Showing posts with label folklore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label folklore. Show all posts

Monday, June 10, 2019

New Perlican Field Trip

Jillian, Rachael, Eileen, Betty, Ruth, Kelley, and Dale talk with Ches Peddle of New Perlican.
On Tuesday, June 4, I headed out to New Perlican, Trinity Bay with Dale, our new summer student Rachael, and two professors in the folklore department. We were taking Dr. Jillian Gould, and Dr. Kelley Totten from Memorial University's Folklore Department to meet with members of the community in order to explore future partnerships between the heritage committee and the folklore department.

St. Augustine's Anglican Church
Our first stop was the town hall where we met with four members of Heritage New Perlican to talk about the possibility of the two groups working together on a future folklore field school. After our formal meeting we explored the community with a stop in St. Augustine's Anglican Church. This church was built in 1927 and is set to be deconsecrated this month.

Ches Peddle
Our next stop was one of the colourful stages that dot the harbour of New Perlican. Ches Peddle, who showed us around his stage, grew up and lives in Vitters Cove, New Perlican. He worked on boats, and spent time in the north with the Hudson Bay Company. Ches also builds boats, and each summer he places a flag on the local landmark, Peter's Finger. Ches took us through his stage, explained the different fishing gear, and pointed out who built some of the boats, and stages in the harbour.

Grave located on private property.
We made a quick stop in St. Mark's Anglican Cemetery. This cemetery was part of a clean up project in 2017. The project was another partnership with Heritage New Perlican, and Memorial University. We also stopped to see a lone grave from 1816 which is located on private property. Our last stop of the day was stop at Ron Peddle's and the St. Augustine Anglican Cemetery as no trip to New Perlican is complete without goats. Unfortunately we didn't see any cemetery goats! We did however see little Bella, who is a pet pygmy goat owned by a community member.

Folk art in New Perlican by George Burrage

Friday, May 31, 2019

Living Heritage Podcast Ep153 Thrill of the Dark: Katie Crane on Fairies, Coffins, and Pirates



Learning the stories of a place is one thing that tourists seek out when they travel.  But what if some of those stories deal with darker themes? Towns and tourism operators are coming to see the value of what is known in the industry as “Dark Tourism.”

In this podcast, Folklore MA candidate Katie Crane talks to us about her studies in the field, escape rooms, pirate lore, coffin hardware, and her recent participation in “The Thrill of the Dark: Heritages of Fear Fascination and Fantasy” Conference in Birmingham, UK.

Katie Crane is a graduate student in the Public Sector program of Memorial University’s Department of Folklore. She has worked for the Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove Museum, the Historic Sites Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, and for Admiralty House Communications Museum. Her academic research interests include public folklore, museums, heritage interpretation, legends, linguistics, and language revitalization.



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The Living Heritage Podcast is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio. Past episodes are hosted on Libsyn, and you can subscribe via iTunes, or Stitcher. Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Monday, September 11, 2017

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Chip Bags and Memories

Photos of the framed chip bags and tickets. 
Photo courtesy of Kelly Jones.

On our trip out to Grand Falls-Windsor for the Memory Mug Up event back in July we were told the story behind the framed chip bags that hang in the Classic Theatre on High Street. Listen to the clip below to hear Shawn Feener, the owner/operator of the Classic Theatre, explain the story behind the tickets and chip bags.

What was the first movie you saw in theatres?
Or where was your first date?


~Terra Barrett

Monday, September 4, 2017

“Folklore Lives Here!” - A storytelling night in Bay Roberts


Do you remember the spot where teenagers went for their first kiss, where fairies marched, or the rock haunted by the woman in white? Have you collected water from brooks or picked berries from a marsh? What was the best place for playing hockey?

A group of Memorial University folklore students, along with the Heritage Foundation of NL and the town of Bay Roberts, wants to know!

“We are looking for people’s memories about local places, neighbourhoods, swimming holes, skating ponds, and old paths,” says the foundation’s folklorist, Dale Jarvis.

