Tuesday's Folklore Photo

This detailed little scene is a Heritage Fairs project created by Mr. Noel Strapp's Newfoundland Studies class at Roncalli Central High School in Avondale. This adorable diorama is an example of a traditional outport community in Newfoundland and Labrador.

For more information on the Heritage Fairs, check out the Historic Sites Association of Newfoundland and Labrador. 

Photo courtesy of: Sarah Wade, Museum Association of Newfoundland and Labrador

How to Make a Pillow Top Frame

A few days ago in the ICH Office we tried our hands at making a small pillow top frame. The plan is to use the smaller frames in workshops, particularly with younger kids. It currently takes about 4 hours to complete a pillow top on the large frame. Using the small frame, the pillow top can be completed in about 2.5 hours, making this activity much more accessible. 

Our small frame turned out well and the end result is a cute little pillow top, with very fluffy pom poms, that can be used as a trivet or table topper. Several of these mini pillow tops could be sewn together to make a blanket.  

After receiving a few requests, I decided to put together this step-by-step guide for making your very own pillow top frame.

Materials:

• 8 pieces of wood measuring 8" long, 1-1/4" wide and 3/4" thick
• wood glue
• clamps
• 24 x 2" nails 
• 12 x 1-1/4" wood screws 
• power drill
• hammer
• ruler
• pencil

Step One: 

Take four pieces of wood and arrange to form a square. Add a layer of  wood glue and  place the other four pieces on top.

Step Two: 

Using the drill, insert screws into the end of each piece of wood, as seen in the picture below. Before this step you may need to clamp the pieces together and put aside while the glue sets. 

Front

Back

Step Three:

Using a ruler and pencil, draw a line down the middle of each side of the frame, lengthwise. Then along this line, mark off, in even spaces, where you will hammer in your nails. Space the nails about 1 inch apart. 

Step Four: 

Drill holes in each of these markers to make it easier to hammer in the nails. Hammer 6 nails into each side. Make sure they are even. Leave about half the nail sticking out of the frame. 

Once all the nails are all hammered in you can start weaving!

Here's the finished product! : )

If you have any questions about how to make your frame or are interested in having us put off a pillow top workshop in your community, feel free to get in touch with Nicole at (709) 739-1892 ex. 6 or via email at nicole@heritagefoundation.ca. 

Tuesday's Folklore Photo

"The Miner", depicting miner Billy Parsons, is one of a series of murals commemorating Bell Island's heritage. The iron ore mines were once the largest in the British Empire, extending more than 5 kilometres under Conception Bay. The abandoned #2 Mine was designated as a heritage structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2006. 

Lumber Woods Carvings from Botwood

I recently came across these hand carved, wooden, lumbering figures at the C.L.B Sunday Market. I was told by the seller they were carved many years ago by a man from Botwood who had worked in the lumber woods. If you happen to know anything about these figures or have any carved lumbering figures of your own, I'd love to hear from you.

                               

You can reach Nicole via email at nicole@heritagefoundation.ca  or call (709) 739-1892 ex.6.

Brushing up on your Sheila folklore

Perhaps the most memorable of those occasions was on the night of 'Sheila's Brush,' which is to say the 18th of March. Newfoundland has two 'brushes,' Patrick's and Sheila's; that is to say, storms supposed to be connected with the birthday of St Patrick and that of his wife... The word 'brush' is not always used, however; you will hear Newfoundlanders say: 'We have our Sheila dis time o' year.'

- George Allan England, 1877—1936, Vikings of the Ice (Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1924) as quoted in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. 

I'm waking up this morning to snow, reports of school closures in other parts of the province, and Twitter and Facebook status updates mentioning Sheila's Brush. In Newfoundland English, a brush is a "sudden gust of wind, a spell of wet weather; a [snow] storm." You can read up on more Newfoundland snow words on the DNE blog, Twig.

Most Newfoundlanders, I suspect, know that Sheila's Brush refers to a snowstorm after St. Patrick's Day. Some say it is meant to represent Sheila sweeping up after St. Patrick. Who Sheila is supposed to be, exactly, is something of a mystery, be she wife, sister, maid or mistress. 

For info on that other Sheila, check out Dr. Philip Hiscock's A Perfect Princess: The Twentieth-Century Legend of Sheila na Geira and Gilbert Pike.

Note on image above: Photo by rebfoto. If you know the name of the original mural artist, post a comment!

