This photograph was taken during an ethnographic study conducted in a remote area of northern Quebec where 15 communities live along the Saint-Lawrence River coastline without access to a road. They thus rely on a cargo ship to carry food, freight and people within and outside the region. Going up and down the river once a week to bring amenities, the privately owned cargo ship Bella Desgagnés, commonly named “the Bella”, is subsidised by the government to « act as a road ». Inhabitants of the Lower-North-Shore, who call themselves the Coasters, have a deep sense of what it entails to dwell in such a remote setting without a thoroughfare. For them, the Bella is said to be « a connection to the outside world ». Deeply embedded in the Coasters’ cultural and material life, the Saint-Lawrence River has always been a means of survival, even more so today as the jobs provided by the federal dock are essential to keep villages alive. This image was captured from the window of the Bella, while moored in Tête-à-la-Baleine (Whale Head), home to less than a 100 people. On the ground, dockers are unloading the awaited weekly provisions, and friends and families are parting. The horizon points towards the next village, a day away by boat. The title I gave this work: Dockers of the Liquid Road, is meant as a metaphor referring to the ever-evolving relationship between the Coasters and the River, as well as a tribute to their moving relentlessness.
Cultural Geography Specialty Group 