Youth Heritage Forum 2015 Guest Speaker - Crystal Braye

Guest Speaker: Crystal Braye

Crystal Braye received her Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2008 before completing her Masters of Arts in Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. During her time at MUN, Crystal’s work focused on documenting root cellars for the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador,  with additional research on Newfoundland’s “Screech-In” customs and mummering traditions. She is presently on the board of directors for the Mummers Festival and has been working as a folklorist for the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador [WBMBL] since 2012. Crystal is responsible for WBMNL’s cultural heritage research which includes the documentation of traditional design, construction and use of wooden boats in their unique community contexts and the collection of stories and experiences of the people who built and used wooden boats throughout the province.

Why are passionate about heritage?

My passion for heritage comes from my interest in understanding the ways our culture (including our customs, beliefs and practices) shape our everyday experiences and perceptions of the world around us. Through an understanding of our tangible and intangible cultural heritage, we can gain new insights on contemporary experiences and develop appreciation for the simple things in everyday life we too often take for granted.

Want to hear more from Crystal? Join us for Youth Heritage Forum 2015!

Registration forms can be downloaded here! 
Keep up to date, join our Youth Heritage Forum Facebook Event!

Up and running with Play and Games

On Tuesday, February 3rd, Hoist your Sails and Run got off to a fine start. Folklorists and folklore students met with 8 tradition-bearers at MacMorran Community Centre to talk about where they grew up, what their neighbourhoods were like, and how they used to have fun.

We talked about alleys (marbles), jacks, skipping rope, Bonfire Night, and getting up to mischief. We shared memorable Christmastime traditions, remembered the old shops in downtown St. John's, and the events they found most exciting as children. Teresa Boland remembers watching for the Peanut Man: a man dressed head to toe as a peanut with a top hat and monocle who delivered bags of salted peanuts to waiting children on special occasions.

We even played a few schoolyard games ourselves, and we topped the morning off with a delicious lunch of sandwiches and chicken soup, made by Marg Connolly, who has lived in the community for 77 years.

Next week, we'll meet again to look over childhood photos, and the folklore students will pair off with tradition bearers to do the interviews that will become the content for the booklet. Keep an eye on this blog for updates as we start to put the pieces together!

For more information about Hoist your Sails and Run, contact me here or at 709-739-1892 ext 3.

Youth Heritage Forum 2015 Poster

Check it out! The poster for Youth Heritage Forum 2015, March 7th, 2015. Poster designed by Graham Blair Designs

Registration form can be downloaded here!

Youth Heritage Forum 2015 Guest Speaker - Lisa M. Daly

With the Youth Heritage Forum just weeks away it's time we get to know a bit about our guest speakers! We'll be profiling one of our youth speakers each week leading up to the forum, and to get the gears turning I asked each of them why are you passionate about heritage? 

Guest Speaker: Lisa M. Daly

Lisa M. Daly has been working in the heritage sector since 2001, first with the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador, then Parks Canada, and now as a tour guide, both independent and with Wildland Tours. She holds a B.A. in archaeology from MUN, a M.Sc. in forensic and biological anthropology from Bournemouth University, and is in the process of completing a Ph.D. in archaeology from MUN. Her study focus is aviation in Newfoundland and Labrador. Up to now, most of her academic work has focused on World War II aviation in Gander, Goose Bay and Stephenville, but she has also done some work on pre- and post-war aviation history in the province. She is also collecting stories and images of the Hindenburg as it flew over Newfoundland. In her free time, she loves to explore the beauty and culture of the province. Follow her work on Twitter, @planecrashgirl, or her blog, www.planecrashgirl.ca.

Why are you passionate about heritage?

I am passionate about heritage because it is who we are. Our culture, history, landscape, etc. it all shapes us as individuals and as a people. Exploring heritage allows us to learn about ourselves and our neighbours, and gives us the opportunity to bring new people into that culture. Wherever I go, I  try to imerse myself in a community as best I can, and I try to give that experience to visitors as a tour guide. The challenge is to do that when exploring on a tour bus. As an archaeologist, I am fortunate to get to talk to people about the history and stories of an area. Sometimes what I find in the material culture doesn't agree with those stories, but it certainly leads to great discussion and doesn't take away from the importance of those stories to the community.

Want to hear more from Lisa? Join us for Youth Heritage Forum 2015!

Registration forms can be downloaded here! 
Keep up to date, join our Youth Heritage Forum Facebook Event!

For more information about Youth Heritage Forum 2015 contact Alanna at 1(888)739-1892 [Ext 5] or by email alanna@heritagefoundation.ca 

About to hoist sail!

The smiling faces ready to collect memories!

It's here! It's here! Hoist your Sails and Run is about to take off!

