Wooden Boat Museum and Conference

Living off the edge of the earth, the way of the water meant survival for peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador. With their hands, heart and handmade tools, they built boats to fish so that they could feed their families, travel and make their way from the land’s rocky shores. With crooked trees, ingenuity and hope, they build the boats that built the country of Newfoundland.

Over the past half a century, the necessity and practice of these skills has declined. The sun has set on the lives of most of the men who practiced the craft with such expertise that today’s naval architects marvel at their skill. As their sons become seniors, we are in danger of losing these skills forever.

But now new life is breathing in the old ways. Established in 2008, the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador is a non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the legacy of our wooden boat building traditions by celebrating the past and passing on the strengths of the skills to younger generations.

The Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador is working to spark new hope for the keystone of our heritage by bringing together traditional wooden boat builders, model wooden boat builders and wooden boat enthusiasts, and those who see wooden boat building as a symbol of the strength and fortitude of Newfoundland and Labrador. By becoming a Member of the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador, you will help continue the legacy.

The Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador is hosting a Conference on November 1st and its first Annual General Meeting on November 2nd. Persons interested in attending either, or both of these events, or to become a Member, are asked to inquire by telephone at either (709) 583-2055 or (709) 583-2070, or by email at bkingheritage@gmail.com or barrett.hal@gmail.com

Museum website: http://www.woodenboat.ca/

Doors Open Gets Intangible!

Doors Open is a unique opportunity for the citizens and visitors of Newfoundland and Labrador to celebrate our architecture and heritage through the exploration of some of our hidden historical, architectural and cultural gems. Buildings that are normally closed to the public or charge an entrance fee welcome visitors to look around for free.

Doors Open began in Glasgow, Scotland in 1990 under the cooperation of the Scottish Civic Trust. A year later it was launched as a Council of Europe initiative. In 1998, 19 million people had visited 28,000 sites throughout Europe making it the world's biggest festival of the built environment.

This year, Doors Open St. John's is heading into its 6th year with its largest event to date! 28 sites are participating including some of our most popular sites and 11 new sites. As part of the event this year, several site will showcase and give visitors opportunities to take part in intangible cultural heritage activities. Some of these include:

Anna Templeton Centre for Craft, Art & Design - family workshops and craft demonstrations;

Bidgood's Fresh Food Market in the Goulds - come and learn how delicious traditional Newfoundland food is made by going behind the scenes in the Bidgood’s bakery.

Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre - Hands-on Displays (Touch Tank, Fast Rescue Craft, Fishery Patrol Vessel, Leatherback Turtle Replica), Demonstrations (tracking ocean conditions, eco-models, Terry Trauma), and Exhibits (marine debris, HR, species at risk).

Peter Pan Lawn Bowling, Bowering Park - Lawn bowling demonstrations and instruction will take place throughout the day. Come learn the sport and play a game with friends and family

St. John's Racing and Entertainment Centre - Tours of the stables will be held and races will begin 2:00 on Sunday.

The Old Mill, Brookfield Road - 4 Line dancing classes will be offered. They will begin on the hour starting at 12:00, Saturday.

Living RICH August meeting

I just drove back into town from a meeting in Placentia with the committee for Living RICH (Rural Intangible Cultural Heritage), where I gave an overview of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador's ICH program. It was a good meeting, with representation from Parks Canada, Branch Heritage Group, Tramore Productions, Placentia Area Theatre d'Heritage.

Patrick Carroll with Parks talked about the free concert which was organized at Castle Hill National Historic Site as part of their 40th anniversary celebrations. Part of the goal was to mix old and new musical traditions, and to bring in people from the area. Featured singers/songwriters included Joy Norman, Colleen Power, and one of my favourite traditional ballad singers, Tobias Pearson.

Arlene Morrissey from Tramore talked about some of the projects of the company, which has a strong basis in the conservation and celebration of local oral tradition and oral history, and which incorporates ballad singing and storytelling into their performances. Helen Griffin with Placentia Area Theatre d'Heritage talked about their program of costumed interpretation at Castle Hill, their other shows based on local history, and their weekly theatre cabaret, which drew on the area's Irish, English and American culture with recitations, theatre and traditional music.

Lorna Nash English presented on the various projects of Branch Heritage, including their walk of "name places", areas with particular significance for the community, their memorial skeet shooting competition, kitchen parties with ballad singing, and the revival of traditional dances from the community. She also stressed the importance of passing on skills from seniors to youth.

In the end, the group talked about organizing a one day symposium on rural ICH for the area, sometime in November. I'll be sure to blog about it as it draws closer, so keep posted!

International Journal of Intangible Heritage

The International Journal of Intangible Heritage is a refereed academic and professional journal for the cultural and heritage sectors. First published in May 2006, the Journal embraces theory and practice in relation to the study, preservation, interpretation and promotion of intangible heritage. In recent years, academics,researchers and professionals in many different parts of the cultural and heritage sectors have increasingly been collecting, systematizing, documenting and communicating intangible heritage and in particular supporting both its traditional and contemporary expressions. The Journal welcomes submissions of contributions covering all areas and all possible discourses of intangible heritage studies and practice.

The need for such an international publication was one of the significant outcomes of the 2004 Triennial General Conference of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on the theme “Museums and Intangible Heritage”. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Republic of Korea agreed to provided support for this Journal through the National Folk Museum of Korea.

The printed editions are supplemented by an electronic edition in PDF format at http://www.ijih.org.

Put your foot down on digital transcription!

