Knit Some Socks Knit-Along

On Saturday March 5th, despite the weather, we had around 45 lovely knitters join Christine LeGrow and Shirley Scott for an afternoon of knitting. Participants knitted traditional Newfoundland socks found in Operation Homespun which is produced by the Anna Templeton Centre and is available for purchase!

While participants were ribbing k2, p2, Christine read poems and excerpts from A Pair of Grey Socks: facts and fancies by Tryphena Soper Duley; Verses by Margaret Duley. The book was written in 1916 and was a perfect way to connect the knit-along with the 100th anniversary of the First World War. "A woman is knitting most all the day, a sock that shapes from a ball of grey, her fingers fly, and the needles click, fast grows the sock so soft an thick..." In the poem, white stripes on the grey sock "marks the socks for the slender youth who does his part for the cause of truth. The red is a sign for the hardy man, at the height of his strength in life's short span... blue in the sock is the medium size, the colour dear to sailors' wives. So in the grey socks red, white and blue form our colours so bright and true..."

Shirley Scott told us about the research she did for Canada Knits: Comfort in a Northern Land. The favourite story of the afternoon was Queen Elizabeth I encouraging the knitting industry. Shirley said after Queen Elizabeth I received her first pair of silk knitted socks she stated, "... indeed I like silk stockings so well, because they are so pleasant, fine and delicate, that henceforth I will wear no more cloth stockings."

After the ribbing of the sock, it was time for the leg of the sock which is composed by a simple stockinette stitch. Shirley and Christine showed examples of mistakes that can be made when knitting a sock. For example, the ribbing being too tight to fit your foot in or the foot of the sock being too big causing it to fold in your shoe!

Laughs were had and knowledge was shared! I had an e-mail from a participant saying she felt lost at the beginning but a wonderful lady next to her was extremely helpful and she has been working on her sock since. We also had someone text a photo to Christine who was knitting the pattern in Quebec at the same we were here in St. John's. We hoped the knit-along would do exactly this.

This Saturday is the last session! Christine and Shirley will be showing participants how to turn the heel and graft the toe. If you missed last week and are interested in coming this Saturday, send me an e-mail so I can send you the pattern for you to catch up -- stephanie@heritagefoundation.ca.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep034B Youth Heritage Forum with Alanna Wicks

Alanna Wicks holds a BA in Folklore and Cultural Anthropology, and a MA in Public Folklore, both from Memorial University. She has been working and volunteering in the field of culture and heritage since 2006 in both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. She currently sits as Director on the Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives Executive Board and volunteers regularly with archives within the community.

In March 2015, she organized and moderated the province’s first Youth Heritage Forum. Alanna dropped by the Heritage Foundation of NL office to talk about the planning of the heritage forum, and offered suggestions for heritage organizations wanting to engage youth.

The Memory Store: The root cellar capital of the world...

The video for this week's the Memory Store was filmed in Elliston, NL inside one of the many root cellars found in the community. In this clip Don Johnson with Tourism Elliston describes the tourism and introduction of two festivals which developed in the town of Elliston as a result of the abundance of root cellars in the town.

Watch the video below or click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Click here for more information about the root cellar's history and architecture.
If you missed our initial post explaining the concept of the Memory Store clip here to go back to our first blog post with the introduction video or check out our YouTube channel at ICH NL.

Stay tuned for more short stories about historic places in the province, in the form of short oral history interviews conducted with the people who care about those places and if you have a personal memory about a historic place in Newfoundland and Labrador, and want to add your voice to the Memory Store project, let us know at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

-Terra

Two more Newfoundland recipes for #mustardpickles (and one from Niagara Falls!)

Our ongoing quest for mustard pickle recipes continues. First up is from Jason Sellars, who writes, "This recipe comes from my mom and is made annually by the case from ingredients grown from her vegetable garden in Winter Tickle, Newfoundland. Try finding that on a map, I dare ya! Way better than any store bought."
RUBY SELLERS' GREEN TOMATO MUSTARD PICKLES

5 lbs green tomatoes
2 small cucumbers
2 green peppers
1 red pepper
2 1/2 lbs onions
1 head cauliflower
1 small cabbage

Paste:
1/2 cup flour
1 cup vinegar
2 tbls tumeric
2 tbls dry mustard

Cut vegetables in small pieces and soak in water and 1/2 cup salt overnight.
Drain and add:
2 cups vinegar
4 cups white sugar
Boil for 45 minutes.
Add paste gradually to thicken.
Place in sterile bottles.

---

Next we have a recipe from Sheila Cooke, who writes, "This is my late husband's recipe with comments (in parentheses)."
WAYN'ES MUSTARD PICKLE RECIPE using a food processor

(Note: I double dry mustard, and put all veggies except cauliflower through French fry blade on processor. You choose.)