"Living Spaces" book launch Monday, March 18th

Most new students spend their first weeks of school in stuffy classrooms. But in a new program through the Department of Folklore at Memorial University, new graduate students spent their first days exploring a small Bonavista Bay fishing community. During the last three weeks of September 2012, the Department of Folklore introduced a new course for incoming graduate students on cultural documentation techniques.

“I decided that I would focus on the community of Keels in Bonavista Bay,” says course organizer Dr. Gerald Pocius. “Unlike previous field courses, this one would actually take place outside the classroom, with students living away from their usual environments, focusing on a place and people different to most of them.”

Timed to coincide with this year’s 20th anniversary of the cod moratorium, the field school examined how outmigration and gentrification affected the traditional cultural landscape of the Bonavista region, focusing on the last two inshore fishing families in the community of Keels. Students lived in the town, and worked to document buildings, including homes, fisheries buildings and root cellars. Along the way they interacted with and interviewed locals about their lives and work. The results of the field school, including architectural drawings and descriptions of some of the spaces studied have been put together in a booklet, “Living Spaces: The Architecture of the Family Fishery in Keels, Newfoundland,” edited by Pocius.

“Both the field school and the booklet have been a cooperative project between Memorial University and the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador,” says Dale Jarvis, folklorist with the foundation. “These types of partnerships are a great way to help students develop real-world skills, and to demonstrate to communities the type of research that is going on within the university. It also helps us with the foundation’s mandate of promoting and preserving the important architectural and intangible cultural heritage of this province.”

The booklet will be launched at a public event at 6pm, March 18th, 2013 at Bianca’s, 171 Water Street, St. John’s. The event is open to the public, though people are asked to RSVP with Christina Robarts at 739-1892 ext 7, or by email at christina@heritagefoundation.ca

Folklore Photo: Masonic Temple in Twillingate

This photo is of the Masonic Temple in Twillingate, built by Joshua Roberts in 1906. Dated 1908, this photo was found while cleaning up the Heritage Foundation's heritage structure designation files. Click here if you'd like more information about the Masonic Temple in Twillingate.  -Nicole

Tuesday's Folklore Photo: English Picnic Baskets

A woven basket owned by Neal Wells of Grand Falls-Windsor

A woven basket owned by Patricia Mchuge of Grand Falls-Windsor

Last year the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office undertook a collection project focused on basket making in this province. We documented several basket styles, including what we believe to be two English picnic baskets. Beyond that we know very little about these baskets and would like to figure out exactly what they are woven from. We suspect the baskets to be made of willow, as this is a very common material used by English basket makers. Also, both these baskets seem to constructed using the randing weave, which is a common style of English willow weaving.

If you happen to have any idea what these baskets are made of  please get in touch with the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office, we'd love to hear from you! Contact Nicole at 1-888-739-1892 ex.6 or email at nicole@heritagefoundation.ca 

12 tips for a better oral history or folklore interview

Nervous about your first oral history or folklore interview? It's OK, I'm here to help! Here are some tips and tricks to get you ready. And if you want, you can download this as a one-page PDF for handy reference.


1. If you haven't done any oral history interviewing before, think first about a focus or theme for your project.  Ask yourself, “Why am I doing this interview? What information do I want to get?”

2. Think about the type of interview you wish to do.  Life History Interviews focus on the life history of a person and the changes they may have experienced;  Topic Interviews collect information about a specific subject, workplace, skill or occupation.

3. Do an informal “pre-interview.”  Be clear with your “informant” - the person you are interviewing - that the interview is being recorded, and what it will be used for. Have a discussion in advance about the type of information of interest to you.

4. In general, have a list of topics in mind you want to cover in the interview, rather than a set list of questions. You might have some written starting questions to begin with, but then shift to your topic list and be flexible.

5. Start off with some easy questions, such as short biographical questions about name, date of birth, parents and the like. This gives you good identifying information at the start of the interview, and helps relax your informant. You can ask more detailed or personal questions after you both settle into the conversation.

6. Ask questions one at a time. If your question has two or three parts, ask them separately.

7. Ask open-ended questions that require more than a "yes" or "no" answer. Questions that start with “how” or “why” get you more interesting answers.

8. Use plain, straightforward words and avoid leading questions. Rather than asking “I suppose life as a fisherman was hard?”, ask “Can you describe what life was like for a fisherman?”

9. Ask follow-up questions. Then ask some more! If something is unclear, ask for clarification.

10. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to which you think you already know the answers. You might get suprising answers!

11. Be a good listener, and refrain from talking too much yourself. Use body language, nodding, and smiling to encourage your informant. Let them know, visually, that you are interested.

