Shanawdithit

Shanawdithit was born into the diminishing bands of Beothuk who withdrew to the interior of Newfoundland as European settlers seized the coastline. In 1823, starving and ill after the deaths of her family members, she surrendered to settlers.

Brought to St. John's by philanthropist William Cormack, Shanawdithit created a remarkable series of detailed sketches documenting Beothuk encampments, symbols, hunting implements, and conflicts, providing posterity with an irreplaceable ethnographic testament before her death at twenty-eight.