Granny! 'Tis Mummers!!

The province's First Annual Folklife Festival kicks off tonight with an exhibition of fine art and craft dedicated to the history and culture of Mummering.

“The Mummers Festival is a series of events taking place in late November and December which will culminate with the Mummers Parade on December 20th, ending on the grounds of The Rooms with a Christmas concert and Mummers Jam with music, dancing, and spaces for impromptu performances,” says the Province’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Officer, Dale Jarvis.

Jarvis says “The folklife festival is an opportunity for cultural exchange - a place where audiences can feel free to engage with particular traditions and their respective tradition-bearers-within a 'museum without walls' context. The folklife festival is an invitation for audiences to participate, to learn, dance, dress, move, sing, and interact with tradition-bearers and each other.”

Folklife Festival Organizer Ryan Davis says “Mummering in Newfoundland and Labrador takes on many different forms: it continues as a Christmastime house visit; it has become a type of performance for summertime Come Home Year celebrations; it’s the topic of a still-popular song; and it’s represented in art and craft.”

The Mummers Festival is being organized by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador and our sponsors: The Rooms; The Historic Sites Association of Newfoundland and Labrador; Memorial University; MITACS; The Friends of Victoria Park Lantern Festival; Georgestown Neighbourhood Association; Mummer's The Word; and MacPherson Elementary School.

For more information about how you can participate, volunteer and learn more about the Mummers Festival go to the festival website at www.mummersfestival.ca

For Further Information
Contact:
Ryan Davis

1-888-739-1892
info@mummersfestival.ca

ICH Update for November 2009

In this month's ICH update: the creation of Dance NL, to safeguard dance traditions and contemporary dance in Newfoundland and Labrador; and our ICH intern Jed Baker sails off to the Wooden Boat Conference and reports back.

Download the pdf at:
http://tinyurl.com/yfz38mp

Traditional Dance Night, November 25

Dust off your dancing shoes and let loose for a night of traditional jigs, reels and running the goat. Music will be provided by those darlings of Water Street (Tuesdays only) - The Auntie Crae Band (Stan Pickett, Andrew Lang, Doug Baggs and Rick West).

Folk Night happens every Wednesday night at the SHIP PUB (formerly known as the SHIP INN) on Solomon's Lane (265 Duckworth). The music goes from 9:30 pm to 12:00 am. $5 at the door.

People and Place: Realizing Potential

A lecture on people and place, and the intangible cultural heritage strategy of Newfoundland and Labrador, given by folklorist Dale Gilbert Jarvis on Thursday, November 19th, 2009, at the Cultural Tourism Conference in Trinity, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, Canada.



Download a copy of this video at:
http://www.archive.org/details/PeopleAndPlace

The Annotated Jack: A tale of two characters, from Newfoundland, named Jack.

A romp through a tale of two "Jacks": one the hero of traditional folktales; the other a retired fisherman passing the time in his fishing stage spinning tales of his youth.

You'll find them both in Newfoundland -- like Ireland a big island anchored off a bigger continent -- populated with the descendents of Irish and English fishermen. Populated too with the stories and folktales that those settlers brought with them centuries ago, and handed down by word of mouth through the generations. In particular, you'll find folktales which usually begin like this:

"Once there were 3 brothers: Tom, Bill, and Jack. Now Tom and Bill, they were handy, they were actually able to do something. But Jack, well, all Jack could do was sit by the fire, and.."

.and we're off on a fantastical tale of derring-do starring Jack, the ne'er-do-well youngest brother. In the traditional tales, he slays giants, outwits witches, befriends every creature he meets, carries out magical feats by applying simple common sense and an innate naiveté, finds his Fortune and marries The Princess. This is Jack, the poor youngest son who unlocks the secrets of living and embraces magic as his kingdom, the unlikely big-hearted hero who undertakes impossible tasks and survives incredible adventures to ultimately live happily ever after.

The other Jack in this documentary is not mythical at all, but a very real retired fisherman living by the harbour in St. John's city: Jack Wells. This Jack and his friends spend each day together sharing memories and telling stories in his twinestore - a fisherman's shed crammed with stored nets, rope, and fishing gear. Telling stories "makes the time go quicker" they say, remembering their own impossible tasks and incredible adventures.

The stories told in Jack's twinestore are tales of fish, of falling overboard, of coiling more rope or splitting more fish than anyone, of days when the wind came up suddenly, of when the motor froze or the cod were scarce, tales of doing battle with the giants of weather and outwitting the witches of officialdom, and always in the end winning the Princess of Fish in the Kingdom of Memory. Adventures no more or less unlikely than those of the other told-about Jack who eventually finds his fortune, too.

