Radio Noon ICH Podcast

Photo: Ramona Deering, CBC Radio Noon host (left) and Sheila Downer, SmartLabrador (right).

On Friday, January 16th, CBC Radio Noon in St. John's hosted a phone-in Crosstalk on the theme of intangible cultural heritage, with guests Sheila Downer of SmartLabrador and yours truly, Dale Jarvis. Interested listeners called in on topics ranging from boat and kayak building to traditional dancing and community oral history projects.

Ramona started off the show with an audio clip from the SmartLabrador community ICH project, with a local man reciting the points of the compass. It prompted this email from listener Dawn Mesh:

"Further to the gentleman reciting the compass.......my uncle who was from Keels, Bonavista Bay and who died in 2007 at 82 years of age, could also recite this. He was not a fisherman nor was he a person given to recitation. I thought he had learned this at school.....maybe in the Royal Readers?"

If you have any information on the compass recitation, you can post a comment here, or email Dale Jarvis at ich@heritagefoundation.ca.

Download the Radio Noon ICH podcast here in MP3 format.

Fyke Nets and Folklife

Photo: Mr Freeman Upshall, Placentia, showing the wing of a fyke net used for the eel fishery, with a speedboat he made in the background.

I was in Placentia today for a meeting at the Avalon Gateway Regional Economic Development office, about the upcoming Living RICH (Rural Intangible Cultural Heritage) Symposium, to be held heritage week, the third week of February. After the meeting, Margie Hatfield, Heritage & Tourism Director with the Town of Placentia, took me over and introduced me to Mr Freeman Upshall, local tradition bearer and jack-of-all-trades. Mr Upshall and I had a cup of tea and a long chat that ranged from eel fishing to boat building to memories of the whale fishery.

Stay tuned to this blog for more on the Living RICH Symposium and on Mr Upshall!

For those of you interested (there must be other etymology nerds out there) "fyke" is derived from the Dutch fuik, and means "a long bag net kept open by hoops" according to Merriam-Webster, and you can see a picture of one in action here.

Boatbuilding thesis added to Memorial's Digital Archive Initiative

This photo of a herring boat from Trout River, Newfoundland, is taken from Paul Dwyer's Folklore MA Thesis: "The Design, Construction and Use of the Bay of Islands Dory: A Study in Tradition and Culture." The thesis is an examination of dory building the Bay of Islands in Western Newfoundland, looking at the issues of design, construction and use. Written in 2000, the thesis is now hosted online ast part of the thesis digitization project of Memorial University's Digital Archive Initiative (DAI). From books and maps to photographs, periodicals, video and audio, the DAI hosts a variety of collections which together reinforce the importance, past and present, of Newfoundland and Labrador's history and culture.

Other Folklore theses digitized to date include:

Continuation and acculturation: a study of foodways of three Chinese immigrant families in St. John's, Newfoundland
by Jianxiang Liu

Everyday objects as mediators of self: a material culture study of work, home and community in the pulp and paper town of Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland and Labrador
by Jane Burns

Skill and status: traditional expertise within a rural Canadian family
by Laurel Doucette

Architectural change and architectural meaning in Moravian Labrador
by Dale Gilbert Jarvis

ICH on Radio Noon Crosstalk

This Friday, January 16th, tune in to CBC Radio Noon Crosstalk with host Ramona Dearing and guests, yours truly (Dale Jarvis) and Sheila Downer. Sheila Downer is with Smart Labrador, who are running an ICH project on the Labrador Straits

You can listen online at http://www.cbc.ca/radionoonnl/ or phone the RADIO NOON'S CROSSTALK NUMBER: 722-7111 in the St. John's area, 1-800-563-8255 Toll Free Long Distance across North America

Show starts at 1 pm, Newfoundland time, 11:30 am EST

I'm looking for people to phone in to nominate a local tradition, custom, or element of community culture that you think is worth celebrating and saving! What traditional activity in your town do you think should be preserved? Is there an elder or tradition bearer in your area that you think deserves recognition?

ICH Update for January 2009

The Christmas tree will soon be nothing but mulch, the mummers are resting for another year, the wren is buried, and we are already running to keep up with everything that is happening in the province with intangible cultural heritage for 2009. In this issue of the ICH Update, we have a panel on fieldwork ethics, Innu place names online, a revitalization of drum dancing in Makkovik, and an ongoing oral history project in Placentia. Plus a job posting for youth looking for work in the multiculturalism sector in St John's!

You can download the full newsletter in pdf format here.

Happy New Year!

"Everybody has a story to tell" - article by Jonathan Russell

A group of women in the Labrador Straits are collecting stories, interviews and traditional skills to preserve local history. Northern Pen writer Jonathan Russell wrote up this report, send to me by workshop leader Helen Woodrow.

See the full article at:
http://www.heritagefoundation.ca/media/2360/oralhistory.pdf

Mummers and Janneys on CBC Radio Noon

On Wednesday, December 17, CBC Radio Noon host Ramona Deering will be joined by special guest Chris Brookes for an hour long program on the Christmas mummering tradition in Newfoundland and Labrador. Listen, or phone in with your memories of mummers, janneys, hobby horses, wren boys, oonchicks and naluyuks. Program starts at 1:30 in Newfoundland (12 EST).

You can listen in to Radio Noon over the net through the CBC website:
http://www.cbc.ca/radionoonnl

The Mummer's Song, written by Bud Davidage

Mummers and Masks Documentary

Wanted: Folklife Festival Intern

As part of the implementation of Province’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Strategic Plan, the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) is looking for a graduate level student interested in applying for a position involving both an internship and a research project. The student will divide their time between the HFNL and Memorial University. The intern will work with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) on a research project to create a model for an annual folklife festival. As part of that research project, the student will work closely with Dr. Gerald Pocius, Dept. of Folklore, MUN, to investigate issues and approaches to this event.

The student will organize and oversee a one-day festival, and will focus on creating a framework for appropriate cultural presentations following a festival format, sensitive to the needs of grassroots cultural groups. The student will prepare an organizational manual which will discuss details about choices made for performance contexts, issues of choosing presenters for the performances and demonstrations, and issues of repertoire, performance styles, and audience expectations. The event will be documented through still and video photography, and archived through Memorial’s Digital Archives Initiative. The development of a framework for appropriate cultural presentations, and research leading to a manual for community development of folklife festivals, will be of immediate relevance to HFNL in developing an annual provincial folklife festival.

This would be a 4 month internship, starting early in 2009, pending funding approvals. Interested graduate students should send a cover letter, including a statement of research interests and any relevant work experience, with CV, by December 17th , to:

Dale Jarvis
Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer
Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador
PO Box 5171, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada A1C 5V5
ich@heritagefoundation.ca
http://www.heritagefoundation.ca
709-739-1892 ext 2
toll free: 1-888-739-1892 ext 2

Helen Creighton Grants for Folklore Research, Collection & Publication

Grants-in-aid Committee

Applications are invited by the Helen Creighton Folklore Society for Grants-in-Aid to scholars, researchers, museums, and archives for projects relating to folklore research, collection, and publication.

These grants are intended to provide encouragement, not the sole support, for research or publication projects. They can contribute to research equipment, field trip projects, editing and illustrating material about to be published.

They can also assist researchers by offering professional assessment, thereby strengthening the applicant's position in larger competitions.

The Society operates on a limited budget, and tries to assist as many individuals and institutions as possible with limited resources. Grants are normally for $750, with the possibility of renewal; the size of grants may vary.

Announcements will be made by March 31, 2009.

Student applicants should provide a transcript, two letters from academic supervisors, and a prospectus and budget for their project. Scholars and experienced researchers should provide a CV, one supporting letter from a peer, a prospectus and budget.

Archival and museum administrators should outline how their proposal relates to an on-going program of collection, cataloguing or indexing of their materials.

Applications, bearing a postmark up to February 28, 2009, should be addressed to:


The Helen Creighton Folklore Society,
Research Support Committee,
c/o James H. Morrison, Chair,
6289 Yale Street,
Halifax, NS. B3L 1C9
Fax: (902) 420-5141