Jarvis, and a group of Memorial University folklore students, will be hosting “Folklore Lives Here” at the SUF Lodge, Bay Roberts, on Thursday, September 14th, 2017 at 7:00pm.

The event is an informal story sharing session for students to meet local residents and seniors, where people can gather, have a cup of tea, and share memories of growing up in Bay Roberts.

The folklore students are part of Memorial University Folklore Department’s Graduate Field School. Students will be living, studying, and researching in the area for three weeks, where they will receive training in folklore interviews, and will work together as a team to document the folklife of Bay Roberts.

The information gathered will be used by the students to create a booklet about the folklore and historic places and neighbourhoods of Bay Roberts.

Come for a cup of tea, share a memory or two about a special place in Bay Roberts. If you have old photos of your favourite place, bring them along!

For more information please contact Dale Jarvis with the Heritage Foundation toll free at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 2 or email ich@heritagefoundation.ca.

“Folklore Lives Here!” - A storytelling night in Bay Roberts
SUF Lodge, Patterson Street, Bay Roberts
Thursday, September 14th, 2017 at 7:00pm.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

The Goats of New Perlican Booklet Launch


The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador and Heritage New Perlican present a booklet launch at Veteran's Memorial Community Centre, New Perlican on Saturday July 8, 2017 at 1:00pm. This launch is part of the community's 10th Annual Heritage Day Celebrations.

"The Goats of New Perlican" is the first booklet in the Oral History Roadshow series produced by the Heritage Foundation. This booklet focuses on the memories of goats in New Perlican and includes stories about laughing goats, stinky bucks their stubborn nature, using goats to haul wood, the benefits of goat milk, and keeping goats as pets!

"They would all roam the roads," described Susie Smith. "You would never know when you would go for a walk in the road at night and no lights on the pole you would never know if you were going to bump into a goat or a horse or a cow or something on the road."

Smith was one of several residents of New Perlican who was interviewed as part of the oral history project completed by HFNL in conjunction with Heritage New Perlican.

“This booklet developed as a result of an event in New Perlican in May 2016,” says Terra Barrett, a researcher with the foundation. "At this workshop the topic of goats kept coming up again and again. So after discussions with Heritage New Perlican we decided to record stories about the goats of New Perlican."

"The Goats of New Perlican" is part of the foundation’s Oral History Roadshow. This project is an initiative of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of the HFNL made possible with assistance from the New Horizons for Seniors program. The Oral History Night Roadshow will see us travel from community to community, hosting a series of Oral History Nights, open-mic storytelling sessions led and inspired by seniors in that community.

The booklet launch at New Perlican's Heritage Day is open to the public and will include light refreshments. There will be copies of the booklet for sale by Heritage New Perlican available at the launch as well as a PDF version which will be placed online. For more information please call Terra Barrett at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 5 or email terra@heritagefoundation.ca.

Friday, June 2, 2017

#FoodwaysFriday - Breadboxes: Are they useful or do they just collect crumbs?


I'm moving into a new spot and I recently came across this breadbox on an online antique buy and sell page and purchased it because I loved the colours. I grew up with a breadbox but haven't seen one in some time so I wanted to ask our followers are breadboxes useful today? Do they keep your bread fresh?

Breadboxes or bread bins store bread and other baked goods to keep them fresh. They can be made of wood, pottery, or metal. Breadboxes aim to keep bread at room temperature, let the bread "breathe" to prevent mold, and protect against pests.

There is also a bit of folklore about the breadbox and you may have heard the expression "Is it bigger than a breadbox?". This expression is thought to have originated with Steve Allen on the game show What's My Line on January 18, 1953. You can see a clip of the show where Steve Allen first compared a product to the size of the breadbox.

So let us know - are breadboxes useful? Or do they just collect crumbs?

