Help provide ideas for a new exhibit at The Rooms

When The Rooms opened, there were some comments that the Museum component did not do enough to tell the stories of 19th to 21st century Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. Since then, the facility has made an attempt to fix that problem, creating new displays and developing temporary exhibits.

Now, The Rooms has announced that in Spring 2013, the Elinor Gill Ratcliffe Gallery will open an exhibition which will tell Newfoundland and Labrador's "Social History" through stories of significant events, people, industries and traditions.

The museum will be selecting themes which reflect times of disappointment and loss, as well as celebration and pride. To do so, they are looking for public input.

"I am hoping that people will help us with ideas for the big stories, traditions, events, figures, and cultural stories of the province from the late 1700s to the present," says Mark Ferguson, Manager of Collections and Exhibitions for The Rooms Corporation, Provincial Museum Division.

You can have your say online at:

http://www.therooms.ca/information.html

On the page, there is a basic form to submit ideas. Deadline for submissions is December 1st, 2010, so send The Rooms your ideas quickly.

Newfoundland expression for "chat" or "conversation"? Thoughts?

I'm looking for a Newfoundland expression to mean "having a conversation" or "having a chat" or "sharing stories." Do you have a memory of something like "having a yarn" or a similiar expression? Coming out of the Baccalieu Trail Public Folklore workshop, we're going to be developing a series of community gatherings where people can share informal knowledge about the places they live, and I need a name for the series!

Let me know what you think! Email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca.  I'll post people's suggestions below. If you have something, let me know what community you heard it in, as well.

Some suggestions so far:

chewing the fat
having a natter
a gab
yarnin'
a natter
chaw
a jaw
guff
yacking
a chin wag
"goin' fishin' and tellin' lies"

"My papa says 'we had a good ole yarn' to mean chat, not story. He also calls someone overly talkative - 'ole yawmouth'" - Alison Aylward

Now playing: Mummervision!

The updated 2010 Mummers Festival website is up and running, and one of the features for this year is Mummervision!

Mummervision is a YouTube page where festival organizers have posted video clips of last year's parade, and have included links to other clips taken by parade watchers, and of mummers, janneys, and nalujuit from all over Newfoundland and Labrador.

Check it out at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/mummersfestival

If you look closely, you might even seen some of the characters appearing on this year's Mummers Festival poster and website!

The 2010 Mummers Parade is coming up fast! We want you dressed up and IN the parade, December 18th.

Check out www.mummersfestival.ca for more details.

Mummers Festival Returns!

The Mummers Festival is back again with a series of events and workshops all leading up to the Mummers Parade on December 18th. The parade needs you...and not on the sidelines. We want you rigged up and in the parade. Come visit our new website at www.mummersfestival.ca for all the details.

Make a hobby horse at one of our three workshops. Attend a lecture about mummering past and present. Come to our Rig Up, the province’s largest dress-up party. And get your gatch on at the Mummers Parade!

The Mummers Festival is a participant-driven, not-for-profit, community-based folklife festival that promotes the celebration and free expression of tradition. The Mummers Parade is the Festival's crowning event and it's the mummers who make it so memorable.

In our first year more than 300 energetic mummers and 200 spectators came out to the Parade. Our workshops generated close to 30 mischievous hobby horses, bringing light to a less common mummering tradition and a lot of horseplay to the Parade. Our focus is on you, the province's diverse public, whose creative and expressive presence makes the Festival such a success.

The Mummers Festival began as a joint initiative with the Intangible Cultural Heritage division of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador and Memorial University’s Department of Folklore. The research-based initiative began in 2009 and included 16 free community events. This year, the Festival has been organized by a group of enthusiastic volunteers and supporters bringing you a host of exciting and enriching events for people of all ages.

LIST OF EVENTS:
Hobby Horse Workshops
Victoria Park Poolhouse
Sunday, Dec. 5 1:00-5:00pm
Wednesday, Dec. 8 6:00-9:00pm
Sunday, Dec. 12 1:00-5:00pm

Lecture: Mummering Past and Present
The Rooms Theatre
Wednesday, Dec. 15 7:00-8:00pm

Film: Mummers and Masks
The Rooms Theatre
Thursday, Dec. 16 2:30-3:30pm

Rig Up
MacPherson Elementary School (40 Newtown Road)
*Saturday, Dec. 18 1:00-2:00pm

Mummers Parade
MacPherson Elementary School (40 Newtown Road)
*Saturday, Dec. 18 2:00-3:00pm

Mummers Concert and Jam
The Rooms
*Saturday, Dec. 18 3:00-5:00pm

*If weather is REALLY bad, Parade Events will be held on Sunday, Dec. 19

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Ryan Davis (Festival Coordinator)
Phone: (w) 739 7870 (c) 697 8722
info@mummersfestival.ca
www.mummersfestival.ca

Ceilidh Dance on Friday, November 26th - Cancelled

The St. Andrews Society of Newfoundland and Labrador is sponsoring an evening of ceilidh dancing and entertainment, with Corryvreckan providing live music for the dancing at the Bally Haly Curling Club on Friday November 26. Time is 7:30 pm for 8:00 pm Cost will be $10/person at the door.

