Dry stone wall building and its place in Newfoundland's heritage

For 35 years Dan Snow has been building dry stone constructions in his native Windham County, Vermont and beyond. From the practical to the fantastical, his works in stone fuse vanguard vision with old world techniques and traditions. His work has been the subject of articles in numerous journals, including “This Old House”, "Vermont Magazine" and “Vermont Life” magazines, and the “New York Times" and the "Boston Globe.”

This Wednesday, August 18th at 7pm, Dan and provincial folklorist Dale Jarvis will chat at the Two Whales Coffee Shop in Port Rexton about the tradition and the art of stonework, and the place that dry stone wall building holds in the heritage of Newfoundland.

For More Information Please Contact:
Two Whales Coffee Shop (709) 464-3928
English Harbour Arts Centre (709) 464-2424

A joint project of the English Harbour Arts Centre, Two Whales Coffee Shop, and the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Read more about Dan's work at:
http://www.inthecompanyofstone.com/
http://whisperingcraneinstitute.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/dan-snow-on-forgotten-stone-fences/

Remembering Great Eastern Oil - a story from Donna Bishop

I sat in a restaurant along Water Street yesterday, and looked out across the street towards Templeton's Paints. It took a second for me to realize that I was seeing a viewscape I'd not really looked at in quite the same way before. The southeast corner of Bishop's Cove and Water Street is now empty, the building that stood there for a couple generations is gone. I had never been able to see Templeton's in quite that way, because there had always been a building in my line of view.

Best known recently as Fabulous Fifties, the building was once the home of Great Eastern Oil. Sitting in front of the now vacant lot is one of the speech-bubble shaped signs for HereSay, the narrative map project that was curated by myself and local radio documentary producer Chris Brookes. It is now the only tangible reminder of the building that was once there, and if you stand on the spot, dial the HereSay phone number on your cell phone, and punch in the three digit code on the sign, you can hear Donna Bishop's memory of the place.

Our physical landscape can change almost overnight. Although the Great Eastern Oil building was perhaps no architectural gem, its loss is a good reminder to us that the places in which we live are peopled with stories, and those stories, those memories, are important to preserve.

You can share in Donna's memory of Great Eastern Oil on the HereSay website at:
http://www.batteryradio.com/Heresay/331%20Water.html

UNIQUE VENUES WANTED FOR DOORS OPEN ST. JOHN’S

Call for Applications to Participate in Doors Open St. John’s, Sept. 25th & 26th, 2010

Doors Open St. John’s is looking for your input as they offer the public a once-a-year chance to fully explore St. John’s from the ground up! Doors Open St. John’s offers the public an opportunity to explore buildings and spaces- many of which are not normally open to the public. Participants tour buildings, and experience the past and present life of the building not usually accessible to the public. All doors open events are delivered at no charge to visitors.

Doors Open St. John’s is seeking sites and buildings that celebrate the City’s rich architectural and cultural history. Buildings or sites that can offer a unique user experience – where visitors can witness (or join in) with the past or present use of the building – are favoured. These may include commercial and industrial buildings, museums, cemeteries, schools, factories, private homes, hotels, government buildings, historical sites, private galleries, or others. Gardens and natural heritage sites are also eligible.

Doors Open St. John’s is about reflecting on the past and present and making that vital link between people, buildings, stories, and natural landscapes. Buildings, whether modern or old, reinforce community identity and pride. They turn "space" into "place." If you know of a building or a site that would be a great place to include in the Doors Open St. John’s program, go to www.doorsopendays.com and download a Building/Site Application Form, or call Kristine at 739-1892, ext. 3. Deadline for applications is August 6, 2010.

Doors Open St. John’s is scheduled for September 25th and 26th, 2010. Over 23,000 people participated in this event last year.

If you would like more information please call Kristine Nolte at 709-739-1892 ext. 3, or email Kristine at doorsopenstjohns@gmail.com.

Second World War veterans will gather in Newfoundland to preserve their stories with The Memory Project: Stories of the Second World War

On Monday, August 9 and Wednesday, August 11, Second World War veterans will gather in St. John’s and Corner Brook respectively to participate in a new nation-wide oral history project.

An initiative of The Historica-Dominion Institute, The Memory Project: Stories of the Second World War is creating an unprecedented record of Canada’s participation in the Second World War as seen through the eyes of thousands of men and women who were there. It is providing every living Canadian Second World War veteran with the opportunity to preserve their memories through recorded interviews and digitized memorabilia. Their stories are available, in both official languages, at www.thememoryproject.com.

Second World War veterans will be available to share their unforgettable stories with the media.

What: The Memory Project: Stories of the Second World War
Lunch and refreshments will be served.

Who: The Historica-Dominion Institute
Second World War veterans and their families and members of the public.