~Terra Barrett

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Barbary Pirates, Sallee Rovers, and the Legend of Turk's Gut. #FolkloreThursday



The community of Marysvale, Conception Bay, was originally known as Turk's Gut. The exact origin of the name is lost in the mists of time. But many legends have sprung up over the centuries to account for it, and most of them agree on the name being linked to the seventeenth-century history of piracy in the waters of Conception Bay. One of the earliest and shortest accounts comes to us from the Most Rev. Michael Francis Howley, in his “Newfoundland Name-Lore” column in the Newfoundland Quarterly, March, 1907. He writes,

Near Brigus we have Turk's Gut. In explaining the name of St. Barbes, I mentioned that in early days our seas were infested by pirates from Barbary. These terrible corsairs, who did much damage around our coasts, were called by the old English settlers by the generic name of Turks, and the names above mentioned record the memory of some adventure, or landing by them in these harbours.

By 1949, the legend had expanded slightly. In that year’s Christmas Annual, writer LEF English noted,

The Sallee Rovers... were supposed to have their lairs on the Barbary Coast in Africa. The vessels were partly manned by Turks, but many renegade French and English took service with these organized robbers. Some of their ships operated in Newfoundland waters as shown by the records. We see then that pirates actually did visit Newfoundland and that the possibility of treasure trove on lonely headlands or in sheltered bays is after all not so remote. There still exist some relics of those old sea rovers, for instance the name Turk's Gut near Brigus recalls a legend that the Sallee raiders once had there a quiet rendezvous. Spanish doubloons and pieces of eight still hold a fascination, and there is no doubt that he who goes treasure hunting in Newfoundland will find at least enough hair raising stories to reward his efforts, and maybe, maybe, will uncover the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Writer and publisher PJ Wakeham expanded the story for inclusion in his New Land Magazine in 1962, and again in 1968. Wakeham spins a bloodthirsty yarn, likely based more on his own imagination than on historical fact. In his version the pirate not only gains a name, Isstovatison, but also gains a captive, Madame LaBlonc, the wife of a French naval officer. Isstovatison’s ship is wrecked, a treasure is recovered and buried, and the ship’s cannons are used to fortify the pirate’s lair. All is well till Admiral LaBlonc sails to Newfoundland to save his wife from the Turk’s clutches:

Realizing that his end was at hand, the infuriated pirate turned and thrust a heavy cutlass into the breast of Madame LaBlonc, and putting a loaded pistol to his own head, he blew his brains out before he could be restrained. When Admiral LaBlonc entered the pirate’s hide-out, he found his wife badly wounded and beside her body lay the crumpled body of the Pirate of Turk’s Gut. Despite the best of medical care, Madame LaBlonc died that afternoon onboard her husband’s ship just as the shadows of night were closing in over Conception Bay.

Do you know a different version of the legend of Turk's Gut? I'd love to hear from you if you do! Email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca or comment below!

- Dale Jarvis

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Living Heritage Podcast Ep050 Skeets, b'ys, and other bits of Newfoundland folklore




Philip Hiscock has been studying Newfoundland and Labrador language and folklore for four decades. These days, he teaches Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and is the coordinator of the MA and PhD programmes in that department. We discuss Philip’s interest in dialectology, folklore, radio, and popular culture, Newfoundland folklore and language including the terms skeet and b’y, Newfoundland language and YouTube, children’s folklore, and digital folklore.

Recorded 23 June 2016

Listen on the Digital Archive:
http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/ich_oral/id/671


Photo of Philip Hiscock by David Press.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

People Places and Traditions Workshop

As a part of the Culturalis Borealis Summer Institute, myself, Terra, Andrea and Dale hosted a People, Places and Traditions Workshop with a fantastic group of 7-12 teachers at the District Conference Center on Strawberry Marsh Road last Wednesday. I started work with Dale on July 4th as a Cultural Conservation intern with the Conservation Corps ECHO program, and over the Summer I’ll be helping to do research, conduct oral interviews, participate in and learn to conduct workshops like this one.
Andrea, Terra and Dale discussing the workshop
We met with the teachers participating in the Summer Institute to get them started thinking about how our intangible cultural heritage is reflected in the important people, places and traditions of our communities.