12. Don't let periods of silence fluster you. Just wait and don’t rush the interview. Sometimes people need a moment to complete their thoughts. If you are silent, chances are your informant will fill the gap by saying something more about the question you asked last.

• Have questions about questions? Ask your friendly neighbourhood folklorist, Dale Jarvis, at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

Ponies, Perogies, Skateboarding and more

ICH Update for January 2013

In this month's edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update for Newfoundland and Labrador: the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador is conducting a needs assessment survey to measure the type and amount of ICH related training needed in the province; work continues on the Foundation's documentation of the Heart's Content Registered Heritage District; intern Joelle Carey starts work on a project identifying living Newfoundland Ponies; new ICH intern Christina Robarts works with Memorial University Department of Folklore professor Dr. Mariya Lesiv on "Newfiki" - celebration of eastern-European cultures in Newfoundland; the Rooms announces a scrapbooking workshop; and Nicole Penney presents on a collection of skateboard videos which will become part of the province's inventory of intangible cultural heritage.

Contributors: Nicole Penney, Lisa Wilson, Joelle Carey, and Christina Robarts
Download the PDF

ICH Conference in Flanders

Recently, ICH Development Officer Dale Jarvis was invited to take part in an ICH conference in Mechelen, Flanders. The topic was participative methods for inventorying or documenting elements of ICH, and the conference included presentations from Joanne Orr - Museums Galleries Scotland (Scotland), Paulo Ferreira da Costa - Institute for Museums and Conservation (Portugal), Hans van der Linden - Agency for Arts and Heritage Flanders (Belgium), Jorijn Neyrinck & Ellen Janssens - tapis plein – Center of Expertise for heritage participation and intangible cultural heritage (Belgium), Eva Van Hoye & Kim Van Belleghem - Heritage units Mechelen & TERF (Belgium), and Marc Jacobs - FARO. Flemish interface for cultural heritage; VUB - Free University Brussels – Heritage Studies and Ethnology (Belgium).

Download Dale's presentation on ICH inventory work in PDF

Top four YouTube resources for oral history and folklore interviews

Over the past couple weeks, I've been doing a number of workshops introducing people to the art and techniques of doing oral history and folklore interviews. Along the way, I've shown a few YouTube videos to illustrate certain points.  For those of you who haven't been able to take in a workshop, I'm presenting my top four favourites below.

1) Why do Oral History?

The first is from the Minnesota Historical Society. Why is oral history important? What is oral history? How is it different than a simple interview? This is the first of a series of video podcasts prepared by the Society that addresses some of these issues.





2) How do you record an oral history interview?

Prepared by the East Midlands Oral History Archive based at the University of Leicester, I've used this video several times. I like how it presents the material in a "Do and Don't" fashion, which is great for a workshop.

3)  How do you get interesting answers?

In this video, Traditional Arts Indiana shares tips and suggestions for folklorists conducting fieldwork. The video discusses how to get complex answers instead of a yes/no response, an important trick for interviewers to know. I love the work that Traditional Arts Indiana is doing, and like the Minnesota Historical Society, they've produced a series of videos for folklore interviews.

4) What can I do with the information I collect?

This is one of my favourite YouTube videos that show what can be done with oral history material. Beautifully shot and edited, Jewish Care's Pearls of Wisdom campaign aims to highlight the value and importance of older people in today's ageing society. According to its YouTube page, it "challenges people, especially younger people, to alter their perceptions of this elder generation, presenting them as wise, funny and worthy of their attention."

Introduction to Folklore and Oral History Interviews Workshop in Corner Brook

Friday, March 16th, 2012
Glynmill Inn, Corner Brook

This introductory workshop is open to anyone with an interest in local history, culture and folklore. It is intended to give a background on how to conduct research interviews in the field, and will give people a chance to try their hand at creating interview questions and conducting an interview. It will provide an overview of the methodology and explore the practical matters of creating, designing, and executing effective oral history research projects. Topics that the workshop will address include project planning, ethical issues, and recording equipment.

The workshop will be taught by folklorist Dale Jarvis. Dale Jarvis works as the Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, helping communities to safeguard traditional culture. He has been working for the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador since 1996, and holds a BSc in Anthropology/Archaeology from Trent University, and a MA in Folklore from Memorial University. He is a past president of the Newfoundland Historic Trust, and has contributed as a board member and volunteer to many local arts and heritage organizations, and is a tireless promoter of the oral tradition.

