and managed Inuit communities as a floating detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). As the northernmost authority of the Canadian government, the duties of the St. Roch directly contributed to the assimilation, exploitation and displacement of Inuit peoples. Following the 80th anniversary of the St. Roch’s west to east sailing of the Northwest Passage, Flotsam points to a broader understanding of its historical significance.

Flotsam was created through a series of public workshops in conjunction with the Vancouver Maritime Museum and the False Creek Community Centre. In the spring of 2022, participants went aboard the St. Roch to discuss the ship’s history, create frottage texture rubbings from its worn surfaces, and screen-print the collected textures onto fabric. Like the shattered debris of a shipwreck, the printed textures were pieced back together as a large circle and square, mimicking the flag of a maritime distress signal. Hanging as sails aboard the St. Roch, Flotsam engages the debris of Canadian maritime history to better understand the ties between memory, nationhood and colonization.