Step #1
Use a stainless steel or granite enamel bowl

3 quarts cucumbers (baby dill size) sliced like bread & butter pickles
1 large head cauliflower--broken into tiny flowerettes
3 - 4 large yellow onions
1 large Jalapeno pepper, cut fine (wear rubber gloves as these have oil that skin sucks up)

Salt all above with 1/2 cup pickling salt and let stand over night (or all day)

Step #2

After standing time passes, drain well and rinse well using sieve.
Add:
1 bunch celery cut to preference (I slice across the stalks)
4 large sweet red peppers, chopped (I use pimentos if they are available)
8 cups white sugar
40 oz. (5 cups) white vinegar
2 1/2 cups water Use half the water to blend 4 tblsp dry mustard
1 scant tblsp turmeric
1 1/2 tblsp mustard seed
1 1/2 cup flour into paste to thicken the juice
Boil 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

Seal in sterilized pint jars. Let sit in jars at least 1 month before using--if you can wait this long. Enjoy!

---

News of the 2016 Pickle Crisis has spread far and wide. Wendy Lechner writes, "I just read of the mustard pickle crisis in Canada. Here’s my grandmother’s recipe. She lived in the Niagara Falls, Ontario area. Unfortunately she never wrote down her recipe for butter tarts." Here is her recipe:

GRANDMA BROMHALL’S (NANNY) MUSTARD PICKLES

6 quarts

1 quart large cucumbers, cubed
1 quart small cucumbers, whole
1 quart silver-skinned onions
1 quart green tomatoes, chopped course
2 red sweet peppers, chopped fine
1 large cauliflower, broken into small pieces

Brine solution

1 quart water
½ cup canning salt

Dressing

6 tablespoons Coleman mustard
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 cup flour
2 cups sugar
2 quarts vinegar

Place clean, prepared veggies in crock.
Cover with brine solution. Let stand 24 hours.
Bring to boil in same solution. - (make sure the whole batch is up to boiling temp, but don’t boil for very long - it makes the cukes too soft.)
Drain.
Make dressing: mix dressing ingredients thoroughly and cook until thick.
Stir in pickles and heat thoroughly, BUT do not let cukes get soft.
Place in jars. Process

---

Obviously, I need to do some butter tart research next... - Dale

Folklore Photo: #YHF2016 3 Days Left to Register!!

Photo credit: Jeremy Harnum

Look at these young, inspiring youth from last year's forum! You may have seen this photo floating around as we promote the 2nd Annual Youth Heritage Forum! We had a great turn out last year and we know we'll have the same again this year. Time is running out! There is three days left to register.

If you are a youth passionate about heritage, or are a heritage organization or community group, you do not want to miss this year's Youth Heritage Forum!

Visit www.youthheritagenl.wordpress.com for more information or register right now!

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We asked for your favourite mustard pickle recipes. Look what we got!

We put out a call over the weekend for your favourite mustard pickle recipes, and a couple people responded immediately! If you have a recipe you want to share, you can email us your version at mustardpickles@heritagefoundation.ca.

One of the delights of recipes, as any cook will agree, is the story that often accompanies the recipe. The first two recipes emailed in were no exception!

The first recipe I received was from Elizabeth Winter, who writes, “Have not made this for years since I am now 88, but found it in my old tattered files. I now buy my pickles from Belbin’s or Jocelyn in The Square. There was a similar recipe in the Spencer Club Cook Book but we were Prince of Wales girls in the fifties sharing our mothers’ recipes.” Here is Elizabeth’s recipe:

PRINCE OF WALES SWEET MUSTARD PICKLES
5 lbs of green tomatoes
2 1/2 lbs pearl onions
1 large cucumber
1 large cauliflower
2 bell peppers

Cut up veggies and soak in brine of 1/2 cup of salt (pickling salt if possible) in water to cover over night.
Drain and rinse.
Add 2 1/2 pounds of sugar to 1 quart less 1 cup of vinegar. Boil 20 minutes
Make a paste of 1 cup of flour mixed with 2 tablespoons of mustard powder and 1 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and 1 cup of vinegar.
Boil 10 min.


Our second mustard pickle recipe comes from Marian Dawe, who says “I've made these for years now and people always want them again… Around 15 years ago, I found this in a ‘Bye D'Bay Cookery" recipe book that I had in my collection. The book itself has no date on it and I am thinking it was sold sometime in the late ‘70s or ‘80s. The forward says the recipes were collected by members of Micron Chapter, Beta Sigma Phi whose members live along the shore of CBS. They were fundraising for community projects.” The recipe is attributed to Brenda Skinner. Here is the recipe, with Marian’s notes:

MAIME'S MUSTARD PICKLES (I've halved the recipe. This makes 4 pint bottles.)