Date: Friday, March 16th
Time: 1pm - 5pm
Workshop fee: $40 (preregistration required)
Location: Glynmill Inn, Corner Brook
To register call Nicole at 1-888-739-1892 ext 3, or email: ichprograms@gmail.com

Full list of conference participants tweeting #AFS11

For those of you not at the American Folklore Society conference here in Bloomington Indiana, several participants have been posting observations and notes on Twitter under the hashtag #AFS11.

I'm going to list those who have been posting, below, so check them out and give them a follow. If I've missed anyone, let me know @dalejarvis or email ich@heritagefoundation.ca

@AndreaKitta
@barrchristina
@britas
@chickenpickin

@dalejarvis
@DebraLattanzi
@folklore_wadam
@foxyfolklorist
@ibrodie
@ICH_NL

@jasonjackson2
@johnfenn3
@LynneSMcNeill

@RebesaurusRex
@TradArtsIN
@USUFolklore
@wldoyle

Aug 22nd, 1846 - Happy Birthday, Folklore!

On August 22, 1846, antiquarian William John Thoms coined the term "folk-lore." Writing under the pseudonym Ambrose Merton, in a letter to the editor of the London magazine The Athenaeum, Thoms wrote:

Your pages have so often given evidence of the interest which you take in what we in England designate as Popular Antiquities, or Popular Literature (though by-the-by it is more a Lore than a literature, and would be most aptly described by a good Saxon compound, Folk-Lore,—the Lore of the People)—that I am not without hopes of enlisting your aid in garnering the few ears which are remaining, scattered over that field from which our forefathers might have gathered a goodly crop. No one who has made the manners, customs, observances, superstitions, ballads, proverbs, etc., of the olden time his study, but must have arrived at two conclusions:—the first how much that is curious and interesting in those matters is now entirely lost—the second, how much may yet be rescued by timely exertion…. It is only honest that I should tell you I have long been contemplating a work upon our “Folk-Lore” (under that title, mind Messes. A, B, and C,—so do not try to forestall me);—and I am personally interested in the success of the experiment which I have, in this letter, albeit imperfectly, urged you to undertake.


[reposted from the American Folklife Centre facebook page]

Top 6 Sites With Sample Oral History Interview Questions

A little while ago, I posted my Top 6 Online Guides for Folklife and Oral History Documentation. In preparing for a couple interviews I'm going to be doing, I was looking up some sample questions for basic oral history and folklore interviews, and so I thought I would post my top picks here for people who were looking for similar resources.

1. The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide
http://www.folklife.si.edu/education_exhibits/resources/guide/introduction.aspx
This is sort of cheating, because I included it in my earlier post, but it still remains an excellent resource, complete with sample questions.

2. Fifty Questions for Family History Interviews
http://genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interview.htm
Subtitled "What to Ask the Relative" this is a good starting list for anyone doing research on family stories, genealogy, or family traditions.

3. Oral History Questions
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson805/questions.pdf
Also a good list for people doing family oral histories, this collection of questions was compiled specifically for youth researchers.

4. Sample Interview Questions For Veterans
http://www.loc.gov/vets/questions.html
Prepared by the Library of Congress for its Veterans History Project, this is a good list of questions for people doing interviews with members and former members of the armed forces during World War I, World War II, and the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf wars.

5. Family History Sample Outline and Questions
http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/familyHistory.html
This outline can be used to structure a family oral history interview and contains examples of specific questions.

6. Oral History Interview, Questions and Topics
http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/Quest.html
A list of questions that may be used when interviewing an older member of the family, prepared by the Museum of Jewish Heritage


UPDATE 19 Oct 2016 - I've added a new #6, as the Draft Oral History Interview Questions for the Fairfax County Asian American Historical Project seem to have vanished. But you can still check out their project here.

Inventory of sound and video recordings in Newfoundland and Labrador repositories

Are you part of a local archive or museum that has a box of old tape recordings of community stories hidden away under someone’s desk? If you do, we want to know about it!

As a part of this year's work plan, the documentation and inventory committee of the Heritage Foundation's Intangible Cultural Heritage division is trying to find out what sound and video materials are out in the community. We are attempting to discover the extent of existing sound and video collections in Newfoundland and Labrador related to oral history, folklore and intangible cultural heritage.

HFNL is beginning with collections of recordings held by heritage organizations. Information collected in this survey will be used to help determine the scope and condition of sound and video holdings in Newfoundland and Labrador archives, museums and community collections.

