Postcards from the Bagne: Tourism in the shadow of France's overseas penal history

Between 1852 and 1938, over 70,000 convicts were transported to the bagne in French Guiana which finally closed in 1946. Approximately 21,000 convicts were sent to New Caledonia between 1864 and 1924. A complex tension between the role of convict transportation and labour as an integral part of France's colonial project and the inevitable social exclusion produced by this form of incarceration frames the way the two territories can be compared. Unofficial forms of tourism have always taken place in both settlements during and after their operation but it is only recently that serious restoration initiatives have been undertaken and supported by the local community. In French Guiana, these include the transportation camp at Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, the Saint Jean relegation camp and former prison buildings, including the warden's residence, on the Iles du Salut currently under the jurisdiction of the Centre National d'Études Spatiales. In New Caledonia, restoration initiatives in the South Province include a prison museum housed in the former prison bakery; Prony village, a reconstructed site of forced labour; Fort Teremba featuring seasonal light shows and the ruins of the penal colony on the Ile des Pins.

Taking these restoration and preservation activities at its starting point, the project considers the former penal settlements as representing a moment of decarceration within a wider global history of punishment, imprisonment and detention. Looking at the delicate process of remembering the bagne, the aim is to consider how penal tourism might focus more directly on questions of decarceration and abolition within a contemporary carceral context. There are several 'moments of decarceration' including institutional reconstruction (space station, tourist facilities), community mobilization (support groups, museum and heritage jobs) and culture industry activity (light shows, convict art exhibitions and tours of ruins) all of which mean analysis of these sites requires a broad and collaborative approach that draws on community participants and international networks of expertise. Tracking the routes and trajectories existing between sites draws greater attention to the carceral past, present and future of a wider human and natural geography.

The project will use a cartographic approach to understand the multiple spaces of the bagne and involves presentation of innovative new materials and perspectives to local and global audiences. Archival research skills, ethnographic fieldwork, visual and textual analysis, and theories of framing and spectatorship will also be developed through this process. Fieldwork visits to the two territories, carried out by the PI and PDR, will involve mapping activities using historical visits alongside contemporary routes and itineraries exploring different ways of 'locating' and 'situating' the bagne. To promote this perspective and the wider applicability of the methodological approach a series of maps and a digital photo archive will be produced and made accessible while written outputs including a monograph and two journal articles focus on the (photographic and cartographic) methodologies developed. Public events (activity sessions, symposium and workshops) organized in Nottingham (Galleries of Justice, Nottingham Contemporary) will bring together scholars and heritage stakeholders from the two territories together with UK-based academics, curators and site developers. The project's scholarly outputs will be of interest to academics working in French and Francophone history and culture, postcolonial studies, museum and heritage studies, criminology, visual culture and human geography.

This project proposes rethinking penal tourism as a way to overcome conceptual difficulties in imagining a world without prison, or one in which incarceration is no longer the default response to crime and illegal activity. To get individuals and groups to question the role of prison in contemporary and future society, the project uses tourism and related activities in and around sites of former penal colonies as a conceit for thinking through the prison as either ruins or museum. While the long-term impact sought is increased awareness around both the operation and closure of prisons and the effects of carceral sites upon local communities, the anticipated beneficiaries to be targeted initially are as follows:

1. Community actors in New Caledonia and French Guiana involved in restoration-related activities around the bagne. Beyond drawing attention to the legacy of transportation on two small, often-forgotten overseas territories, the project invites reflection on the part of local communities as to the ways in which a historical carceral landscape might produce greater community cohesion whilst bearing witness to the social exclusion and suffering produced by the penal colonies. As such there is opportunity to work with community members to present the two sites as models or templates for thinking about other carceral landscapes and how these affect different communities worldwide. This has the potential to place forgotten and marginalised territories and communities at the centre of larger debates around the legacies of colonisation and the role played by transportation, incarceration and convict labour in shaping today's postcolonial landscape. UK-based stakeholders involved in curation and management of penal heritage sites will be invited to participate in such debates as part of a Symposium held at the Galleries of Justice.

2. Participants in the 'Prison Islands' activity day at the Galleries of Justice. These will include children (ages 5-15) and families from in and around the East Midlands. The juxtaposition of the activities with the Galleries' permanent 'Convict Transportation' exhibition will draw participants' attention to a wider history of penal colonies beyond the present default focus on Australia and to the colonial past of other nations such as France. The interactive use of maps, postcards and photographs will invite participants to think about the impact of prison on human geography and the role of penal tourism and its relationship to other forms of tourism.

3. Participants in workshops on 'A Future without Prisons?' at Nottingham Contemporary. Participation will be open to all interested parties but it is anticipated that attendees will include those seeking creative ways to challenge public perceptions around incarceration such as local writers, artists, students, community activists (e.g. Black Lives Matter, Nottingham City Monitor, Nottingham Women's Centre) together with speakers from prison advocacy groups such as the 'Forgiveness Project', NOT SHUT UP etc. Workshops will focus on how to collectively develop tools (using material collected and produced as part of fieldwork in French Guiana and New Caledonia) to present the concept of a world without prisons to a wider audience through the use of different forms of visual representation.

4. Beyond those involved in activities related to the project, a wider online community will be engaged via the project blog, Twitter and Instagram. The PI and PDR will actively seek comment and debate from those involved in the curation of penal heritage sites globally, cultural and tourism policymakers, prison advocacy groups and media outlets. The aim is to encourage more critical interrogation of penal tourism and assumptions as to its purpose or objectives by those involved in its management, curation and promotion in order to produce a more socially responsible set of criteria for presenting penal heritage.