I had a question recently about transcribing digital recordings. The question was about the difficulty in using a digital recording to make a transcription of the interview.

Have no fear! It is possible to use a foot pedal on your computer, to advance and rewind a digital wav or mp3 file. There are several on the market. Just do a Google search for "USB transcription foot pedal" and you'll get a lot of options. I have yet to try this out, but I'm itching to do so, and when I do, I'll update the blog and let people know how it works out.

You have to buy a foot pedal, but you can get the basic transcription software for free. Express Scribe Transcription Playback Software is one example, which is a totally free download designed to assist the transcription of audio recordings. It is installed on the typist's computer and can be controlled using a transcription foot pedal or using the keyboard. This computer transcriber application also offers valuable features for typists including variable speed playback, multi-channel control, file management and more.

ICH meets Survey Monkey!

The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) is overseeing the implementation of a strategy to safeguard the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) or "Living Heritage" of the province.

As part of this strategy, HFNL is conducting an online survey through the web-based Survey Monkey to determine the types of assistance community organizations require in safeguarding their ICH. The survey will take approximately 10 minutes and all results will be confidential. A summary of final results will be posted on the HFNL website.

To conduct the survey online, visit:

http://www.heritagefoundation.ca

Follow the link to “ICH Survey”

For more information on the survey, telephone Barbara Gravinese at 709-737-3582.

Veterans History Project

This morning, Jillian Gould (Memorial University Folklore Dept's public sector folklorist) and I had an informative telephone chat with Dr. Timothy Lloyd, Executive Director of the American Folklore Society. We had questions for Tim about the training available for people interested in collecting stories, oral history, and personal experience narratives as part of the Veterans History Project in the United States.

The Veterans History Project relies on volunteers to collect and preserve stories of wartime service. The United States Congress created the Veterans History Project in 2000, with a primary focus on collecting first-hand accounts of U.S. Veterans from World War I up to the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.

For me, one of the interesting programs they deliver is a short, half-day introductory course on interviewing techniques for community groups, seniors' homes, high- and middle-schools who are planning on doing recording projects with veterans in their own communities.

The Veterans History Project also makes good use of online resources, including a Veterans History Project Field Kit which can be downloaded from the Library of Congress website. The kit includes items like data and release forms, and audio, video and recording logs.

The website also offers good introductory level information for groups (and individuals) on preparing for and conducting interviews.

ICH Needs Assessment Survey

(photo: Joshia Snow and workers with salt fish, Fogo, Fogo Island, NL, no date)

In the next step of the province’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Provincial Initiative, the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) is in the process of conducting a needs assessment survey to uncover what communities need and how we can help to identify, document, celebrate, and transmit our “living heritage.”

Examples of living heritage include skills like hand-building boats, homes, and furniture. HFNL is working to provide opportunities to celebrate people and their skills. Some skills and traditions were once matters of survival, like knitting woollens and preserving food over the winter. People in their homes and the homes of neighbours hooked mats, made fishing nets, told stories, sang and danced in our kitchens. These skills, traditions and crafts were not learned in schools, but learned over time in apprenticeship to senior craftspeople, or were passed down through the oral tradition. Today we look for ways to recognize and celebrate these traditions and skills.

“All these things, and more, are pieces of our Intangible Cultural Heritage,” says Dale Jarvis, ICH development officer for the province. “The survey is part of our ongoing work to see what communities need in order to safeguard this sometimes fragile material.”

The ICH survey will be asking questions about how communities share and celebrate Intangible Cultural Heritage. Barbara Gravinese, a Memorial University, Department of Folklore Graduate Student, will be conducting this phone survey. Gravinese is writing her doctoral thesis on pottery, a contemporary tradition in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“We would also like to know if there are traditions that people value and think are at risk of being forgotten or lost, as the bearers of these traditions - the fiddle maker, the singer, the cook - age and die,” says Gravinese.

“Many people are excited about becoming active members of this initiative on a grassroots level,” she explains. “We would like to know who might be interested in training, on lots of different levels, to do fieldwork recording, filming, and/or interviewing tradition bearers to document their lives and skills.”

Gravinese will be conducting the survey with municipalities, local heritage groups and organizations over the next two months. When completed, the survey results will be posted on the HFNL website at http://www.heritagefoundation.ca/ich.aspx.

For more information on the provincial ICH survey, email bgravinese@mun.ca, or call (709) 737-3582 until the 30th of September, 2008.

Intangible Cultural Heritage Strategy

In its cultural strategy, Creative Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador identified the importance of safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) or “living heritage.”

“Our intangible cultural heritage or, alternatively, our “living heritage”, . . encompasses a host of traditions, practices and customs that permeate and help constitute the very marrow of our society. Intangible cultural heritage embraces, among other things, our stories, holidays, community gatherings, culinary arts, rituals, songs and languages. These are passed from one generation to another but do not remain static; they are modified and recreated by each new generation.”

The provincial cultural strategy identified the need to develop an action plan for safeguarding ICH. To develop such a plan, the Department of Tourism, Culture, and Recreation (TCR) appointed an ICH Working Group made up of representatives from the Museum Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Archives Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, Parks Canada, the Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, Memorial University, Torngasok, and the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, The Rooms Provincial Museum. Drawing extensively on discussions during the AHI Intangible Cultural Heritage Forum, held in June 2006, the group developed a strategy.

The strategy has now been formally adopted by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador as the document that will guide their ongoing works to conserve ICH in the province.

See the strategy here.

If you have any comments or suggestions on the strategy please email ich@heritagefoundation.ca or call 709-739-1892 ext 2