3 cups peeled, cubed, and seeded cucumbers
1 head of celery, chopped
1 head of cauliflower, chopped
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups white vinegar

Place the above in pot, bring to a low boil, and simmer slowly for 1/2 hour.

Dressing:
3/8 cup flour, i.e. 1/4 cup + half of 1/4 cup
1 1/2 tsp. dry mustard powder
1/2 tsp. turmeric

Mix the flour, mustard and turmeric with about 1/4 cup of cold water to make a paste. Add to the vegetables and stir to combine. Simmer slowly for 3/4 hour. Bottle right away.


And one more recipe! Food blogger Liz Feltham has shared a classic recipe from her late late mother-in-law’s copy of The Treasury of Newfoundland Dishes on her blog here.

Traditions at Risk - Saving Traditional Mustard Pickle Recipes! #mustardpickles

As some of you may have heard, mustard pickles under the Zest and Habitant labels have been discontinued by producer Smucker Foods of Canada Corporation. Mustard pickles are an important part of Newfoundland and Labrador foodways, and people have been upset!

Of course, there are other options for pickle lovers (Belbin's makes mustard pickles, as does the Newfoundland Jam and Pickle Factory).

Numerous people have responded on social media saying, "I'm not worried, I make my own mustard pickles."

So here at the intangible cultural heritage office, where we are always thinkings about traditions in flux, we want to help! We want YOUR mustard pickle recipes! In the tradition of sharing and transmitting knowledge about local foodways, we will share those recipes and get people making pickles the old fashioned (and maybe new-fashioned?) way!

You can send your family mustard pickle recipe to:

mustardpickles@heritagefoundation.ca

and we'll share them on ichblog.ca.

Let's get pickling!

- Dale Jarvis

photo from http://www.4theloveoffood.ca/index.php/mustard-pickles/

Intangible Cultural Heritage Update - Darning Eggs, Youth, and Traditions at Risk

In the March edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update, we spin you a yarn about our darning workshop, introduce you to the 2016 Youth Heritage Forum, and talk about traditions at risk.

You can view and download the newsletter here.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep034 An oral history of heritage conservation in NL with Shane O’Dea

Shane O'Dea, Professor of English and Public Orator at Memorial University, has long been involved with preservation in Newfoundland. He was one of the founding directors and an early chair of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, and was involved in the early years of the St. John’s Heritage Foundation and the Newfoundland Historic Trust. Shane has served on countless boards and associations and was recognized for his efforts in preserving heritage architecture with the Lieutenant Governor's Award in 1990.

In this edition of the Living Heritage Podcast, Shane talks about the early history of the Newfoundland Historic Trust, mobilizing forces to preserve the Christ Church in Quidi Vidi and the Commissariat House on Kingsbridge Road in St. John’s, the battle over Atlantic Place, the formation of the St. John’s Heritage Foundation, and about the introduction of the now-iconic heritage paint colour scheme for downtown St. John’s. It’s a brief oral history introduction to the formative years of the heritage conservation movement in the province! Recorded 20 January 2016.

 

Invitation to the Conversation Cafe

On March 10th, join us at the NL Arts and Culture Centre from 10:00am - 12:00pm for some discussion and refreshments.

Nets drying in the sun in Makkovik, NL.
(picturesque tradition, but not one at risk in Makkovik!)

As the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office plans its direction for the next year, we are looking to community members, groups and organizations across Newfoundland and Labrador to share their thoughts on local intangible cultural heritage at risk across the province. This conversation cafe is one part of the broader effort to identify and understand heritage at risk.

A conversation cafe is exactly as it sounds: a themed conversation among guests over light refreshments. In this case our conversations will be guided by questions on the theme, "What traditions, skills and knowledge(s) are at risk in NL?"

This is an opportunity to explore what "heritage" means in 2016; to share your thoughts on traditions and skills important to you; to discuss what our living heritage(s) may grow to be in the future!

To check-out the event details and to register, click here: registration.

Space is limited so register early! Deadline for registration is March 8th. 

Folklore Photo: Non-youth attend #YHF2016 this Year!

Photo credit: Jeremy Harnum

Today's photo is a great shot of participants listening to the youth heritage panel from last year's Youth Heritage Forum! This year's forum, on March 19th, is a little different. There will be a panel of mentors that the Public Folklore program at Memorial University are interviewing before the forum. At the forum, they will be having an open discussion with the mentors for participants to learn about what they do and how they started in the heritage field.

