Dossiers

The exhibition The Great Northern Expedition: Georg Wilhelm Steller (1709-1746): A Lutheran exploring Siberia and Alaska was shown at the Franckesche Stiftungen zu Halle in 1996. Erich Kasten curated the exhibition of photography and artwork Steller and the Itelmen and authored the exhibition catalogue Lachsfang und Bärentanz.

He also organized the performance of the Itelmen ensemble El’vel' as well as the journey of a cultural delegation of Itelmen to participate in events around the exhibition. The Itelmen guests were particularly struck by Steller’s narrative of the brutal conquest and colonisation of Kamchatka. His sensitive account of the indigenous communities had not met with much interest in Russia up until then, unlike the descriptions of his Russian contemporary S.P. Krasheninnikov. Similarly, Steller’s critical remarks about the disrespectful behavior of the conquerors have been largely left out of Russian editions of his work. The Itelmen thus heard for the first time about their own early history. The delegation took back this narrative that continued to have a strong impact locally for a long time.

Steller’s Beschreibungen von dem Lande Kamtschatka was republished in 1996 on the occasion of the exhibition and re-edited in 2013. A comprehensive view of his achievements can be found in Georg Wilhem Steller: Scientist, Humanist and Most Significant Ethnographer for the Itelmens of Kamchatka (in print).