Ready to get started!
Equipped with two large-scale maps of Newfoundland (and one of Labrador!), some ribbon, craft glue, and pens, our participants were ready to get started on the workshop! We divided everyone up into three groups - one each for People, Places and Traditions. Our first group brainstormed about people with special cultural knowledge or skills in their communities. Rather than listing 'famous' figures or officials, we asked them to think about things a little closer to home. Who among your friends and family might have special localized knowledge or skills? who are some 'unofficial' but well-known tradition-bearers in your town?

Our workshop participants glued index cards with people, places and traditions on them to the maps.
One of our participants from St. John's wrote about Joe Planchet of Canary Cycles here in St. John’s, while another wrote about the schooner fishermen in Bay Roberts who brought back their stories about trips to Labrador. One participant from Cape St. Georges wrote about a favourite teacher with a wealth of historical knowledge about the area.

Once they finished writing their stories, the participants attached their cards to a map of Newfoundland (and one of Labrador!) and used ribbon to link each card to the right community.

Our Labrador team with their map
A closer look!



Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Tuesday's Folklore Photos - The Trefoil Guild

Participants of the last presentation of the day.
Today’s Tuesday Folklore photos come from the Girl Guides of Canada’s 2016 National Trefoil Guild Gathering. The gathering took place at Memorial University from June 15th-19th. The opening ceremonies were held on Wednesday and there were workshops, and lectures on Thursday.

The Trefoil Guilds are found across Canada and are groups for active or retired Guiders aged 30 years and older who want to stay in involved with Girl Guides. If you would like to learn more about the Trefoil Guild listen to Dale’s interview with Pat Burton as part of the Living Heritage Podcast.

On Tuesday morning Dale emailed me to ask if I would be able to give 4 presentations of an hour and fifteen minutes at the Trefoil Guild’s gathering. Due to the weather on the coast of Labrador he was stuck in Makkovik at the Nunatsiavut Heritage Forum for longer than anticipated and he wouldn’t make it back in time.
My kind of event - folklore, basket making, and rug hooking all on one floor!
I spent most of Tuesday pulling together a presentation on Newfoundland and Labrador History and Folklore and Thursday morning I headed to the university to present to the Guiders. There were workshops on rug hooking and pillow tops, square dancing and basket making, as well as healthy habits and computer techniques.

I gave a brief overview of Newfoundland and Labrador history and then moved into the basics of folklore, forms of folklore practised in the province, who the Heritage Foundation is as well as some of the programs the Foundation offers. As a long-time (19 years!) Guider myself I finished the talk by discusses how forms of folklore can be found in guiding through ghost stories, camping tales, adapting songs to fit the guiding program, and spontaneously making up new verses for songs. It was a long day of presentations but the lovely women I met made it most enjoyable!

~Terra Barrett

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Call for Memories - Salvation Army in Elliston


Salvation Army Citadel, Elliston, 1960.  Source: Community Memories Virtual Museum, Subsistence of Early Outport Newfoundlanders, Tourism Elliston Inc. album, 203.
Do you have memories about the Salvation Army in Elliston, NL? The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) is looking for stories, photos, and memories and wants to talk to you.

Collected stories will be made available through Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, which is a free, public website where the HFNL stores the photos, videos, and interviews it collects. Researchers are currently looking to talk to locals about their memories of the Salvation Army in Elliston, NL. We are also interested in any photographs of Salvation Army events such as weddings, and citadel suppers.

The Salvation Army began in London England in 1865, and arrived in Elliston in 1887 with the first officer assigned in 1894. We are looking for anyone connected to Elliston’s Salvation Army’s citadel including soldiers, officers, captains, and majors who may have served in the area. From recollections of the church’s social events such as weddings, garden parties, and citadel suppers to regular services, if you have been involved with the Salvation Army in Elliston we would love to hear from you.

The oral history project is part of HFNL’s ongoing Intangible Cultural Heritage program. The program works to safeguard the living heritage of the province for present and future generations everywhere, as a vital part of the identities of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and as a valuable collection of unique knowledge and customs.