There will be the opportunity to ask questions and get involved with the mentors who are all established in different fields. Stay tuned for some sneak peeks of who the mentors are!

Visit www.youthheritagenl.wordpress.com for more information and updates or

Create your own Newfoundland Hobby Horse for #makermonday!

Do you want to know how to make a Hobby Horse? Look no further!

It's no secret we love the tradition of Newfoundland and Labrador Hobby Horses here at the Intangible Cultural Heritage office.  So we are delighted to report that our friends at the Mummers Festival, with funding from the Helen Creighton Folklore Society, have recently completed their step-by-step guide for making your own hobby horse.

These aren't the children's toy hobby horses, but a large, fearsome folk puppet, an element of chaos which was part of the Christmas mummering tradition in Newfoundland and Labrador.

You can check out their new video on YouTube, or watch below!




There is also an earlier video about the Hobby Horse making workshops, filmed by NTV.




You can read a description of the DIY process here and download a pdf of the template here.

If you want some inspiration from across the pond, check out these cool hobbies from The Wantsum Hoodners at The Banbury Hobby Horse Festival 2010, on Vimeo.

Registration for the Traditional Newfoundland Sock Knit-Along is OPEN!

As part of the Grey Sock Project, the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador and the City of St. John's are presenting Knit Some Socks Knit-along.

Come knit a traditional pair of Newfoundland socks found in Operation Homespun among fellow knitters! Knit-along with a group as you rib, turn heels and graft toes. If you are unsure of how to do something, there are two wonderful instructors to help or ask your neighbour. Once finished, you can donate your socks to those in need or take them home! Snacks and refreshments provided.

When: March 5th and March 12th

Where: A.C. Hunter Children's Library

Time: 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Participants will be required to bring:

• 2 sets of double pointed needles - 3.75 mm and 4 mm
• 2 skeins of Briggs and Little Heritage worsted weight 100% wool (or equivalent worsted weight wool)
• Optional: Small portion of yarn for stripes

Proposed Audience: Some experience to intermediate

Biography of presenters:
Christine LeGrow lives and works in Outer Cove, Newfoundland. She enjoys designing patterns as well as knitting traditional patterns. Many of her designs are inspired by Newfoundland early knits. LeGrow shares her designs with twenty-five knitters who contribute to her company Spindrift.

Shirley Scott, or Shirl the Purl, lives and works in St. John’s, Newfoundland. She spends much of her time knitting and preserving traditional patterns. Scott wrote Canada Knits: Craft and Comfort in a Northern Land and has since been known as Canada’s knitting historian.

Project Updates: What traditions are important to you?

On February 17^th we launched the TRADITIONS AT RISK survey. The project has been warmly welcomed by over 100 people! Thank-you! 

On February 18^th we reached the 50 mark! In less than 24 hours, we had 50 people take part! Well done, Newfoundland and Labrador! Check out the map to see where the responses have come from (updated every day at 4:30pm).

Photo courtesy of CBC CrossTalk

On February 22nd I spent the noon-hour with Pam Hall (pictured right) and Ramona Dearing on CBC's Cross Talk. Sarah Baikie, a grasswork artist from Rigolet, and many others across the province shared their thoughts on traditions at risk. You can check out that conversation HERE. To get a peek at the beautiful (and onerous) process behind grass work art: check in with Them Days HERE.  

On February 23^rd I began tracking the locations of survey responses using Google Maps. Check out the MAP (pictured below) on the ICH at Risk page! Don’t see your community? Complete the survey to make sure the intangible cultural heritage in your community is represented!

Living Heritage Map

On February 24th we hit the 100 mark! Thank-you to everyone who has participated so far. We reached our first goal! Our next goal is 200 respondents by March 2nd! We can do it!

Living Heritage Podcast Ep033 Student Internships and Textile Heritage with Stephanie Micikyan

Stephanie Micikyan is a graduate of the University of Ottawa with a BA in History, and of Fleming College’s Museum Management and Curatorship Graduate Certificate program. She has worked as an intern with The Rooms history division in St. John’s, working on a textiles-based project, and is the Intangible Cultural Heritage Intern with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, working on the Grey Sock Project, inspired by the First World War-era Women’s Patriotic Association. We talk about internships and Fleming College’s certificate program, the work of archiving and preserving textiles, work to safeguard traditional knitting skills, and her recent research on the life and work of Anna Templeton, a craft pioneer in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Memory Store: Well it's not a burial place...

This week’s Memory Store video is a clip of Elisabeth Laverty from the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Elisabeth describes the cathedral’s weekly organ concerts and the daily summertime tea in the crypt.  You can check out an organ concert on Wednesdays or enjoy some home baked goods in the crypt during the summer time!