On Tuesday, we introduced Jim Crockwell of the MacMorran Community Centre to the MUN Public Folklore Class. Jim gave us a great presentation about the history of the centre, the services they offer, and the community that avails of them: all useful context for the students about to go in. We covered some last-minute logistics and questions, and we are ready to go!

Hoist your Sails and Run begins this Tuesday, February 3rd! Watch this space for updates as we start the conversation about play and games with tradition-bearers!

If you're interested in joining us or in sharing your memories of play and games, please contact me at 739-1892 ext 3 or by email.

Youth Forum News, Memories of Childhood, and Fisheries Architecture

In the January 2015 edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update newsletter: Alanna Wicks invites youth aged 18-35 to the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador's first Youth Heritage Forum, set for March 7th, 2015 in St. John's; Sharon King-Campbell interviews Berkley Reynolds about his memories of growing up in Salmon Cove, as part of the Hoist Your Sails and Run games research project (including a fabulous story about cheating time in order to squeeze in an extra hour of cards); Memorial University of Newfoundland is seeking organizations who would be willing to host interns through the Department of Folklore's public folklore co-op MA programme; and Dale Jarvis provides an overview of the Fisheries Heritage Preservation Program and its work to safeguard the vernacular architecture of the traditional fishery in the province.

Contributors: Dale Jarvis, Sharon King-Campbell, Rebecca Newhook, Alanna Wicks.

Download the newsletter in pdf or other formats.

Photo: Berkley Reynolds, circa 1955. Courtesy Berkley Reynolds.

Co-op intern possibilities for Newfoundland and Labrador non-profit organizations

Memorial University Master of Arts, Folklore co-op students are seeking full-time, paid work terms of at least 12 weeks duration from May to August. Co-op folklore students work in a wide range of areas including archiving, curating, cultural documentation, tourism, culture and economic development and festivals/public events.

Do you have a project or program that a public folklorist could contribute to over the summer?

Organizations that hire co-op students are eligible to apply for a wage subsidy to cover up to $6/hr of the student’s wage. More information is available at http://www.mun.ca/coop/employers/funding/. Applications are now being accepted from small business and non-profit organizations.

Contact Rebecca Newhook on (709) 864-4098 or rnewhook@mun.ca for more information.

Making an indoors in the outdoors

In December, I asked Vida Edwards about indoor games she played when she was growing up in Trout River. This was her answer:

 “Let’s face it, when you’re growing up in Newfoundland and you have a little small house and it’s six and seven kids and the house is probably I’m thinking maybe 900 sq feet, you don’t have a lot of space, (…) you don’t want to be inside.”

She has a point: indoor space was at a premium. So some children built themselves some outdoor space that still provided a bit of shelter from our fine Newfoundland weather.

The Dictionary of Newfoundland English has an entry for just such a structure; “copy house” is defined as “a little house built by children.” Paula Roberts remembers one in particular in Clarenville:

“We built a fort up behind Randy’s house and I remember he was nailing from the top and I was nailing from in the fort, and I stood up and one of the nails wasn’t driven in and I drove the nail into my head.”

Aside from that memorable incident, Paula and her friends spent most of their time pretending to be baking, making mud cakes and serving them to guests on plates made of wooden planks.

Photo provided by PANL

In the winter, of course, the building materials changed, but the idea was the same. Paula recalls digging out from mounds of snow left in their yard by the plow. She says,

“Building snow forts was mostly what we would spend our time at. In the same area that you’d be making up the mud cakes and everything in the summer, you’d be building snow forts, and creating benches, and everything.”

Winston Fiander’s snow houses in Coomb’s Cove were even more sophisticated.

“We used to make the walls perpendicular, and then we’d get pieces of lumber and put across the top, and put snow on top of the lumber,” he said. They’d care for and maintain their houses all winter long, and hope that it stayed cold.

“Of course you had to be careful now when you got a mild spell because the thing would collapse on ya. Weren’t allowed to go in there.”

If you built a play or copy house, or a snow house, and would like to share your memories, please consider participating in the Hoist your Sails and Run project (see here), filling out our online survey (here), or contacting me at 739-1892 ext 3 or by email here.

PSA: Youth Heritage Forum, March 7th

The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Intangible Cultural Heritage office is looking for youth representatives from local heritage organizations and community groups to attend our upcoming Youth Heritage Forum. We hope to bring together youth, ages 18-35, from various backgrounds to discuss heritage and what they would like to see happen in this field in the future.

Heritage organizations and community groups in the Avalon Region are invited to nominate 1-2 youth representatives to attend.

If you are a youth passionate about heritage and would like to become involved please contact Alanna Wicks at 1-888-739-1892 [Ex 5] or email to alanna@heritagefoundation.ca

Listen to Alanna speak with VOCM's Paddy Daly: