Intro to Interviewing Techniques Workshop

On February 12th, the Intangible Cultural Heritage program of the Heritage Foundation of NL will be offering a beginner’s workshop for researchers doing folklore and oral history interviews. The session will cover selecting informants, doing a pre-interview, applying the best interviewing techniques, tips for recorded interviews, and suggestions on processing the interview data for preservation and dissemination.

The workshop will be run by Dr. Philip Hiscock of Memorial’s Folklore Dept. Hiscock specializes in the folklore of Newfoundland and Labrador with active interests generally in language, folksong, the relationship between folklore and popular culture, and the evolution of custom.

Hiscock was editor of Foaftale News, the newsletter of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research. For two decades he was Archivist of the MUN Folklore and Language Archive and retains an active interest in field research, archival organization, and conservation. In 2006-07 he was President-Elect of the Folklore Studies Association of Canada (L'Association canadienne e'ethnologie et de folklore).

Dr. Jillian Gould teaches in the Department of Folklore, and argues that interviewing is the heart of any folklore or oral history project. “It is how we learn first-hand about people’s experiences, thoughts, and beliefs,” says Gould. “While we all have had in-depth conversations with friends, family, and community members, interviewing requires different skills – since you will be documenting with purpose.”

“These skills not only will pave the way for smooth and substantial interviews, which will become important community documents, but also, should make the interview experience an enjoyable one for both the interviewer and the interviewee,” she says.

Dr. Hiscock’s workshop will take place Friday, February 12th, 2010, from 1pm - 4:30 pm. It will be held at The Lantern, on Barnes Road in St. John's. Participants are asked to bring notebook and writing tools. Call Dale Jarvis at 1-888-739-1892 ext 2 to register, or email ich@heritagefoundation.ca. Tuition is $25.

For a full list of workshops see:
http://www.mun.ca/ich/classes

A Look at Classical Native Music through Indigenous Eyes

MMaP, the Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media and Place is pleased to announce that Dawn Avery of Montgomery College will be spending the month of February in residence at the MUN School of Music.

About her visit to MUN, Ms Avery said: “I’m delighted to be at MUN with such enthusiastic students, talented faculty, and the brilliant mind and generous spirit of Bev Diamond. I look forward to exploring ideas of tradition and modernity in the sounds and sentiments this place evokes as I work with the World Music Ensemble on a new classical Native composition and collaborate with Bev on a scholarly paper on Indigenous composition.”

While she is here, Ms Avery will be actively participating in the teaching, performance and research life at the MUN School of Music, as well as pursuing her own research. Her activities while at MUN include:

· Participating in a workshop and concert at the Newfound Music festival

· Teaching a module in the World Music Ensemble where students will learn several of her own compositions that draws in Native American musical elements

· Giving a lecture in MMaP’s Music, Media and Culture lecture series on February 16: Tekeni – two worlds: a look at Classical Native Music through Indigenous Eyes

· Collaborating with Dr. Beverley Diamond on a research project on Indigenous composition

· Editing a manuscript for Mohawk Elder Janice Longboat on a project sponsored by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation using culture as a means for healing aboriginal women from the legacy of residential school abuse.

· Writing a string quartet

Ms Avery specializes in the performance of contemporary Native American music. Her recent recording Tulpe was nominated for a Grammy award in the classical crossover and chamber music categories. She has also produced an annual World Arts Festival for the past seven years. She also has two CDs that feature a unique combination of classical music and Native American music.

A composer, cellist, vocalist and educator, Ms Avery is equally comfortable performing at Lincoln Centre as she is in a sweat lodge. She specializes in the performance of contemporary Native American music with her own ensemble, as a soloist for the North American Indian Cello Project and in her native classical trio, Three Sides Taagi.

Working with musical luminaries from Luciano Pavarotti to Sting, Ms Avery has spent years honing her musical talents, collaborating and performing with the likes of John Cale, John Cage, David Darling, Reza Derakshani, Sussan Deyhim, Ustad Sultan Kahn, Karsh Kale, Mischa Maisky, R. Carlos Nakai, Baba Olatunji, Joanne Shenandoah and Glen Velez.

For more information, or to get in touch with Dawn Avery, please contact: Kristin Harris Walsh, Project Coordinator at MMaP, kharriswalsh@mun.ca, 737-2051.

Festivals & Folklife Workshop RESCHEDULED

RESCHEDULED TO SATURDAY, FEB 13TH
This workshop is designed for groups planning cultural festivals, or for organizers of existing festivals who wish to incorporate some aspect of intangible cultural heritage into their events. It will addresses key issues in how to plan for a successful festival, how to engage tradition bearers, and how to showcase local culture, heritage and traditional knowledge.
Instructors: Dale Jarvis, ICH Development Officer; and Ryan Davis, 2009 Mummers Festival
Tuition: $20 (includes lunch and materials)
Date: Saturday, February 13th, 2010, 9:00am – 3:00 pm
Location: Prince of Wales Loyal Orange Lodge, Cupids
To register, call Dale Jarvis at 1-888-739-1892 ext 2 or email ich@heritagefoundation.ca

Newfoundland culture now on Kindle

For all you fans of both technology and intangible cultural heritage, the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador's monthly ICH Update newsletter is now available free for Kindle e-books, through archive.org.

Kindle is a thin, lightweight, electronic reading device created by the net's largest bookseller, Amazon.com. You can already download literally hundreds of thousands of Kindle-friendly books, as well as many top newspapers, magazines, and even blogs. The Kindle screen simulates paper, allowing it to be read in bright sunlight.

Kindle uses files with the .mobi extension, and the reader also features a built-in PDF reader. Luckily for you, dear reader, all back issues of the ICH Update are now available in both formats. You are welcome!

You can download all our newsletters not only in .pdf and .mobi, but also in .epub format. The .mobi and .epub translations are in Beta format, so if you get some bugs in the text or layout, don't be surprised.

You can find back issues of all our ICH Update newsletters at:

001 December 2008

http://www.archive.org/details/IchUpdate001-December2008

002 January 2009

http://www.archive.org/details/IchUpdate002January2009

003 February 2009

http://www.archive.org/details/IchUpdate003February2009

004 March 2009

http://www.archive.org/details/IchUpdate004March2009

005 April 2009

http://www.archive.org/details/IchUpdate005April2009

006 May 2009

http://www.archive.org/details/IntangibleCulturalHeritageUpdateMay2009-DanceHeritageEdition

007 July 2009

http://www.archive.org/details/IntangibleCulturalHeritageUpdateJune2009

008 July August 2009

http://www.archive.org/details/IchUpdateSummer2009

009 September 2009

http://www.archive.org/details/IntangibleCulturalHeritageUpdateSeptember2009

010 October 2009

http://www.archive.org/details/IntangibleCulturalHeritageUpdateOctober2009

011November 2009

http://www.archive.org/details/IntangibleCulturalHeritageUpdateNovember2009

012 December 2009

http://www.archive.org/details/IntangibleCulturalHeritageUpdateDecember2009

013 January 2010

http://www.archive.org/details/IntangibleCulturalHeritageUpdateJanFeb2010

Happy E-reading!

Oral History, Coffee, Love, Questions and More!

In this issue of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update newsletter for January and February 2010, we announce an introduction to interviewing techniques workshop with Dr. Philip Hiscock; a review of websites with sample oral history questions; The Rooms brews up coffee, culture and stories of love with visiting storyteller Mary Gavan; and, Dr. Anna Kearney Guigné hits the road with workshops for community organizations planning folklore and oral history research projects.

Download the newsletter as a PDF document at:
http://tinyurl.com/yd29skx

"If Candlemas Day be clear and fine..." - Happy Candlemas Day, Newfoundland!

"If Candlemas Day be clear and fine, the rest of winter is left behind;
If Candlemas Day be rough and grum, there's more of winter left to come"

While the rest of North America worries about Groundhog Day, we here in Newfoundland and Labrador celebrate February 2nd as Candlemas Day, or "La fête de la chandeleur".

Candlemas Day is an old calendar custom in the province, a name which according to folklorist Philip Hiscock "derives from the tradition of blessing the annual supply of church candles on that day, the official end of the liturgical Christmas season."

For more on the Candlemas Day, you can read Philip's page on NL customs:
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/custom.html

Larry Dohey also has a good overview of the day on his page at:
http://archivalmoments.ca/2017/02/if-candlemas-day-be-sunny-and-bright-2/

And of course, what Newfoundland holiday would be complete without its own ghost story?

http://www.nlunexplained.ca/2017/02/the-candlemas-day-token-of-cobbs-arm.html

Job Posting - Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Conservation Project

DUTIESThe successful applicant will assist with the internship on the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Conservation Project.  Duties include assisting in field documentation of ICH and collecting digital materials to be placed online; processing collected data and electronic files; developing web content for the Memorial ICH website; placing ICH material on the DAI website; creating community and special home pages on the Memorial ICH website; maintaining the ICH events calendar; completing community profiles for new communities and special topic collections on the Memorial ICH website using Site Builder; digitizing, compiling metadata and uploading records for the variety of projects and placing on DAI website; and performing other related duties as required. 

QUALIFICATIONSRelated work experience (up to 1 year) relating to the management of online inventories, editing of digital data (audio, photographic, video), designing of website, and cataloguing of ethnographic materials; graduation from a four-year college or University with an undergraduate degree in Folklore or a related discipline; or any equivalent combination of experience and training.

For full posting see:

http://www.mun.ca/humanres/careers/ads/view.php?id=569&audience=1

Workshops on Folklore, Oral History, and Festivals

We are running out our lineup of workshops for the next month, which includes workshops for those of you planning oral history and folklore collection projects, a workshop on folklife and festivals, and one on interviewing techniques. We've got workshops in St. John's, Cupids, Port Union, Gander and Marystown.

The first workshop coming up is in St. John's, on project planning:

Title: How to Plan an Oral History or Folklore Project (St. John’s).
Description: The workshop will take participants through the process of planning a project, from establishing goals, doing preliminary research, addressing issues around ethics and consent, choosing personnel, documentation methods, processing collected materials, equipment, and budgets. This workshop will be beneficial to people who are contemplating folklore and oral history projects of all sorts, ranging from short-term projects involving a single researcher to complex, long-term projects involving many researchers.
Instructor: Dale Jarvis, ICH Development Officer
Tuition: $25
Date: Wed, February 3rd. 1pm – 4pm
Location: The Lantern, Barnes Road, St. John’s.

Following quickly on the heels of that workshop is one on Festivals, in Cupids

Title: Festivals & Folklife: Project Planning for Cultural Festivals
Description: This workshop is designed for groups planning cultural festivals, or for organizers of existing festivals who wish to incorporate some aspect of intangible cultural heritage into their events. It will addresses key issues in how to plan for a successful festival, how to engage tradition bearers, and how to showcase local culture, heritage and traditional knowledge.
Instructors: Dale Jarvis, ICH Development Officer; and Ryan Davis, 2009 Mummers Festival
Tuition: $20 (includes lunch and materials)
Date: Saturday, February 6th, 2010, 9:00am – 3:00 pm
Location: Prince of Wales Loyal Orange Lodge, Cupids

For a full list of workshops, visit our webpage at:
http://www.mun.ca/ich/classes/

To register, call Dale Jarvis at 1-888-739-1892 ext 2 or email ich@heritagefoundation.ca

Exploring the Aesthetics of Outport Interiors Workshop, Fogo Island (NL)

Deadline for applications: January 22th 2010

Call for applications from young artists and designers!

Exploring the aesthetics of Outport interiors workshop on Fogo Island February 11–27th 2010

Project description:


Exploring the aesthetics of Outport interiors is an experimental art/design project, a workshop designed to develop ideas for contemporary furniture and interiors inspired by traditional Outport living conditions and reality. A furniture/interior design competition is planned to follow the workshop in the spring with the intention of recruiting creators of locally rooted designs adapted to the various Shorefast projects on Fogo Island and Change Islands.

Method: Participants will be asked to work on the given tasks individually and in groups.
Local craftspeople and external experts will be engaged in the process throughout.
Formal input will be given regularly every fourth day.

Invited lecturers: 


Todd Saunders architect - Torbjørn Anderssen furniture designer - Sami Rintala architect - Lars & Jason Dressler furniture producers - Joseph Grima director - Kitty Scott director - Walter W Peddle expert on Outport furniture - Mike Paterson cabinet maker - Frank Tjepkema designer - Jerry Dick director of heritage NL - (Please note that the list is not complete and some names on the list are not yet confirmed).

Workshop coordinators: Steve Topping artist & Pall Einarsson industrial designer

Expenses: All travel and other expenses during the workshop will be covered.

For more information please contact:
Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir, director
Fogo Island Arts Corporation
elisabet@shorefast.org

Deadline for applications is January 22th 2010
please e-mail applications including
- CV
- documentation of up to 10 works
- a text explaining interest in the project (max 400 words)
to elisabet@shorefast.org

The project is produced by the Fogo Island Arts Corporation in collaboration with the Shorefast Foundation on Fogo Island. The Fogo Island Arts Corporation is a contemporary art venue specializing in residencies for international artists and the production of art projects and workshops engaging both local and international participants. The Arts Corporation is supported by the Shorefast Foundation. The Shorefast Foundation is a Canadian-registered charity that is using entrepreneurial methods to help secure prosperity for the region of Fogo Island and Change Islands


http://www.shorefast.org