Digital Storytelling: My Grandparents' House with Ruth Bugden

Digital storytelling is a short form of digital media production that allows everyday people to share aspects of their own family and community history. Many people have stories about family members and local places that often go untold. Digital storytelling helps interpret and make community history accessible.

Ruth Bugden tells the story of her grandparents' house.

Or click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Photos and audio courtesy of Ruth Bugden. Photos collected as part of the Digital Storytelling workshop held Tuesday, October 16th, 2018 in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s. If this video elicits memories for you, or if you'd like to arrange a digital storytelling workshop for your community, contact Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca

All aboard! Newfoundland Railway, 1950s. #FolklorePhoto

This photo shows men posing on the Newfoundland Railway boxcar number 1228, close to the old Spaniard's Bay railway station off New Harbour Road in the1950s. What looks like a speeder car can be seen in the distance off to the right.


Photo courtesy Daphne Robinson. Photo collected as part of the "Lassy Days Photo Scanning Pary" held Wednesday, August 8th, 2018 at the Wesley Gosse Heritage Museum. If this photo elicits memories for you, or if you'd like to arrange a photo scanning party for your community, contact Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca

Living Heritage Economy Case Study: Exploring Folklore Through Craft with Janet Peter

Heritage NL is pleased to present the first of its Living Heritage Economy Case Studies, which focuses on fibre artist Janet Peter, and how she uses elements of local folklore such as mummers, Old Hags, and other supernatural creatures in her craft business.

Visual artist, maker, and arts educator Janet Peter has been making marks on paper since she was old enough to hold a pencil. After high school, Janet briefly studied animation, but it was after graduating with a Visual Arts diploma that she began a line of papier-mâché mummer figurines. She possesses a great interest in local traditions and lore, and these themes recur in much of her work.

One of the recommendations that came out of the Forum on Adapting NL’s Intangible Cultural Heritage held last October was that the ICH Office engage in further work to support “Living Traditions in Sustainable Communities.” The ICH Committee met and decided to move forward with a series of “Living Heritage Economy Case Studies” looking at building cultural businesses based on aspects of our intangible cultural heritage. ICH-based businesses might focus on food products, publications, experiential tourism, or learning vacations.

The document was prepared by Dale Jarvis, Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer for Heritage NL, as part of a series of case studies examining the links between living heritage, traditionality, entrepreneurism, and community economic development in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Download the case study as a pdf here.

The second case study, now in production, will look at how Christine Legrow of Spindrift Handknits is producing knitting patterns based on traditional designs.

If you would like to suggest a tradition-inspired local business for a possible future case study, or for information on documenting and safeguarding local traditions, contact Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca. For more information on the Craft Council of NL, mentioned in the case study, visit https://craftcouncil.nl.ca/

Invite to Harbour Grace Heritage Opportunities & Priorities Session Nov 28

Invite to Harbour Grace Heritage Follow-up Session

Wednesday, November 28, 2018
1:30 p.m.
Firemen's Social Building,
Bannerman Street, Harbour Grace

A “People, Places & Culture “Workshop was facilitated by Heritage NL in Harbour Grace 10 November 2018. The workshop comprised two parts: I) a cultural mapping activity that considered the community’s tangible and intangible cultural assets; and II) a session to explore opportunities for protecting, safeguarding and developing these assets. The latter activity involved identifying themes and clusters of cultural assets that emerged from the mapping session. This meeting involved local heritage enthusiasts, residents, town staff, and representatives from the Town of Harbour Grace, Conception Bay Museum, and the Heritage and Redevelopment Committee.

15 themes emerged from the discussion, written notes, and mapping exercise. The next step will be to prioritize these and set some actionable items with some recommendations from Heritage NL.

You can view the preliminary report and the list of themes and sub topics here.


The follow-up session is set for Wednesday, November 28, 2018, at 1:30 p.m. in the Firemen's Social Building, Bannerman Street, Harbour Grace, and is open to everyone. If you're interested in heritage and development, come along! We'll be going over the preliminary report, and setting some priorities for future heritage work in Harbour Grace.

You can register for the workshop online.


