SLOW DISTURBANCE SLOW DISTUR BANCE Infrastructural Mediation Sign, Storage, Transmission A series edited by Jonathan Sterne and Lisa Gitelman SLOW DISTUR BANCE on the Settler Colonial Resource Frontier Rafico Ruiz Duke University Press Durham and London 2021 © 2021 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ∞ Designed by Courtney Leigh Richardson Typeset in Chaparral Pro and Montserrat by Copperline Book Services Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ruiz, Rafico, [date] author. Title: Slow disturbance : infrastructural mediation on the settler colonial resource frontier / Rafico Ruiz. Other titles: Sign, storage, transmission. Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2021. | Series: Sign, storage, transmission | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers:lccn 2020027615 (print) lccn 2020027616 (ebook) isbn 9781478007982 (hardcover) isbn 9781478008507 (paperback) isbn 9781478012139 (ebook) Subjects: lcsh: Fisheries—Newfoundland and Labrador—History—19th century. | Fisheries—Newfoundland and Labrador—History—20th cen- tury. | Colonists—Newfoundland and Labrador—History—19th century. | Colonists—Newfoundland and Labrador—History—20th century. | Newfoundland and Labrador—Economic conditions. Classification:lcc sh229.r859 2021 (print) | lcc sh229 (ebook) | ddc 333.95/609718—dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020027615 lc ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020027616 Cover art: Stills from Grenfell Mission found footage from the 1930s to the 1950s. Courtesy the Labrador Institute Archives, Memorial University. This book received a publication subsidy from Duke University Press’s First Book Fund, a fund established by Press authors who donated their book royalties to help support innovative work by junior scholars. To Paulina, for teaching me not to read This page intentionally left blank.