Local organizations can take the survey online, using SurveyMonkey, an easy-to-use online questionnaire. You can find the survey at:

http://tinyurl.com/ICHrecordings


If you are working for an archive in the province that is a member of the Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives, you may soon get a phone call from someone who will ask you some questions about your holdings along these lines. Once we know what's out there, we can explore further actions towards preserving it and making it accessible!

For more information, contact Dale Jarvis at:
1-888-739-1892 ext 2
ich@heritagefoundation.ca

St. Swithin's Day Weather Lore

Happy, glorious bright sunny St. Swithin's Day (at least in St. John's).

"July 15th of each year was St. Swithin's Day and always acknowledged throughout Newfoundland," writes Newfoundland author Jack Fitzgerald in his book Ghosts and Oddities. The following weather-forecasting rhyme was often recited on the day:

St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithin's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair (or "no more" in some variants)

For details on the tradition, see the Catholic Encyclopedia at:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14357c.htm

and for a fabulous scanned text of the full St. Swithin legend, see
http://www.archive.org/details/legendofsaintswi00davi

Newfoundland also has its own St. Swithin's church, in Seal Cove, recorded on the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador's website at:
http://tinyurl.com/stswithins

Culture Corner - The Folklore of Harbour Breton

Mr Doug Wells, of Harbour Breton, is a board member of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. Following our board meeting last week, he sent me a series of articles on local culture.

Wells writes, "I had my students to write on local cultural and historical events, etc. With a folklore background, I also encouraged students to write articles on folklore related practices. The attached articles are folklore/folklife related and represent Harbour Breton and some nearby resettled communities. Over the years of teaching Cultural Heritage 1200, students wrote approximately 150 stories. The stories were worth so much towards the student's course evaluation. They were also submitted to our local paper as well, the Coaster. Our class's section of the paper was called Culture Corner and was quite popular with locals, especially with seniors."

With his permission, I've placed the scans of the original articles online.

From curing warts to local legends, the articles give a wonderful introduction to the local folklore of Harbour Breton and area.

Wanted: May Bushes!

Photo courtesy Dr. Philip Hiscock, Dept of Folklore

Today is the first day of May, and in some parts of Newfoundland, that meant that May bushes would soon be seen. These would be spruce or fir saplings stripped of most of their limbs, except for few near the top, which would be festooned with strips of coloured cloth or ribbons.

“When I was a primary or elementary school kid at a Catholic school, each May students wore blue ribbons pinned to their clothes in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Blue ribbons showed up around our neighbourhoods, too, on May bushes – saplings with most of their branches cut off, except for the few left around the top with the ribbons on them. This tradition can be traced back to the ancient Celts, who used maypoles or boughs as part of springtime rituals and to bring good luck, especially for agriculture."
- Lara Maynard, Torbay

While this tradition isn't as popular as it once was, there are are few places where May bushes still make an appearance. If you see one, or know of someone who is keeping this old tradition alive, please email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca or call 1-888-739-1892 ext 2. I'd love a picture if you have one!

Read Lara Maynard's article on Newfoundland May Bushes here:
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/custom_may_bush.html

Collecting Community Memories Workshop

Wednesday, May 6
SABRI office, West Street, St. Anthony, NL
(old Bank of Nova Scotia Building)
1-4 pm

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) or what some call “Living Heritage” encompasses many traditions, practices and customs. These include the stories we tell, the holidays we commemorate, the family events we celebrate, our community gatherings, our knowledge of our natural spaces, how we treat sickness, the foods we eat, our holidays, beliefs and cultural practices. Many of us sing songs or tell stories; some of us know about fishing grounds or berry picking spots; others know about curing illnesses. These are things our communities identify as valuable. They are the memories which are passed on from person to person, from generation to generation.

But are those stories still being passed on? And if not, what can we do about it?

Join Dale Jarvis, folklorist, author and Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer from the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, for a free afternoon workshop on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), collecting community stories and the St. Anthony Basin Resources Inc (SABRI) Oral History project!

For more information on the SABRI oral history project, contact Kathleen Tucker

Workshop Leader:

Dale Jarvis is a folklorist, researcher, and author, who has been working for the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) since 1996. In April 2008, he took on the role of Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, one of only two provincially funded, full-time folklorist positions in Canada.

Dale has a BSc (Hons) in Anthropology/Archaeology from Trent University (Peterborough) and an MA in Folklore from Memorial University. He is past president of the Newfoundland Historic Trust, and the author of two popular books on Newfoundland and Labrador folklore, and a third book of world ghost stories for young adult readers.