If you would like more information, are interested in being interviewed for the project, or have photos of citadel events please contact Historic Places Researcher Terra Barrett at (709)739-1892 ext. 5 or terra@heritagefoundation.ca.
Salvation Army Captain standing on Lodge Hill, Elliston, 1940.  Source: Community Memories Virtual Museum, Subsistence of Early Outport Newfoundlanders, Tourism Elliston Inc. album, 28.
~Terra Barrett

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Tuesday's Folklore Photos - Intangible Cultural Heritage Conference


Architecture or built heritage in Old Quebec.
Today’s Folklore Photos come from the International Conference on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Quebec City, QC. The conference was held at Laval University and brought together the Folklore Studies Association of Canada, the Canadian Network for Intangible Cultural Heritage, Canadian Society for Traditional Music, the Canada research Chair in Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Institute for Cultural Heritage of Laval University, and the Centre for Culture, Art and Society.

On Wednesday evening after a day of completing tape logs and metadata descriptions at the office I flew to Toronto and then on to Quebec City for the conference where a number of folklorists and heritage professionals were meeting and presenting papers on their work. Thursday was focused on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and there were presenters from across the country and beyond. There was a lot of discussion on UNESCO's 2003 Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention and what has happened in the ten years since the conference was ratified in 2006. Presenters from Belgium, Denmark and Norway described how their countries were working on ICH since ratifying the convention while presenters from Scotland, and Canada discussed their interest in ratifying the convention and moving forward with preserving ICH in their countries. Dale gave a presentation on the work of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office since 2008 and focused on the Grey Sock project as an example of the work from the Heritage Foundation which celebrates, records, disseminates, and promotes ICH or the living heritage of the province.
The Huron-Wendat Museum in Wendake, QC.  Participants were treated to a tour of the museum and a banquet meal on Friday evening.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday there were presentations from folklorists, ethnomusicologists, anthologists, and many other heritage professionals. Some presentations focused on what their institutions were working on while others presented a paper or specific concept or concern in heritage. On Saturday morning I presented a paper I had written on the Mummers Festival. It was called “Shagging with the Tradition: The St. John’s Mummers Festival” and looked at how the Mummers Festival has used Intangible Cultural Heritage to create community and increase tourism. It also traced mummering as a cultural symbol for the province since the 1960s until today.
Presenting the paper Shagging with the Tradition: The St John's Mummers Festival.  Photo by Ryan Davis.
It was a beautiful weekend in Quebec City which finished with a declaration of interest in ICH in Canada and a wish for the country to ratify UNESCO’s convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage in order to preserve and promote the ICH of the country as a whole.
Laurier Turgeon and Dale Jarvis reading the declaration on ICH.
~Terra Barrett

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

#NLHeritage Road Trip


Heart's Content Graveyard
My name is Terra Barrett and I have worked with the Heritage Foundation for the last two summers. I am back again working with the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office on a new project called Collective Memories. Stay tuned for more information about this project in the coming weeks as I will be updated the blog with updates about the work of the ICH Office over the summer.
Dale, Andrea, and Michael in the graveyard
This past weekend Dale Jarvis, Andrea O’Brien, Michael Philpott, and I headed out of St. John’s for a heritage road trip with stops in Heart’s Content and New Perlican. Our first stop on Friday afternoon was the Heart’s Content graveyard where the community is looking to do some work. We had a look at the graves and the state of the grounds and discussed the possibilities of a clean up or workshop in the graveyard. After reviewing the graveyard we had a supper of hot turkey sandwiches, fish, chips, and milkshakes at Legge’s and headed on to New Perlican.
Community members at the People, Places, and Traditions workshop.
Important places in the community.
Mapping their heritage.
New Perlican’s heritage committee asked the Heritage Foundation to come out and help the committee prioritize their community heritage to do list. On Friday evening we hosted a People, Places, and Traditions workshop in order to get the people of the community thinking about the assets in their community. We had three tables set up with large maps of New Perlican and had each table focus on either the people, places, or tradition in the community.
People in the community.
Important traditions.
Reviewing the maps.
Everyone contributed ideas and wrote out their descriptions on recipe card which were then placed on the large maps. In the end we ended up with three community maps one with the important people in the community such as past lighthouse keepers and bread bakers, one with places like the sitting rock and local swimming holes, and one with traditional nicknames in the community and the tradition of using goats to haul wood from the woods. We placed these maps around the room and had a discussion of what had been identified.
Brainstorming.
Prioritizing.
Saturday we were back in New Perlican for a prioritizing session with the community's heritage committee. We whittled their wish list from twenty odd items to three major project to focus on over the next few years. After lunch we walked through the harbour in order to see where most of their work was focused. It was a productive weekend and I am looking forward to seeing where the committee takes their projects over the next few years.
~Terra
Walk to the New Perlican Harbour.

