Heritage Week #Folklorephoto Bringing Heritage out of the Attic #NLheritage

This photograph shows artifacts in the attic of Brett House in Joe Batt's Arm, Fogo Island. Since this photo was taken by Gerald L. Pocius in 1992, the house has become the Brett House Museum and in 2003 was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. Brett House also received a Southcott Award in 2007. Brett House is part of the Brett Property Municipal Heritage Site, which includes the house, two outbuildings, and fencing.

For more information on Brett House visit the Heritage Foundation and the Town of Fogo Island. For other material on Joe Batt's Arm, check out the ICH material on the MUN DAI.

Heritage Week - Cape Race Collective Memories #NLheritage

VA 55-3.4; Cape Race [lighthouse], Newfoundland.  Photo courtesy of The Rooms.

As part of the Collective Memories project the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador is helping community organizations, municipalities, and church groups digitize their oral history collections to make them accessible for future generations. Collected stories are made available through Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, which is a free, public website where the HFNL stores the photos, videos, and interviews it collects.  If you have something to be digitized - get in touch!

One of the collections we have digitized is the Cape Race collection which consists of nine interviews from the area.  These interviews focus on some of the communities on the southeast tip of the Southern Shore such as Portugal Cove South, Drook (Druke), and Long Beach.  There are a number of stories about fishing, farming and keeping animals, shipwrecks, and memories of working at the Cape Race Lighthouse.  If you want to hear stories about cases of beer and whole hams being salvaged from shipwrecks then have a listen to the Cape Race Collection.

~Terra Barrett

Notice: Marjorie Mews Memory Mug Up - Wednesday, February 22nd

Marjorie Mews Public Library.

Share Your Stories at the Memory Mug Up!

Which of your memories would you like to preserve for future generations? What are your dearest childhood memories? What advice would you give your 18-year-old self? If you have answers to these questions, you are invited to attend the Memory Mug Up!

The Memory Mug Up is an informal story sharing session for seniors, where people gather, have a cup of tea, and share memories. The Heritage Foundation of NL will be hosting three Memory Mug Up events for seniors this February.

The goal of the program is to help participants share and preserve their stories. Whatever story is important to you, whether it a personal story, a story about a family member, or a story about your community, the Memory Mug Up program can help you to preserve and share it.

The event is free! You bring a memory of growing up, we’ll supply the tea and biscuits, and we will all have a chat. Following the sessions, those who are interested can set up a time to have their stories recorded and archived by one of our story collectors.

Marjorie Mews Memory Mug Up
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2:30pm
Marjorie Mews Public Library
12 Highland Drive, St. John’s

The Memory Mug Ups are part of the Collective Memories Project, an oral history initiative which invites seniors to record their stories and memories for archiving and sharing. It is a project of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL), the Provincial Advisory Council on Aging and Seniors, the Interdepartmental Working Group on Aging and Seniors, and is funded through the Department of Seniors Wellness and Social Development.

For more information on how you or your community organization can get involved, email Dale Jarvis at ich@heritagefoundation.ca or call (709) 739-1892 x2.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep068 Queen Bee of the NL Beekeeping Association

Catherine Dempsey is a Newfoundlander by Choice, having spent 35 years living life and enjoying the special culture of her adopted home. With a background in book selling and teaching, and two decades promoting the history and heritage of the province, Catherine now lives on four acres in Flatrock, raising a garden, chickens and bees. Catherine is also the President of the Newfoundland & Labrador Beekeeping Association, which encourages those interested in keeping bees to work together to learn best practices, and to protect the province’s honey bees from pests and diseases.

In this podcast, we talk about how Catherine got interested in bees, bee species, hives, keeping bees, the association between bees and gardening, tips for people getting started in bee-keeping, and the politics of introducing new bees to the island of Newfoundland.

Listen on the Digital Archive:

http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/ich_oral/id/720/rec/1

Share your heritage week story with #NLheritage

The third week of February is Heritage Week, and the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador wants you to share your local heritage stories on social media using #NLheritage.

“Social media is a great way to share what is happening with heritage in your community,” says Dale Jarvis, the province’s folklorist. “Tweet a heritage activity, Instagram a heritage building, share some aspect of local history that you love, and tag it using #NLheritage.”

The Heritage Week hashtag #NLheritage can be used by anyone to share stories, celebrate where you came from, and promote pride in the built heritage and intangible cultural heritage of the province.  The campaign starts Monday, February 20th, 2017, and continues all week.

Questions?  Call Dale Jarvis at 1-888-739-1892 x2 or email ich@heritagefoundation.ca

#Folklorephoto Did You Make or Get Any Handmade Valentines This Year? Embroidered Heart Quilt Panel by Clara Tucker.

Clara Tucker of St. Anthony was interviewed by Lisa Wilson in 2010. Mrs. Tucker discussed her methods used in her sewing, knitting, crochet, and quilting projects.

You can listen to the interview with Clara Tucker and view photographs of some of her projects at the MUN Digital Archives Initaitive

The Mount Pearl Public Library Memory Mug Up

This morning was the second in a series of Memory Mug Ups events, this one taking place at the Mount Pearl Public Library. Memory Mug Up's are an informal gathering where participants have a cup of tea and share memories of their lives. In this case the focus was memories of Mount Pearl and the group told stories ranging from the 1950's to the 1990's. We talked about the various shops and hangouts, amenities available in the community, the Mount Pearl Curl, transportation, and other aspects of life in the area. We also shared memories of where people grew up before they moved to Mount Pearl, including childhood games and rhymes. One interesting coincidence was having participants who realized they had lived in the same house on Blossom Avenue, one having sold the home to the other in the early 1970's! 

The Memory Mug Ups are part of the Collective Memories Project, an oral history initiative which invites seniors to record their stories and memories for archiving and sharing. Our next Memory Mug Up will take place at the the Marjorie Mews Public Library in St. John's on February 22nd from 2:30 to 5:30.

For more information on how you or your community organization can get involved, email Dale Jarvis at ich@heritagefoundation.ca or call (709) 739-1892 ext. 2

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Linda Kane and Terra Nova Motors

Linda Kane and Terra Barrett.

Back in December Kelly and I met up with Linda Kane at the Cupids Legacy Centre. Linda had given the ICH office a box of unidentified reel to reel tapes she had found in her father's collection of materials. Linda thought the materials were related to Terra Nova Motors where her father worked from the age of 16 or 17. Through our partnership with Memorial University's Digital Archives these reels were digitized and placed online.

Inside the Terra Nova Motors Showroom.

Kelly and I met with Linda to do an interview about her memories of Terra Nova Motors.  Linda brought pictures and memorabilia to jog her memory and this material was also digitized.  This includes some advertisements including the one shown below as well as photographs of the building, the cars and the showroom.  There is even a photo of Linda and her sister Marilyn seated in the back a car in the showroom.  Linda's father, Clarence Reid, was a manager and as such the girls spent time in the showroom on Sundays when their father did the books.  When I asked Linda what stood out the most about the showroom she said, "Probably the smell of the cars and the leather.  Vinyl wasn't the prominent thing back then.  It was nice clean cars with chrome."

Clarence Reid pictured in an advertisement for Terra Nova Motors.

If you want to learn more about the showroom or Terra Nova Motors you can listen to Linda's interview here or the reel to reel audio here. I've also included an excerpt from one of the reels of the Terra Nova Motors from the 1970s as well as Linda singing the jingle she remembered from the 1950s.

1970s Terra Nova Motors jingle from digitized reel to reel tapes.
Linda Kane singing 1950s Terra Nova Motors jingle.

~Terra Barrett

Living Heritage Podcast Ep067 Cod Sounds

Lori McCarthy grew up in the small fishing community of Bauline, of about 200 people, on the east coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. The traditional foods of her childhood feed her passion to tell the stories of her province through its people, culture and food. Out of this passion she started Project NL Food, a province-wide endeavour to visit various communities and speak with generations of people that hold their culture close to their heart. Lori also owns and operates Cod Sounds, a company which is devoted to celebrating the province’s unique foods with travellers and locals alike through hands on experiences like beach boil-ups, mussel picking and berry picking.

In this interview, we talk about how the Project NL Food got started, traditional recipes, family foodways, the barter system, hunting, teaching, workshops, and food tours.

photo: https://www.instagram.com/codsounds/

Listen on the Digital Archive:

http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/ich_oral/id/703/rec/1