For more information contact:
Matthew Gerard McCarthy
Economic Development Officer
Town of Harbour Grace

T: (709) 596-3042
C: (709) 222-9320
F: (709) 596-1991

P.O. Box 310
112 Water Street
Harbour Grace, NL
A0A 2M0

www.hrgrace.ca
matthewmccarthy@hrgrace.ca

Living Heritage Podcast Ep135 When Folklore Meets Pop Culture

What do Superman, Santa Claus, and Krampus all have in common? They're some of the research interests of Dr. Daniel Peretti, a new faculty member with Memorial University’s Folklore Department. Dr. Peretti grew up in Algonac, Michigan and studied film at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. He went to Indiana University to study Folklore and began studying holiday celebrations and history. He moved onto researching mythology and and narrative, and focused his dissertation on Greek mythology in the United States, which included a lot of popular culture. In this episode, Dr. Peretti talks about his book, Superman in Myth and Folklore, and his newest project on the history and folklore of Santa Claus.

Download MP3

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The Living Heritage Podcast is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the community level. The show is a partnership between HFNL and CHMR Radio. Past episodes are hosted on Libsyn, and you can subscribe via iTunes, or Stitcher. Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Folklore Studies Association of Canada Call for Papers - Newfoundland 2019

FSAC/ACEF Conference 2019 - Call for Papers
The Folklore Studies Association of Canada/Association canadienne d’ethnologie et de folklore is pleased to announce that its 2019 conference will be held May 31 – June 2, in the Department of Folklore at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

This year, as the Department of Folklore marks its 50th anniversary together with the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive, we invite participants to present research around the theme of “home.” We invite proposals for papers on all aspects of the literal and symbolic construction of home and its manifestation in folklore and folklife. Possible topics include housework, family custom (or rites of passage), food, music, material culture, narrative, home-sickness, loss of home, living unhoused, experiences of homelessness, returning home, and so on. Proposals for special panels, discussion sessions and other subjects related to ethnology and folklore are welcome. Presentations will be 20 minutes with an additional 10 minutes for discussion.

Please send abstracts (in English or French) of 150 words to Dr. Holly Everett (hjeverett@mun.ca), chair of the conference organizing committee, by February 1, 2018.

Conference registration and membership in FSAC/ACEF: All presenters and speakers must register for the FSAC/ACEF conference, and must be members of FSAC/ACEF before their submissions can be accepted for inclusion in the conference program. Annual dues are $60 CAD for regular members, and $30 CAD for part-time faculty, students, independent scholars, and retired persons. Membership may be purchased online at:<https://www.acef-fsac.ulaval.ca/en/join > or by mail: Folklore Studies Association of Canada, c/o Dr. Ian Hayes, 213 av. Du Grand-Calumet, Gatineau, Québec, J9J 1L4.

Photo: Marysvale, NL, date unknown. The gentleman on the right is Mr. Michael Ryan, the girl in the middle is his grand-daughter Maxine; the man on the left is James “Jim” Ryan. Photo courtesy Bride Power, from Marysvale Memories: The Stories of Bride Power.  

The St. Augustine's Anglican Church Lych-gate, New Perlican

Long-time followers of the ICH Blog will have read here about the largely-vanished tradition of lych-gates in Newfoundland (you can read our occasional paper on lych-gates here).

A lych-gate, succinctly, is a “covered wooden gateway with open sides at the entrance to a churchyard, providing a resting place for a coffin” (Fleming et al. 277). In Newfoundland, they seem to have been exclusively used by Anglican congregations, and in our earlier research, we found three: one restored in Bonavista, one original in Corner Brook, and one demolished at the Anglican Cemetery on Forest Road in St. John's (you can see a picture of that one here).

An 1922 article in the Evening Telegram describes lych-gates thusly:

H.T. asks why the gate at the Church of England Cemetery at Bonavista is called the Lych Gate. The word Lych or Lich is Anglo-Saxon, and means a corpse. Hence a Lych Gate is a churchyard gate, with a roof over it, under which, on the occasion of a funeral, the corpse and its bearers may await the coming of the officiating minister. A properly equipped Lych Gate has a long seat on each side, on which the bearers may sit, and a stone called the Lych-Stone in the middle of the path, under the roof, on which the coffin may be placed. If the person has died of an infectious disease, and the body is not to be taken into the church, a part of the Burial Service is sometimes said at the Lych-Gate.