Watch the video below or click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Click here for more information about the building's history and architectural style.
If you missed our initial post explaining the concept of the Memory Store clip here to go back to our first blog post with the introduction video or check out our YouTube channel at ICH NL.

Stay tuned for more short stories about historic places in the province, in the form of short oral history interviews conducted with the people who care about those places and if you have a personal memory about a historic place in Newfoundland and Labrador, and want to add your voice to the Memory Store project, let us know at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

-Terra

Exploring Industrial Chic - an interview with Mike Barneveld of Square Peg Designs

I spent the last two days at the Willowbank School for Restoration Arts, in Queenston, Ontario, teaching the Heritage Conservation Program students about the world of intangible cultural heritage. It was my second year at Willowbank, and it is always a great deal of fun introducing new people to ICH, and demonstrating the link between living traditions and heritage conservation.

For the second year, I was also able to conduct a demonstration interview with one of the artisans associated with the school. This year, it was with Mike Barneveld of Square Peg Designs, an alumnus of the program.

Square Peg Designs is a small, Niagara-based company which creates one-of-a-kind furniture and accessories with an “industrial chic” feel using vintage and reclaimed materials.  I sat down with Mike in front of the students, and we chatted about his work trajectory, the establishment of his business, what he learned from the Willowbank program, his creative aesthetic and process, and the business side of his art.

Listen in below, or click here to download the interview in various audio formats.

- photos courtesy www.squarepegdesigns.ca

Tuesday's Folklore Photo: Last Year's Youth Heritage Forum

Today's photo was taken at last year's Youth Heritage Forum by Jeremy Harnum. This is a member of the First Nations Eastern Owl Women's Drum Circle. The group was part of last year's opening ceremony and are back again this year!

Saturday March 19th is the 2nd Annual Youth Heritage Forum in St. John's. This year, the forum is focusing on heritage skills, networking, and mentorship. There will be mentors established in different fields such as archaeology, folklore, archives, and much more!

Youth will have the opportunity to ask the mentors questions, network with fellow youth in the heritage field, and take part in exciting events like the heritage skills competition.

Visit www.youthheritagenl.wordpress.com for more information and updates about the forum and register today!

As Good as New!

Last week, the darning workshop took place at the A.C. Hunter Children's Library at the Arts and Culture Centre! We had twenty-two eager and excited participants who learned to mend holes in knitted garments with Christine LeGrow. Shirley Scott was there and she gave some great tips to participants on how to knit and care for knitted socks so they are everlasting!

I was lucky enough to see some darning egg/mushrooms - and even a radiator knob - that have been used to darn socks:

          

             Left - Elizabeth's darning egg -
       a nice modern example
               Right - Rebecca Jeffery's darning egg which
          belongs to her father, Gary. c.1930 from
       Southern Ontario!

Glenna Jamieson-English's darning mushroom!
See the orange? We used them to darn!

After some show and tell, Christine got down to business and taught everyone how to darn. My favourite example was how she compared darning to weaving like some of us were taught in school. By the end of the workshop, everyone got the hang of it and holes began to be mended!

It was a fun filled, exciting, and educational evening. Everyone who attended will certainly be using their new skill to mend socks, hats, trigger mitts, and sweaters for years to come, keeping everything looking as good as new! **Stay tuned - I will be posting darning instructions from Christine for those who missed the workshop soon**

Thank you to everyone who attended, Christine LeGrow, Shirley Scott, the City of St. John's, Susan Prior, the NL Public Libraries, and all those who promoted this event making this workshop a great success!

Missed this workshop? We have a knit-along happening in March!

Living Heritage Podcast Ep031 A Life in Public Folklore, with Peggy Bulger

Peggy A. Bulger retired in 2011 as the second director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, where she served from 1999. A native of New York State, she holds a B.A. in fine arts from the State University of New York at Albany, an M.A. in folk studies from Western Kentucky University, and a Ph.D. in folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. A folklorist, consultant, and producer, Bulger has been documenting folklife and developing and managing folklife programs for more than forty years. We talk about her life, her fascinating work, and her thoughts on where public folklore is going today. Recorded on 7 August 2015.

Photo: Dale Jarvis and Peggy Bulger, 2013

What traditions are at risk in your community?

Last week I promised to unveil a new ICH project. Here it is:

Back in 2008 and 2013 we asked community members, organizations and groups interested in NL heritage and culture to share their thoughts on the needs of communities in safeguarding local intangible cultural heritage. Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, this living heritage is everything from the Christmas mummering traditions to, depending on where you're from in the province, flummies, tiffins or toutons!

One of the common threads in these past reports was a concern for the traditions, skills and knowledges that are at risk of being lost. We hear you! So, in the spirit of safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage of Newfoundland and Labrador we came up with a short survey (3-5 minutes) based on what people have identified as at risk. Help us identify the intangible cultural heritage that is at risk in your community! We want to hear from you!

The survey will be open to everyone beginning February 17th until March 24th at 5:00pm. The report will be made available to the public when the project is complete.

To take the survey, please visit the ICH Risk link on the main page of the blog.

If you have any questions contact:

Meghan Mills
meghan@heritagefoundation.ca
1 888 739 1892 ext 5.

Workshop Feb 24th - Using Craft to Tell a Story

An exciting and instructive session for museums, heritage sites and craft makers, this session will offer insight into how craft can tell a cultural story and how makers and visitor destination sites can make use of craft to enhance the visitor’s experience.

Join Keynote speakers Joanne Kaar from Caithness, Scotland and Pam Hall from St. John's at the Manuels River Interpretation Centre on Wednesday, February 24.

Presentations will be followed by panel comprised of local experts in storytelling and the craft industry. The panel will explore ways in which Newfoundland and Labrador craft makers, artists and designers are using craft to tell their stories.

This is a collaborative project between the Craft Council Of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Intangible Cultural Heritage office of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. Your fee of $50 + HST includes lunch!

Click here for more information

Click here to register

Tuesday's Folklore Photo: Eggs and mushrooms

In the spirit of darning, here are two darning tools sent to us from Karlie King and Eileen Murphy!

Karlie King's darning mushroom

Eileen Murphy's darning egg

Eileen writes, "This was passed on to me from my mother' s cousin. Many feet continued to be warm and snug because this was used to mend the wear and tear."

Thank you Karlie and Eileen for these great photos!

We are still looking for photos and stories about darning tools! Do not hesitate to e-mail me stephanie@heritagefoundation.ca

By the way, did I mention the traditional darning workshop is tonight? You still have time to register!



Join instructor Christine LeGrow tonight, Tuesday, February 16 between 6:15 pm-8:15 pm, at the A.C. Hunter Children's Library at the Arts & Culture Centre, 125 Allandale Road to learn traditional darning techniques.

Participants will be required to bring:

• Socks that need darning
• Scraps of equivalent yarn
• Darning needle
• Scissors
• Optional: Darning egg

Hope to see you there!

In Memoriam: Heritage Advocate Beve Butler, Grand Falls-Windsor

I was saddened today to learn of the passing of Beve Butler, Past President of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society, and a friend of us here at the Intangible Cultural Heritage office. Beve was a great champion of local heritage and oral history, and the key motivator behind the Heritage Foundation of NL's work to digitize the oral history collections of Mr. Hiram Silk.

Catherine Simpson of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society wrote today on Facebook:

Beve was a force of nature, and not only in heritage circles---a person with a huge heart and boundless enthusiasm who inspired all of us with her dedication and passion. She was a tireless champion of heritage to the end. 

I will miss Beve and her enthusiasm for local heritage. I am thankful, however, that I had a chance to sit down with Beve at her home last year, and record some of her stories of her early life. We chatted about everything from her childhood years in Grand Falls and Lethbridge, to her Christmas memories, children's games, and her life in education. You can listen to that interview on Memorial University's Digital Archive Initiative.

A reception will be held at the Royal Canadian Legion on Queen Street in Grand Falls-Windsor on Wednesday, 17th February, 2016, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, for anyone who would like to come together to share memories of Beve and to express their sympathies to the family.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep032 Heritage, Radio, and Building Community Voice

Join us as we celebrate UNESCO's World Radio Day, Feb 13th - a day to celebrate radio as a medium; to improve international cooperation between broadcasters; and to encourage major networks and community radio alike to promote access to information, freedom of expression, and gender equality over the airwaves.

In this special World Radio Day podcast, we are talking about Heritage, Radio, and Building Community Voice, with Joan Cranston and Anita Best.

Joan Cranston is a physiotherapist who operates her clinic out of the old Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital in Norris Point. She is also the (volunteer) coordinator for the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital Heritage Corporation, and has served on many community development boards. Anita Best is a renowned Newfoundland folk singer, storyteller, and broadcaster. Anita has received several honours for her work in collecting and disseminating Newfoundland folksongs, including the Marius Barbeau award from the Folklore Studies Association of Canada and an Honourary Doctorate from Memorial University, and is the program director for Voice of Bonne Bay Radio. In this episode, they talk with Dale Jarvis about the work of the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital Heritage Corporation, a not-for-profit community corporation which is adaptively re-using the old cottage hospital as a community center, operating on a social enterprise model.

(Another) little introduction:

Hello, folks! My name is Meghan Mills and I will be joining Stephanie and Dale here at the ICH office for the next seven weeks. Pleased to "meet" you! 

Over the next few weeks I'll be working with Dale on a pretty exciting project. It's exciting to me because it will give me the chance to talk to you (yes, you!) about what intangible cultural heritage in your community looks like and what it may look like in the future. Interest piqued? We're launching the project on February 17th right here so be sure to check-in!

In the meantime if you have any questions you may reach me at meghan@heritagefoundation.ca.

Take-care and happy weekend,

Meghan

Counting crows, and poem from Tilting, Fogo Island. #FolkloreThursday

On Monday last, I gave a guest lecture on intangible cultural heritage for Scott Neilsen's Cultural Resource Management (CRM) course at Memorial University. I talked to the class about the five domains of ICH as defined by UNESCO, and gave examples from a Newfoundland and Labrador perspective.

While talking about oral traditions and expressions, I challenged them with a couple traditional riddles, and then two students spoke up with rhymes that they had learned when younger.

First up was Rebekah Nolan, who had a fantastic version of a counting crows rhyme which I'd not heard before. I've written about crow counting rhymes before, but Rebecca's version was new to me. She learned it in San Luis Obispo ("America's happiest city" apparently) circa 2003:

One for sadness

Two for mirth

Three for marriage

Four for birth

Five for laughing

Six for crying

Seven for sickness

Eight for dying

Nine for silver

Ten for gold

Eleven for a secret that will never be told

Twelve for darkness

Thirteen for light

Fifteen for morning

Sixteen for night.

The second was from Jackie Tizzard, who had a rhyme she learned from her mother, who was a Burke from Tilting, Fogo Island.  "She could never tell me where it came from," Jackie told me. This was her rhyme:

"Long has been my cherished hope,

Upon my dying day,

To lie upon some sunny slope

And dream my life away."

Jackie thought it might be a riddle, but didn't know the answer. 

The rhyme is not a riddle at all, and neither does it originate on Fogo Island. It is, rather, a quote from a book, The red cow and her friends, by Peter McArthur, published in 1919, in Toronto, Ontario, by J.M. Dent & Sons. It is a fascinating book on farm life, with stories on sick cows, feeding pigs, racoon hunts, and horse contrariness. How a line of it came to be memorized by a young Miss Burke in Tilting is anyone's guess.

The full quote is as follows:

Although the oak is my particular friend among the trees on the farm, there are others with which I can claim at least an acquaintanceship. There is a maple at the edge of the wood-lot that always makes me feel uncomfortable, because I have a feeling that it has a joke on me. It stands on what would be called rising ground " which means an elevation that does not deserve to be called a hill " and while lying on the grass in its shade I can see over several farms to the south and east. It used to be a favourite of my boyhood, and once I composed a poem while lying in its shade. If you bear in mind the fact that I was seventeen years of age at the time you will understand why the tree has a joke on me. Here is the only stanza I can remember of the little poem I composed to express the "unmannerly sadness" of youth.

It long has been my cherished hope Upon my dying day To lie down on some sunny slope And dream my life away.

At that age I could not have cherished the hope so very long, and the old tree must have chuckled to its last twig at my absurdity. Anyway, I never see the tree without recalling that wretched stanza, and I immediately hurry away to some other part of the woods.

Got a piece of folk poetry stuck in your head, or a counting crow rhyme of your own? Leave a comment below, or send me an email at ich@heritagefoundation.ca.

- Dale Jarvis

Living Heritage Podcast Ep030 Safeguarding Traditional Stepdance

Kristin Harris Walsh is a dancer and dance scholar based in St. John's. She holds a PhD in Folklore from Memorial University and a Master’s in Dance from York University and currently is working on a SSHRC funded research project on percussive dance in Newfoundland and Ireland. Kristin has been step dancing for 15 years and has trained and performed in Newfoundland and Ireland. She is Past President of DanceNL, the province’s sectoral dance association, and is the President of the Society for Canadian Dance Studies. In this interview, we talk about step dancing, percussive dance, and the challenges and opportunities for safeguarding traditional dancing in Newfoundland and Labrador. Recorded on 4 August 2015.

Photo of Kristin dancing by Meghan Forsyth.

What is Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)? A quick definition.

I had a question this morning from a colleague who asked, essentially, what is ICH? It is a complex answer, but sometimes people want a quick summary. So, based on the UNESCO 2003 Convention and our own work at the Heritage Foundation of NL, here is our working definition:

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, and skills that communities recognize as part of their cultural heritage. It is sometimes called living cultural heritage, is transmitted from generation to generation, and is constantly recreated by communities and groups, in response to their environment, their interaction with nature, and their history.

