Life Beyond the Overpass

The Overpass before (upper photo by Cecil Haire) and after (lower photo by David Cochrane)

Donovan's Overpass has been demolished as part of a redesign of the highway system in and around the St. John's area.  A demand for highways that are both wider and faster for commuters has been given as the reason for the structure's demolition.

The structure entered into the provincial vernacular, with the expression "beyond the overpass" coming to mean anything in the province that was outside of St. John's.

Like the similar expression "beyond the pale," the phrase "beyond the overpass" always seemed to imply a certain cultural superiority. The structure, and the phrase, generated a certain emotional response, and while the concrete bridge was perhaps nothing exceptional architecturally, it is (was) imbued with a level of cultural meaning perhaps unique in the province.

The Telegram called the structure "infamous," while VOCM referred to it as a "cultural icon." CBC News said the bridge "symbolized the divide between St. John's and the rest of the province." As CBC's David Cochrane said today on his twitter feed, it was "our Berlin Wall."

Love it or hate it, the overpass is no more. It will be replaced by a six-lane road on the Topsail Road stretch, and a four-lane "structure" serving Kenmount Road.  I suspect the phrase itself will linger on, long after the $5.6 million to replace the overpass has been spent.

Just added: Good Bye Overpass Video

UNESCO on iTunes U

By joining iTunes U, a dedicated area of the iTunes Store that offers free audio and video content from leading educational institutions, UNESCO is reinforcing its efforts to reach out to young men and women around the world, providing multilingual audio, visual and printed materials in education, sciences, culture and communication.

Collections containing several hundred movies, podcasts, and documents are available in three languages (English, French and Spanish), ranging from training support materials, to policy reports and journals, and lectures, interviews and documentaries which can be downloaded for free to a computer, iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. The collections will be regularly updated with new content from UNESCO’s programmes as well as from its 65 years of archives. Featured collections at launch will focus on UNESCO activities around Girl’s Education, Biosphere Reserves, Africa, and Heritage.

"UNESCO has an incredible wealth to share, and joining iTunes U is a fabulous way to do this,” UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova declared. “UNESCO has a long and deep commitment to Open Educational Resources and to making knowledge widely accessible to all . We see this as a foundation upon which to build the ‘knowledge societies’ that we need today – where information is transformed into knowledge and contributes to the welfare of the whole of society, where none are excluded and all voices are heard,” she said.

http://www.unesco.org/new/itunes/

Windows on the West End - Heritage Tourism in St. John's, Newfoundland

The City of St. John's is holding a special celebration during St. John's Days to celebrate the heritage of the Downtown West End! It's going to be a great event with lots of exciting entertainment all day long, including Irish step dance and belly dance performances and tutorials, juggling, aerial silks, a fire show, tours of all historic locations participating, informative walking tours, face painting, caricatures, and much, much more!

Windows on the West End: June 25, 2011- 10am to 5pm. An introduction to the St. John's downtown historic west end. Take part in our walking tours (11am and 2pm) and collect stickers on our scavenger hunt to win prizes! Venues include: Railway Coastal Museum, City of St. John's Archives, Victoria Park, Wesley United Church, St. Patrick's Parish, Tommy Ricketts Monument, Apothecary Hall, Newman Wine Vaults and George Street United Church. Come out and enjoy lots of entertainment, food ($5 lunch) and prizes. All Attractions are open FREE of charge and will be ongoing from 10am to 5pm.

Full event listings can be found at the St. John's Days Celebrations.

Newfoundland and Labrador Root Cellar Bibliography now online

As part of this summer's Seeds to Supper festival, folklore co-op intern Crystal Braye has pulled together a bibliography about root cellars in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The resource includes a list of articles and reference materials concerning root cellars in the province, as well as links to do-it-yourself, how-to articles, for those who might want to make their own root cellar.

http://www.mun.ca/ich/inventory/rootcellarbibliography.php

If you know of a published article on Newfoundland and Labrador root cellars that we've missed, let us know and we'll add it to the list.

Seeds to Supper Festival logo launched

Here it is, the logo for the 3rd Annual Folklife Festival of Newfoundland and Labrador - Seeds to Supper! Design by Graham Blair.

Seeds to Supper Community Meeting 7pm, Sobeys, Merrymeeting Rd

HFNL to host Agricultural Heritage Festival Community Meeting

For the past 3 years the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador has supported a local folklife festival in the province. This year we hope to coordinate events with a number of the groups in the greater St. John’s area to promote the historical background of agriculture, and the contemporary movements that are active in the area. We wish to highlight the agri-culture that comes from the past but remains contemporary.