Where: St. John’s: Monday, August 9, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
Murray Premises Hotel, HMS Briton Room, 5 Beck’s Cove, St. John’s, NFLD

Corner Brook: Wednesday, August 11, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
The Glynmill Inn, Tudor Room, 1B Cobb Lane, Corner Brook, NFLD

The Memory Project: Stories of the Second World War is made possible by a contribution from the Government of Canada through the Celebrations and Commemorations Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

For more information:

Davida Aronovitch
Communications Coordinator - The Memory Project: Stories of the Second World War
(416) 506-1867 ext 222, cell (416) 460-3284
daronovitch@historica-dominion.ca

Landscape, Narrative and New Media: The Boreal Poetry Garden Project

Last November, the Intangible Cultural Heritage program sponsored our Place, Narrative and New Media symposium, a gathering which examined using technology to explore the ways and whys of where we live.

One of our presenters was then-ICH intern Jedediah Baker, and one of the attendees was artist Marlene Creates. Since that first meeting, the duo, along with visual artist, filmmaker and poet Liz Zetlin, have been hard at work. They have recently released a new web-based narrative project.

A Virtual Walk of The Boreal Poetry Garden (http://marlenecreates.ca/virtualwalk) was conceived by Creates. The project uses words in situ to commemorate certain fleeting moments of Creates' interaction with the place where she lives in a ‘relational aesthetic’ to the land.

The virtual component, featuring web design by Baker, is comprised of an aerial photograph of the landscape, with a series of poem titles to one side. When the online visitor moves the mouse over the list of poems, a dot shows up on the photograph, and when clicked, opens up one of a series of short, location-specific video poems directed, shot and edited by Zetlin.

Within the six acres represented on the map, there is a multitude of microhabitats: dark spruce and fir thickets; a steep wooded droke; a windblown tolt with goowiddy and tuckamore; a rattling brook called the Blast Hole Pond River; an overgrown bawn; and moss-covered volcanic rock up to 1,000 million years old.

“I have become more and more aware that my experience of the landscape includes language," says Creates. "I cannot walk this terrain without local names for landforms and vegetation sounding in my head."

The project was produced with the support of The Canada Council for the Arts.

Traditional Newfoundland Dance Interview Podcast

This is a recording of an interview conducted by Dale Jarvis, Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer for Newfoundland and Labrador, as part of the traditional dance symposium held in Old Perlican on Saturday, July 17, 2010. Interview introduced by Dr. Kristin Harris-Walsh, Centre for Music, Media and Place, Memorial University. Interviewees are (left to right in the photo) Wendy Wagner, Feather Point Dancers, Harbour Grace; Elizabeth Tuttle, Baccalieu Square Dancers, Old Perlican; Alice Cumby, Mizzen Heritage Square Dancers, Heart's Content; and, Sheila Power, Baccalieu Trotters of North River.

Pardon the noise in the recording!

You can download the interview podcast as an MP3 here:
http://www.archive.org/download/NewfoundlandTraditionalDanceInterview/TradDanceInterview17July2010OldPerlicanEDITED.mp3

Or listen to a streaming audio version (or find other recording formats) at:
http://www.archive.org/details/NewfoundlandTraditionalDanceInterview

Some photos now online on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=259756&id=509323297

Learn to make a Newfoundland ugly stick - A How-To Guide!

Early in 2010 the ICH office held a workshop on Festivals & Folklife in Cupids. One of our participants was Yvonne Fontaine, the Development Co-ordinator for the Southern Avalon Development Association. Yvonne left the workshop full of ideas, went back to Trepassey, and put some of them to good use!

2010 was Trepassey's Come Home Year, and in celebration of one aspect of local intangible cultural heritage, the organizers planned an Ugly Stick Workshop during the week of the Come Home Year Celebrations. The workshop was held 2:00 PM Thursday July 29th. They provided the beer caps and the juice cans, participants provided the mop (and the decorations of their choice).

Unless you have a time machine, you can't go back to Trepassey for the workshop. Have no fear! Here are our tips for making the ugly stick of your dreams.

7 Steps to a Beautiful Ugly Stick

1. Gather your materials.  A mop, broom handle, or cut off hockey stick works well for the base. Then you’ll need screws or bolts, beer caps or roofing felt tins, soup cans, bells, noisemakers, and anything else you can think of to decorate your ugly stick. A boot is great to add to the bottom. Try looking at second hand shops, and you can often fins good materials at dollar stores.

2. Pre drill holes in your stick where you want to place your beer caps. Space them out, and leave yourself some room so you can grip the stick while you play it.

3. Punch or drill holes in your beer caps. Make the holes a bit larger than your screws, so they rattle.

4. Assemble your beer caps on your screws or bolts, then screw them into the pre-drilled holes on your stick.  Five or six per screw is good. You can use a combination of caps and felt tins if you wish; hard-core builders boil their beer caps to remove the rubber lining.  The beer caps are the most important thing, that’s what makes your music for you.

5. Attach the bottom of your stick to an old boot. Drill a hole in a piece of wood, put the mop handle into that, and then screw the whole thing into the base of the boot, to give it stability.

6. Add a tin can somewhere to the stick. Try putting a soup can on, lower down, so that way, if there is a point in the music where you bang it, it is like hitting a drum, to get that extra sound to go along with the sound of the beer caps.

7. Decorate your ugly stick! Give it a personality, a face, some hair, a hat. Make it ugly!  Once it is done, you are ready to go mummering.

And here is a how-to makers video, from one of our long-time Mummers Festival participants!
https://youtu.be/C8Mgzr-kwnw




Want more help?

The Do-It-Yourself junkies at The Scope can help you make your own:

http://thescope.ca/diy/diy-ugly-stick

There is also a handy free downloadable pdf with instructions right here. You can print it off, and get to work building your own ugly stick.

Ugly Stick on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_stick

Mike Maddigan of The Sharecroppers shows how it is played:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBxZJWnca14

Send us a picture of your finished ugly stick, and we'll share it in a future post! Email dale@heritagenl.ca

Job Posting: Doors Open St. John’s Coordinator

Job Posting: Doors Open St. John’s Coordinator

Doors Open (http://www.doorsopendays.com) is a unique opportunity for the citizens and visitors of Newfoundland and Labrador to celebrate our architecture and heritage through the exploration of some of our hidden historical, architectural and cultural gems. The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador is hiring a coordinator, who will work with participating sites to ensure they are able to offer visitors well-interpreted access to sites normally unseen, or accessible by fee only. Doors Open this year will run the last weekend of September.

Job will run from July 19^th - October 1^st, 2010

Based on a wage of $14/hour, dependant on funding.

Skills:  Applicant must have exceptional organizational skills, event planning, excellent organizational skills, strong communication skills, liaising between institutions/organizations, promotions, computer skills including word processing, email, knowledge of Newfoundland and Labrador history, interest in or knowledge about heritage and culture.

Eligibility Requirements:

Pending funding, the position is open to youth aged 19-30.

Deadline:  Monday, July 12th

To apply: Please review eligibility criteria carefully before applying. Send resume and cover letter, with 3 references, by mail or email to:

Mr. Dale Jarvis

Heritage Foundation of NL

PO Box 5171, St. John’s, NL A1C 5V5

doorsopenstjohns@gmail.com

Symposium of Music, Dance and Place

Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media and Place (MMaP)
July 2, 2010

Session I: 8:00 to 9:30 a.m.
PETTAN, Svanibor
(University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Dance House – A European Model of Folk Music and Dance Revival in Urban Settings; A Case
Study from Slovenia

HARRIS WALSH, Kristin
(Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)
Identity, Community and Irishness in the Diaspora – Step Dancing in Ireland and
Newfoundland and Labrador

KIDULA, Jean
(University of Georgia, USA)
Nostalgia, Memory and Currency in the Music and Dance of Kenya Rugby Sevens Events

[15-minute break]

Session II: 9:45-11:45
ARAÚJO, Samuel
(Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Expressive Praxis and Political Action: Perspectives from a Participatory Action-Research
Experience in Rio de Janeiro

HEMETEK, Ursula
(University of Music and Performing Arts, Austria)
Imagined and Concrete Places in the Music of Migrant Communities: “Home” in Different
Manifestations

BLAIR, Graham
(Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)
It Rings True: Verisimilitude in Post-Revivalist Recreations of Oldtime Music and Dance in a
Canadian Coastal City

TRAN QUANG Hai
(National Center for Scientific Research, France)
Throat Singing: Western World vs. Siberian World

Lunch: 11:45-12:30

Session III: 12:30-2:30
TAN Sooi Beng
(Science University of Malaysia, Malaysia)
Articulating Multi-Locality: Eclectism in the Musical Cultures of the Peranakan of Penang

WILD, Stephen
(Australian National University, Australia)
Dislocation and Revitalisation in Central Australia: Music and Dance in the Identity of Place

VAN ZANTEN, Wim
(Leiden University, The Netherlands)
Space and Time in the Performing Arts of the Baduy Minority Group in West Java

KAEPPLER, Adrienne
(Smithsonian Institution, USA)
Indigenous Knowledge of Placenames as Perpetuated in the Story of the Volcano Goddess
Pele

[15-minute break]

Session IV: 2:45-4:15
SHEEN Dae-Cheol
(The Academy of Korean Studies, Korea)
Royal Shrine and Confucian Shrine in Seoul, Korea: To Be Called What Place?

CASTELO-BRANCO, Salwa El-Shawan
(New University of Lisbon – FCSH, Portugal)
Regionalism and Expressive Culture in Portugal

TULK, Janice Esther
(Cape Breton University, Canada)
Sound, Place, and Identity: The Corner Brook Mill Whistle as Soundmark

[15-minute break]

Session V: 4:30-5:30
Newfoundland Traditional Singers: Pat Byrne, Eleanor Dawson, Jean Hewson


For more information, contact:

Dr. Kristin Harris Walsh
Project Coordinator
Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media and Place
School of Music
Memorial University of Newfoundland
(709) 737-2051