Frobisher's Baggage by Vickie Newington

This piece is about the "baggage" that Queen Elizabeth I charged Frobisher with when he came to our country.

The suitcase used in this piece actually did travel to the northern part of Canada, where my great-aunt was the first white woman to make her way through those areas, accompanying her husband who collected furs for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

The initials on the top of the suitcase are hers, but could also stand for “God Only Knows”, as Frobisher was heading into parts and dangers unknown. I have placed his initials on the front of the piece.

The English flag is tattered and worn as I imagine his would have been after 5 journeys across the Atlantic, and the crosses are placed on the flag to represent God and the country sending him on his way.

The “Astrolab” is a representation of the tool used in that century for ocean navigation, the marks around the edge indicating the 360 degrees of a circle, the rest of the “brass” having been basically decorative.

The “rocks” represent the twelve hundred tons of black ore that Frobisher mined from Baffin Island, taking it back to England, convinced it was full of gold. Unfortunately, it was only full of fool’s gold.

The “parchment” is a layered fabric indicating Queen Elizabeth’s instructions to Frobisher, but as he was basically illiterate, I have made them nonsense words. The part of the newspaper used for texture in the “parchment” is from the film section of the paper, as Anna and Michael were making a film about Frobisher and his adventures.