Do you want a People, Places, and Traditions Workshop in your community? Or want some advice on where to go next?  We’d love to help! Contact the Intangible Culture Heritage office of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador for more ideas or assistance.

1-888-739-1892
~Terra Barrett

Friday, November 13, 2015

Archvies Week 2015: MUN Folklore and Language Archive Tours


To celebrate Archives Week 2015, The Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA) will be offering free tours to the public.

Come check out our brand new cold storage vault!


Donated by over 11,000 contributors, MUNFLA has over 40,000 audio recordings, 20,000 photographs, 16,000 manuscripts, 4,000 commercial recordings, 2,000 printed documents and over 800 video recordings. These materials cover topics such as custom and belief, childlore, song, dance and foodways. We also house collections documenting folk cultures all over the world, through the research activities of Folklore students. 

Maybe not. But still...
Join us and take a tour of our collections, check out our brand new environmentally controlled vault, and learn more about MUNFLA and how archives work...and can work for you!

Time: Tuesday, Nov 17, 10am-4pm
Place: MUNFLA, ED4038, Education Building, Prince Philip Drive, St. John’s
Contact: Nicole Penney (709) 864-4586 / n.penney@mun.ca

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Living Heritage Podcast Ep006 Public Folklore with Jillian Gould



Jillian Gould is an assistant professor in the Department of Folklore at Memorial University. In the public sector she was a museum educator in New York City, and has worked with museums and archives in Toronto, Ottawa, and St. John's. On this episode, Dale Jarvis talks with Jillian about egg rolls and egg creams, fish and chips, public programming and festivals, and the public folklore program at Memorial University.


Friday, August 14, 2015

Saving Stories: Podcasts, Workshops, and Community Booklets



In this edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update for July and August 2015, we announce the launch of the Living Heritage Podcast, give a review of the Saving our Stories workshop held in Corner Brook, and provide some tips for communities wanting to create a short oral history or local folklore booklet.

Download the newsletter as a pdf

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Introducing a new folklore hashtag: #FolkloreThursday



The Twitterati/Blogatrixes @WillowCWinsham and @DeeDeeChainey have started up a new hashtag for those of us that love folklore and mythology: #FolkloreThursday, and an attendant Twitter account, appropriately enough, named @FolkloreThurs. As Willow notes on her blog:
During the last year of writing here at The Witch, the Weird, and The Wonderful, I've noticed two things. One is the never-ending supply of fascinating tales and intriguing images out there to share. The other is how many fabulous like-minded folks there are about, with fabulous blog posts and tales just waiting to be shared.
So, if you have something appropriately fabulous and folkloristic to share on social media, tag it with #FolkloreThursday each week, and join in the conversation.

- Dale Jarvis

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

(Re)-Introducing the Historic Sites Researcher

Hi everyone it is Terra Barrett and I'm back again from last summer. I just completed my first year of MUN's MA Folklore program. This included a three week field school in Witless Bay, courses on folklore theory, genres, archiving, and public folklore. This semester my public folklore class was involved with the Hoist Your Sails and Run project which produced the Looking Back: Games We Played Booklet. So it has been a productive but incredibly fun year.

Last summer I worked as a Heritage Intern focusing mainly on an oral history project in Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove. I am just putting the final pieces together to complete a booklet on this project, however, my main work this summer will be as an Historic Sites Researcher.