Please pass this along to anyone you think might be interested.

Please confirm your attendance by email dallison@nl.rogers.com or phone 579-6114, so organizers can be sure to lay on sufficient snacks to keep up your energy!

NOTE:  The Ceilidh for Friday Nov 26 has been cancelled. Bally Haly has not completed renovations to the Room so have cancelled any functions until further notice.

Preliminary thoughts on the folklore of the Baccalieu Trail

We had our first meeting for the (yet-to-be-more-sexily-renamed) Baccalieu Trail Public Folklore Project last night. We had about 30 people present, with representation from Bay Roberts, Brigus, Carbonear, Clarke's Beach, New Perlican, Roche's Line, and Winterton! We also had four graduate students from Memorial University Department of Folklore's new Public Folklore program.

Melissa Squarey, our new ICH Programs assistant, gave an introduction to intangible cultural heritage, and then I facilitated a discussion about what elements of folklore existed in the region and in the memories of the participants. Topics ranged from memories of small commercial stores and shops, to local nicknames, rhymes, parades, and the best way to cure warts.

At the end of the session, participants ranked items in terms of what they were most worried about losing. Below is a rough list of the things communities feel are most under threat in the region, with the areas of most concern listed first:

• Old Time Concerts
• Yarns, informal tales, and the context of storytelling
• Location, Fishing Marks, Boatbuilding and Nautical Lore
• Accents/linguistics
• Faeries
• Agriculture/Farming
• Vocabulary
• Food Rituals
• Geographic Names
• Recitation
• Fabric Arts
• Photo Albums

Next up: We'll be developing a series of training workshops for the region (which will be in various communities, and open to people from outside of the region as well). We'll also be putting on our collective thinking caps to come up with some sort of public folklore project based around some of these themes.

Have ideas? Want to get involved? Email your friendly neighbourhood folklorist at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

Riddle Fence calls for Fakelore!

Riddle Fence is a Newfoundland-based journal of arts and culture, published three times yearly. And as we speak, Riddle Fence editors are scouring the land for Fakelore!

Coined in 1950 by American folklorist Richard M. Dorson, the term ‘fakelore’ describes inauthentic, manufactured folklore presenting itself as genuine. The term can refer to folklore that is re-worked and modified for modern tastes. Riddle Fence invites you to send us your Fakelore finds or creations. Submissions will be judged by the Riddle Fence Editorial Board, and some of the best will be published in issue #8. Fakelore visual art format: jpeg or tiff, 300 dpi. Minimum image dimensions: 5 x 7 inches. Deadline: December 10, 2010.

Please submit by email to
fakelore@riddlefence.com
or by post (and include a self-addressed stamped envelope or sufficient IRC postage in the case of submissions from outside Canada):

Riddle Fence
PO Box 7092
St. John’s, NL
A1E 3Y3
Canada
www.riddlefence.com

This map is on fire! Google Map of Bonfire Night Interviews

It is no secret I love Google's My Maps feature. I think it is a great little free tool that can allow community museums, archives and historical societies to share their information in fun, easy-to-comprehend ways. You can check out my Fun With Google Maps! Website Examples for some samples from groups that have done this.

The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador just finished up its second annual folklife festival, with this year's theme being the Festival on Fire.  As part of the festival, we've been doing a number of interviews on the topic of Bonfire Night (November 5th).

I've taken what we've archived so far on Memorial's Digital Archive Initiative (DAI), and I've created a simple Google Map: Bonfire Night in Newfoundland and Labrador Map. Check it out!

Click the fire icons on the map, and you'll open a window with either a picture, or a link to an audio interview on the DAI.

I'm always looking for more Bonfire Night memories. If you have a story to share, let me know!

All Alone Fair Maid? The stories of Newfoundland tradition bearer Alice Lannon

This past summer, the Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada held their 18th annual conference in St. John's, Newfoundland. As part of that conference, we wanted to feature one aspect of our intangible cultural heritage by showcasing tradition bearer Alice Lannon.

Alice is one of Newfoundland's storytelling gems, telling traditional stories she learned orally, folk tales and legends which have been passed down in her family for generations. We recorded Alice's stories to be included in the ICH inventory we are building as part of Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative, which means you get to listen to her tales as well!

You can listen to Dr. Martin Lovelace's introduction to Alice here.

Or you can select one of Alice's stories:

• The Big Black Bull of Hollow Tree
• Open, Open, Green House
• Good and Bad Fairies

Image by storyteller and visual artist Karen Gummo, who presented on storytelling and peace at the conference.