F ERRY T ALES
The purpose of this rich and innovatively presented ethnography is to explore mobility, sense of place, and time on the British Columbia coast. On the basis of almost 400 interviews with ferry passengers and over 250 ferry journeys, the author narrates and reflects on the performance of travel and on the consequences of ferry-dependence on island and coastal communities. Ferry Tales inaugurates a new series entitled Innovative Ethnographies for Routledge (innovativeethnographies.net). The purpose of this hypermedia book series is to use digital technologies to capture a richer, multimodal view of social life than was otherwise done in the classic, print-based tradition of ethnography, while maintaining the traditional strengths of classic, ethnographic analysis. Visit the books website at ferrytales.innovativeethnographies.net
Phillip Vannini is Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University, in Victoria, Canada, and Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Public Ethnography. He is author and editor of eight books including Understanding Society through Popular Music (with Joe Kotarba) and The Senses in Self, Culture, and Society (both published by Routledge).
Innovative Ethnographies
Editor: Phillip Vannini
The purpose of this series is to use the new digital technology to capture a richer, more multidimensional view of social life than was otherwise done in the classic, print tradition of ethnography, while maintaining the traditional strengths of classic, ethnographic analysis.
Forthcoming
Digital Dramas: Art, Culture and Multimedia in Tanzania
by Paula Uimonen
Theatre of Empowerment: Prison, Performance, and Possibility
by Jonathan Shailor
FERRY TALES
MOBILITY, PLACE, AND TIME ON CANADAS WEST COAST
P HILLIP V ANNINI
First published 2012
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2012 Taylor & Francis
The right of Phillip Vannini to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Vannini, Phillip.
Ferry tales : mobility, place, and time on Canadas west coast/Phillip Vannini.
p. cm. (Innovative ethnographies)
1. FerriesSocial aspectsBritish Columbia. 2. TransportationSocial aspectsBritish Columbia. 3. Migration, InternalSocial aspectsBritish Columbia. I. Title.
HE5785.B7V36 2011
386.6097111dc23
2011029806
ISBN: 978-0-415-88306-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-88307-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-13610-2 (ebk)
This book is dedicated to everyone who has willingly chosen to make their home just a little harder to get to.
ferrytales.innovativeethnographies.net
Please visit the books website for access to additional ethnographic material including multimodal essays, digital audio documentaries, and photographs, as well as maps, links, and Google Earth Street View access to many of the sites described here. Readers of the electronic version of books in this series will be able to make use of hyperlinks embedded throughout the text. Readers of the traditional, print-based version of books in this series can access the same web pages by referring to the URLs and directions given in notes. Hyperlinks can be activated by clicking on the words preceding the following symbols:
indicates a
photograph;
indicates an interactive Google
map/Google Earth link;
indicates an external
web link;
indicates a
video;
indicates music or another type of
audio file;
indicates a bonus
multimodal essay;
indicates an interactive
dialogue platform such as a blog;
indicates additional information such as a bonus text-based
essay;
indicates drawings, sketches, graphics, or other
visual art displays.
O NE S AILING W AIT
Like most ethnographers, I am fond of a good arrival scene. More than once over the last four years I have been tempted to begin this book with an island arrival scene inspired by Raymond Firths classic entrance onto the field in Polynesia. My notes on this subject, scribbled on the back of a printed travel itinerary to the BC Central Coast, read as follows:
In the crisp air of the early spring evening, just after sunset, the Queen of Alberni maintained her course westward towards Duke Point, allowing from her bow a few faint glimpses of Nanaimos faintly illuminated skyline in the distant background. As we inched along, slowly Duke Point grew into a monstrous dock violently jutting out onto the Salish Sea from the feet of a mountain chain I never imagined so intimidating. In twenty-two minutes, just as planned by the drafters of the timetable, we reached the lone pier. During this time I could see neither sea vessels nor vehicles from my position. There might have been local islanders waiting to greet me and the other passengers, but no one was there to be seen. The tide was low, and the smells of oysters and algae permeating the moist air were more remarkable sensations than any other sight or sound. Save for a few seagulls Vancouver Island felt quiet, empty, populated more by massive conifers and distant snowcapped peaks than by the humans I had come here to meet.
The ship soon came to a halt, and before the locals were allowed onboard, the passengers of the 17:45 sailing were orderly let off. Walk-on passengers first, followed by eighteen-wheelers, recreational vehicles, trailer-hauling trucks, and then the rest of us. My red Pontiac rolled off the ramp with certainty, as if she knew what awaited us. Behind her steering wheel I felt infinitely more hesitant than her to drive into the unknown. I was surrounded by other lone driversbusy with their own lives to hastily head back towards, seemingly preoccupied with all but the very ship which so unassumedly constituted, in my mind, their most important and yet least visible lifelineand I felt choked by the worry that such pacific human and geographic material could ever be induced to submit to scientific study