We are much indebted to Eileen Matthews of Heritage New Perlican for sending us the photo above, which shows the original St. Augustine's Anglican Church in New Perlican. The photo shows St. Augustine's Church prior to a fire in the early 1900s. Take note of the small, steeply gabled structure to the right of the church.  The building was dedicated by the Bishop in 1886, and the Evening Telegram of the day noted the following:

Built about three hundred yards from the main road, and approached by a good broad road near by—the free labor of the people—its position is seen to be most excellent. As the visitor leaves the main road for the church he passes beneath a lichgate, bearing the inscription, '« Holiness to the Lord," put there to remind him of the reverence due to the place where it has vouchsafed the Lord to place His name. On St. Peter's Day from each of the four corners of the tower floated a flag in honor of the birthday of the church, and as a welcome to His Lordship the Bishop, whilst for the same reason the lichgate formed the base of a triumphal arch, made of the fir and spruce.

There you have it, another lych gate, the fourth identified for the province. This structure no longer exists, and was possibly removed when the church was rebuilt.

If you have a photo of one of these gates, or know of another location where there may have been a covered gate of this type, email dale@heritagenl.ca

Sources:

"Answers to Correspondents." Evening Telegram (St. John's, N.L.), 1922-08-05. P8.

Fleming, John, Hugh Honour, and Nikolaus Pevsner. The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture. Fourth Edition. London: Penguin, 1991.

"The Lord Bishop of Newfoundland at Heart's Content."  Evening Telegram (St. John's, N.L.), 1886-07-07. P4.

More Newfoundland church bells - The All Saints’ Anglican Church bell in Dildo

Last week, we had a post on the naming and christening of bells, and I included a request for more information about other church bells in the province. You can also read an earlier post about the 1845 Whitechapel Bell at St. George's Anglican Church, Petty Harbour. 

Today, Andrew Pretty wrote me and sent me some information about the All Saints’ Anglican Church bell. He writes,

The original All Saints’ Anglican church was built in 1878. The first bell was purchased in 1904 for the sum of 44£. From the time that the church opened until 1904, the raising of a flag alerted the congregation of services. However, this bell only appears to have been used for just a few years. It appears that there was some dissatisfaction with the bell. It was a cast iron bell as opposed to cast bronze bell which is said to produce a better tone. The bell appears to have been passed along to another church in the New Harbour mission (possibly Norman’s Cove Church) and Rev’d Caldwell subsequently wrote in a church ledger in 1906: “Never have anything to do with iron bells! Warning!” A flag continued to be used until 1956 when a new cast bronze bell was purchased from the John Taylor & Co. Bell Foundry in Loughborough England. The bell was purchased by the C.E.A.A. at the cost of 296£. It rings in the key of “E”, 28” in diameter and was transported across the Atlantic Ocean on the SS Nova Scotia. Since the original All Saints’ Church didn’t have a tower or steeple, a freestanding tower had to be built to house it. Later in 1964, the original All Saints’ Church was replaced by a new building and the old one demolished. The freestanding tower remained (although it was situated over 100ft from the new church) and the bell continued to be used regularly until 1982 when it was replaced with a set of electronic chimes. The tower built in 1956 was demolished in 1992 and the bell sat in the basement of the church until it was hung in a replacement tower in 2010. Even though the church still uses electronic chimes the bell is still rung on special occasions.

Do you have photos, stories, or memories about church bells? Send them my way! Email dale@heritagenl.ca

Photos courtesy Andrew Pretty. 

Meet the newlywed Filliers - Married in Spaniard's Bay, 1925. #FolklorePhoto

Chesley and Winnifred Fillier, married at Spaniard’s Bay United Church, June 2, 1925. Behind the couple, you can see the doors to the church, currently a Registered Heritage Structure, looking pretty much as they do today!


Photo courtesy Daphne Robinson. Photo collected as part of the "Lassy Days Photo Scanning Pary" held Wednesday, August 8th, 2018 at the Wesley Gosse Heritage Museum. If this photo elicits memories for you, or if you'd like to arrange a photo scanning party for your community, contact Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca