Help identify the 1937 Bay Roberts Roverines Hockey Team

Does anyone know the names of the ladies on the Bay Roberts Roverines Hockey Team, who were provincial champions in 1937? Margaret Ayad is looking for these women's names for the interpretive panels for Bay Roberts Railway Station.

Got any thoughts? Comment here, or email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

Riddle Fence #6: An unexpected take on some old cultural icons

The sixth issue of Riddle Fence, hitting newsstands now, takes an in-depth, eloquent and not always easy look at John Guy’s colony as the Cupids settlement celebrates its 400th birthday.

Launched recently as part of the province’s Cupids 400 celebrations, this issue includes a fascinating and detailed essay by archaeologist Bill Gilbert on written records of the colony’s early days.

Also in this issue, we offer saucy samplings in our Fakelore (as in “fake folklore”) series, including artwork by Jackie Alcock and Robin McGrath's homegrown version of Grey's Anatomy. Meanwhile, 17th century Newfoundland comes alive as Patrick Warner takes a peek at Robert Hayman’s Quodlibets, believed to have been the first book of English verse written in the so-called New World.

Other highlights include:

• an intimate essay on leaving, belonging and outport churches by Amanda Jernigan, with photographs by John Haney
• poems by Griffin Prize winner A. F. Moritz and others
• fiction by Shane Nielson, who takes a sideways swipe at hockey culture
• artworks by Grant Boland and Jonathan Green that illuminate the issue and make Riddle Fence as marvelous to look at as it is to read.

Riddle Fence, a journal of arts and culture, is available for purchase at bookstores and magazine stands around Newfoundland and Labrador and across Canada.

For more information on the journal, visit www.riddlefence.com, or contact managing editor Michelle Butler Hallett at mbh@riddlefence.com.

Subscription rates and details are available on the website.

Doors Open, Culture Days, Sound Traditions, and a visit to the dump! September's ICH Update

In this month's edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update, provincial folklorist Dale Jarvis brings you up to date on ICH activities over the summer months, news on the Canada-wide Culture Days event scheduled for September, a peek at what our intern has been up to with Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative, sound traditions, and an invite to participate in Doors Open St. John's and Doors Open Petty Harbour with sites ranging from the divine to the disgusting!

Download the PDF of the update at:
http://tinyurl.com/ICHSept2010

The English Harbour Lithoskiff

I mentioned in a previous post the dry stone walling course that the English Harbour Arts Centre had offered this summer. One of the participants, Jerry Mcintosh, has pulled together a series of photos showing the construction of a piece of environmental art which the group calls the "Lithoskiff".

Check out the Lithoskiff on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmyiKl1PlOw or watch the embedded video below.

Job Posting: Intangible Cultural Heritage Assistant!

The Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) program of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) is looking for an enthusiastic, organized, and outgoing folklore graduate to help run ICH, folklife and oral history projects!

The Intangible Cultural Heritage Program Assistant will work closely with HFNL staff, partner organizations, and the general public in the planning and development of programs related to the collection, conservation, transmission, and celebration of living history, oral history, folklore/folklife and the intangible cultural heritage of NL. The Program Assistant will work on the organization of the annual folklife festival and mummer’s parade. The Program Assistant will work to organize and plan ICH related training workshops, public talks and other events as required. The Program Assistant will use ethnographic methods to document and identify key informants for research, as well as interview event participants. The job will also include some report writing, grant proposal writing, and taking minutes of committee meetings.

Good note-taking skills, organizational abilities and a keen interest in the folklore and culture of Newfoundland and Labrador are essential. Must be willing to wear a pillowcase over your face, drink Purity syrup, and act foolish as required.

Salary: $25,000 per year

This one-year position is pending funding, and the applicant MUST have graduated from a folklore program (or related discipline), either at the undergraduate or graduate level, within the last two years.

Please send a print copy of your resume, along with a photocopy of your degree and/or academic transcript to:

Mr. Dale Jarvis
Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador

PO Box 5171

St. John’s, NL A1C 5V5

Applications must be postmarked by Friday, September 3, 2010

Hooking Our Heritage Book Launch

In August 2009, a group of twenty-eight women came together to design and hook rugs under the guidance of organizer/initiator Laura Coultas and artist/rug hooking consultants Sheila Coultas, Frances Ennis and Maxine Ennis. Inspired by the strong Irish heritage on the Southern Shore, known as the Irish Loop, the women decided to create a body of work that would illustrate Newfoundland and Labrador’s strong connection with Ireland.

Hooking Our Heritage uses text and pictures to trace the progress of the rugs and tell the story behind each one. Within these pages, you will find rugs displaying the words, traditions, landscapes, songs and history shared between the country of Ireland and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The finished rugs show Irish blessings, a farrier and his horse, fairies playing in a garden, Celtic symbols and many other examples of the links between Ireland and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Book Launch and Authors' presentation
Thursday, September 9th
7pm
LSPU Hall, 3 Victoria Street
for more information call 709-739-4477

Photos from the Dan Snow Dry Stone Wall Workshop and Talk

For 35 years Dan Snow, a Mastercraftsman with the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain, has been building dry stone constructions in his native Windham County, Vermont and beyond. For the past couple weeks, he has been in English Harbour teaching his craft. I interviewed Dan last night at the Two Whales Coffee Shop in Port Rexton, and this morning checked out what he and his students have been working on.

Pictures are up on flickr at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dalejarvis/sets/72157624760091740/

I will be posting the audio of the interview later on, so check back for more details. For more info on Dan's work in English Harbour, or to listen to the CBC podcast featuring Dan, check out his blog at:

http://www.inthecompanyofstone.com/2010/08/english-harbours-fearless-adventurers.html

http://www.inthecompanyofstone.com/2010/08/cbc-interview.html

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