Participation as a part of the 2011 Folklife Festival, Seeds to Supper, will be of no cost to any groups wishing to hold an event however, all participating groups are responsible for their individual event. If you are a group, or individual, who would be willing to host an event during our Seeds to Supper festival we would like you to come to our community planning meeting on Wednesday June 15th, 2011 at 7pm at Sobey’s on Merrymeeting Rd., St. John’s.

Mummering included in latest historic commemorations

Latest Historic Commemorations Designations Announced

Six new designations under the Provincial Historic Commemorations Program were announced by the Honourable Terry French, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, during a ceremony held at The Rooms.

The latest designations were made under the following categories:

Places of Provincial Significance
• The Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital
• The cultural landscape that includes The Beaches and the Bloody Bay Cove Quarry

Distinctive Cultural Traditions and Practices
• Mummering
• The rescues associated with the wreck of the Waterwitch

Event of Provincial Significance
• The U-Boat attacks on the Bell Island ore ships in 1942

Person of Provincial Significance
• Edward (Ted) Russell

“The tangible and intangible heritage of Newfoundland and Labrador plays a vital role in the province’s history,” said Minister French. “Through the Provincial Historic Commemorations Program, we have honoured an additional six designations for the important and lasting impression each has made in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

The Provincial Historic Commemorations Program is a citizen-driven program administered by a six-member board. The program welcomes individuals or groups to nominate people, places, events and traditions they feel are provincially significant and worthy of official commemoration.

“During our first two ceremonies, we made five designations of significant places, events, and traditions,” said Françoise Enguehard, Chair of the Provincial Historic Commemorations Board. “This ceremony makes 11 designations in total, but as with any new program, there are still many opportunities for future nominations – especially in the categories of significant people and traditions.”

Past designates include: Kelly Russell, Dildo Island, the founding of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, the Tsunami of 1929 and rescues at sea, rescues made by Ann Harvey and her family in 1828 and 1838, rescues associated with the wrecks of the USS Truxton and USS Pollux in 1942, and a rescue made by Captain William Jackman in 1867.

For more information about the Provincial Historic Commemorations Program, including further information on these new designations as well as nomination criteria, visit: www.seethesites.ca/commemorations  or contact the Commemorations Office at 709-729-6901.

Establishment of the Provincial Historic Commemorations Program was among the objectives outlined in the province’s cultural strategy, Creative Newfoundland and Labrador: The Blueprint for Development and Investment in Culture (2006). Since the launch of the strategy, the Provincial Government has invested more than $56 million into the arts, culture and heritage sectors.

Root cellars, young folklorists, and Seeds to Supper Festival launch

In this edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update for Newfoundland and Labrador, we turn the sod on our Seeds to Supper Festival, the province's third annual folklife festival; young folklorists hit Water Street and work on heritage fairs projects; we explore the tradition of root cellars; and the Heritage Foundation takes on a new public folklore co-op student.

Download the pdf.

The Royal Readers-- Victorian-era textbooks online

Today, I was looking at some of our ICH collections on Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative.  While poking around, I found that the Library has digitized The Royal Readers, a series of elementary school textbooks which are often mentioned in local oral history and folklore interviews when old-time school days are discussed.

The Royal Readers were numbered, representing ascending reading levels, and included illustrated prose pieces and poetry, word lessons,  rhetorical passages with sections on useful knowledge, great inventions, the classification of animals, punctuation and world geography, as well as information on British history and  the British Constitution.

This from the Digital Archives Initiative:

"The Royal Readers, produced in Britain, were used in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador from the 1870s until well into the 20th century. The 8 books in the Royal School Series, including the primer and the infant reader, covered the subjects reading and spelling from the commencement of schooling to final matriculation."

The books were used in a number of British colonial education systems, including Australia and Guyana.  In Australia, the books were used throughout Queensland and New South Wales.  According to the Queensland Department of Training and Education, "the Royal Readers or the Blue Readers were introduced into Queensland schools in 1892.... The Royal Readers had been prepared especially for Victorian schools and featured some Australian content. The authors made great use of the natural world as well as incidents and common daily events to attract children to the stories. Teachers were encouraged to teach children not only the 'art of reading' but also a 'love of reading'. Illustrations were used effectively to attract children 'through the eye' to the stories and to help them understand same." 

You can see the readers on the DAI, or  even download the Readers for Kobo.