ICH is manifested in the following five domains:
- Oral traditions and expressions, including language;
- Performing arts;
- Social practices, rituals and festive events;
- Knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe; and,
- Traditional craft.

ICH can include the stories we tell, the family events we celebrate, our community gatherings, the languages we speak, the songs we sing, knowledge of our natural spaces, our healing traditions, the foods we eat, our holidays, beliefs and cultural practices.

If you are looking for a more detailed discussion of what intangible cultural heritage is, download our free  "What is ICH?" booklet for Newfoundland and Labrador, or UNESCO's own Intangible Cultural Heritage page. 

Photo: Participants of the December 18, 2010 Mummers Festival, by Mark Bennett.
Courtesy Memorial University's Digital Archive Initiative. 

- Dale Jarvis

The Memory Store: All the soil is a very rich soil from Europe or the West Indies...

This week’s Memory Store video is filmed in Captain Blackmore’s Heritage Manor in Port Union, NL. Gary Blackmore, owner and operator of the manor, discusses why the soil surrounding Captain Blackmore’s Heritage Manor in Port Union, NL is so rich and fertile.

Watch the video below or click here to watch the video on YouTube.

If you missed our initial post explaining the concept of the Memory Store clip here to go back to our first blog post with the introduction video or check out our YouTube channel at ICH NL.

Stay tuned for more short stories about historic places in the province, in the form of short oral history interviews conducted with the people who care about those places and if you have a personal memory about a historic place in Newfoundland and Labrador, and want to add your voice to the Memory Store project, let us know at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

-Terra

Tuesday's Folklore Photo: Buttons!

Today's photo is of the lovely buttons we ordered for the Grey Sock Project! Next week, February 16th, is the traditional darning workshop we are offering for FREE at the A.C. Hunter Children's Library with instructor Christine LeGrow. We will be giving these buttons to everyone who comes!

Didn't know about the workshop?


We hope to see you there!

Living Heritage Podcast Ep029 The Old Hag - The Terror In The Night

Lloyd Pike is a retired teacher whose 32 year teaching career began on remote Pass Island, located off the Connaigre Peninsula on Newfoundland's Southwest coast. On one particular dark night Lloyd experienced a disturbing encounter with the "old hag." Danielle Barron was born and raised in St. John’s, is an avid reader and has had multiple experiences over the past seven or eight years with the old hag. We discuss sleep paralysis and the old hag, Lloyd and Danielle’s experiences with Herself, fortune telling, reading tea leaves, mediums, and other superstitions and folk beliefs.

Listen in to this week's Living Heritage Podcast, if you dare!

Photo: Old Hag doll by Designs by Janet, available at The Rooms gift shop.

Today in ICH - Grey Socks, Anna Templeton, Youth Heritage, and more!

In this edition of the ICH Update, we look at what's happening with www.greysockproject.ca, provide some historical background on Miss Anna Templeton - a pioneer in the craft sector in Newfoundland and Labrador, give you a tease of what is to come with the 2016 Youth Heritage Forum, and provide an update on our current intangible cultural programming.

Contributions from Stephanie Micikyan and Dale Jarvis.

Download the pdf here.

Photo: Miss Anna Templeton

Learn to Knit at the Quidi Vidi Village Plantation

Family and Friends Learn to Knit participants!

I went to the Quidi Vidi Village Plantation last week to check out the Family and Friends Learn to Knit program run by the City of St. John's. It ran for four weeks on Sundays in January. The program is offered to anyone who wants to learn to knit.

Participants learned how to cast on, knit, purl, decrease and increase stitches as well as how to knit their own dishcloth. For the last class, participants chose their own projects and started on them. Some of the participant chosen projects were wrist warmers, scarves, and a baby blanket.

The first project knitted by participants

One participant stated she joined the program because knitting was something nice to do in the winter months and was a good way for her to hang out with her friends. She said she really wanted to learn to make socks and this workshop was a great way to learn the basics.

I asked someone else what their favourite part of the workshop was. She said she enjoyed learning new stitches and actually creating something herself.

If you ever wanted to learn to knit this is the perfect opportunity. The instructors are excited to teach and if you're willing to learn you'll be knitting and purling in no time! Luckily, there is another four week program you can register for just like this.


Date: Sundays, Feb. 7 to 28, 2016 (4 weeks)
Time: 2 to 4 p.m.
Location: Quidi Vidi Village Plantation, 10 Maple View Road
Ages: 10+ years
Cost: $28 per person
Click here to register for this course.

Plus, who can deny this view?

View from the Quidi Vidi Village Plantation

Thank you to the lovely group of knitters who allowed me to chat with them and take photos.

Happy knitting everyone,

Stephanie

Learn another traditional skill! We are offering a free traditional darning workshop February 16th.