As an Historic Sites Researcher I will have the opportunity to complete interviews will people associated with historic sites in order to find out more information about the architectural history as well as the associated narratives of these historic sites. In addition to interviews I will complete background research, photography, metadata, write several articles, and lend a hand wherever necessary. (I could end up rubbing graves again this year - who knows!) I will also be updating the blog throughout the summer to keep you up to date with what is going on with the Heritage Foundation. My email is the same as last summer terra@heritagefoundation.ca so if you want to get in touch shoot me an email!

-Terra

Friday, October 10, 2014

Thanks for a summer filled with meals of lobsters and glasses of slush!



Petty Harbour

Things have finally settled down (a little) so I wanted to stop in and make a final blog post to say thanks! Since I last wrote on the blog I finished my job with the heritage foundation, took a quick trip out to the west coast of the island, attended the fishing for folklore workshop, headed to Witless Bay for field school, and am currently making my way through courses at MUN.

My summer job as a heritage intern with the Heritage Foundation was definitely one of the highlights of my summer! The Oral History Project in Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove taught me a great deal about interviewing, photography, working with the media, metadata, and much more.

As a heritage intern I had the opportunity to assist with cemetery clean ups, gravestone rubbing workshops, and heritage district plaque ceremonies. I was able to interview a number of people from Petty Harbour about the community's social events such as card games, community concerts, and garden parties. I also learned about growing up in Petty Harbour and the children's games played in the area (pidley, rounders). I was told stories about folk beliefs and instructed not to whistle on the water, turn against the sun, or have the gangboards turned over in the boat. I was given meals of lobsters and glasses of slush, I attended community breakfasts, and met wonderful people. I would like to send out a huge thank you to everyone in the community who took the time to talk to me, send pictures or plays, stopped by the oral history booth, sourced out potential interviewees, and all in all made me feel like a part of the community.

If you would like to listen to the interviews from the Petty Harbour Oral History Project check out MUN's DAI. Here you will find links to the interviews and accompanying pictures of the lovely people I had the opportunity to meet. There are still a handful of interviews to be processed by the DAI so check back for more interviews at a later date. Also if you would like to learn more about the community events found in Petty Harbour there is a small article in the ICH Update for July 2014.

Last but not least I would like to thank everyone at the Heritage Foundation, particularly Dale and Lisa in the ICH Office for a fantastic summer!

In closing I've added a short video of Petty Harbour resident (and my uncle) Gordy Doyle doing a recitation of the Smokeroom on the Kyle.

Thanks,
Terra

P.S. Thanks to Lisa for suggesting I turn the recitation into a short video!

Monday, June 16, 2014

Introducing the New ICH Intern

ICH Intern mummering through the years.

Hi all my name is Terra Barrett and I am a St. John’s native who has just completed the requirements for a BA with a major in Folklore and a minor in French from Memorial University of Newfoundland. I am returning to Memorial in the fall to complete my MA in Folklore with a focus on public/applied folklore. My interests include foodways, customs, material culture and public folklore.

This summer I am joining the Heritage Foundation as a summer works intern. This position will include a combination of fieldwork and office work. The fieldwork will include interviews with community members of the town of Petty Harbour. This interviews will focus on the community’s vibrant social life and activities such as community concerts, singing and recitations. The other project I will be working on will involve developing a survey for museums and community groups. This survey will assess which traditions and customs are important to the communities and how they would like them to be preserved. I will also be assisting Dale and Lisa whenever they need a hand such as the upcoming cemetery workshop for Anthropology students as part of Memorial’s Make Midterm Matter or the interview techniques workshop in Trinity.

Today is my first day on the job and I’ve been working on compiling a list of oral history questions to use in the field. I’m looking forward to heading to Petty Harbour on Wednesday and to a great summer in the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office with the Heritage Foundation. If you have any memories of growing up in Petty Harbour or the social life within the community please contact me at terra@heritagefoundation.ca or (709)739-1892 extension 5.