This documentary weaves together the real and the mythical Jack, and considers the role that stories play in accompanying us through life and into retirement. In the end, as the story goes: "if they don't live happily ever after, then may all of ye"
Produced by Chris Brookes at Battery Radio in Newfoundland for RTE Radio 1's, Documentary on One.
(Photo left to right) Charlie Riall, Jack Wells, Mike Walsh

First broadcast Oct 31st 2009.
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/jack.html
Download the podcast at:
http://www.rte.ie/podcasts/2009/pc/pod-v-310109-39m07s-annotated-doconone.mp3

Talking Stick Making Workshop

The Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl is pleased to present visual artist Barb Wood for a workshop on making talking sticks. Come out and try your hand at some arts and crafts while learning to tell stories in this creative way.

Barb Wood lives in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Her paintings and craft work bring together a diverse mix of natural materials and textiles. Her artistic expression is nurtured by a strong sense of connection to the land that living in Labrador inspires. Barbara has received a number of honors for her work including the Canada 125 Award, the Outstanding Achievement Award for Excellence in Craft (2005) from the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Labrador (2002) from the Newfoundland and Labrador Organization of Women.

Pre-registration is required. Register with Christine Hennebury <christine@mombie.com>

Tuesday Nov. 3
7:30 - 9:00 p.m.
$20 (includes materials)

Admiralty House Museum, Mount Pearl.
Admiralty House
23 Old Placentia Road

ICH Update for October 2009

In this month's ICH Update, we look at a project to place materials from the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive which relate to mummering traditions online, an article on the wren, the king of the birds, a note from Harbour Breton on an Iron Foot, an update on what's new with the Digital Archives Initiative, and a preview of the Place, Narrative and New Media Symposium coming up November 5th.

Download the pdf from:
http://tinyurl.com/ylsmxdj

MMaP lecture series to discuss Aboriginal Australian women

The latest installment of the Research Centre for Music, Media and Place’s lecture series will host a discussion surrounding the history and contemporary realities of indigenous Australian women.

Dr. Elizabeth MacKinlay will present on “Big Women from Borroloola: Approaching, applying and decolonising ethnomusicology in the context of Indigenous Australia” on Thursday, Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the MMaP Gallery, located on the second floor of the Arts and Culture Centre.

Dr. MacKinlay is senior lecturer in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, where she teaches indigenous studies, women’s studies and ethnomusicology at the University of Queensland. She will reflect on her time spent with women from the Aboriginal community at Borroloola in the South West of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory of Australia in 2008-09.

Currently undertaking research and publishing widely on a diverse range of topics such as Aboriginal women’s music, performance pedagogy, critical race theory and discourse, autoethnographic approaches and music and mothering, Dr.
MacKinlay is also the editor of the Music Education Research and Innovation (MERI) and co-editor of the Australian Journal of Music Education (AJIE).

The Canada Research Chair in Ethnomusicology, Dr. Beverley Diamond, in conjunction with the School of Music and the Department of Folklore, inaugurated this interdisciplinary lecture series in 2002-03.

Distinguished scholars from the academic community are featured in a series of presentations regarding historical and contemporary musical practices. Members of the general public, as well as the university community, are cordially invited.

For more information, please contact Kristin Harris Walsh, kharriswalsh@mun.ca

Place, Narrative & New Media Symposium

On Thursday, November 5th, 2009, the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Intangible Cultural Heritage program, as part of the annual St. John’s Storytelling Festival, is organizing a half-day symposium on how new technologies are being incorporated into storytelling. Several invited speakers will detail how they are using new media or technology to tell the stories of real places.

Chris Brookes will speak about the [Here]Say, a story map of Water street that allows people to listen to stories, via cell phone, about the location they are standing in at that moment. Marlene Brooks brings us news on 3D Virtual World Storytelling, and will explain how Conne River and Cupids 400 Projects are using Second Life to preserve cultural stories of local communities. New York is only a click away: Jedediah Baker will explain how through his discussion of City Lore's City of Memories. Parks Canada is Implementing GPS based interpretation at a number of their sites and Cupids 400 will be launching an iTouch based interpretation of the 1610 archaeological site.

After brief presentations by all invited speakers, an open panel discussion of the potential of such technology, as well as some of the possible problems, will ensue. What are we able to accomplish and what would we like to be able to accomplish with these resources? How can technology help link place and story? Come see, share, and participate!

See the full symposium site at:
http://www.mun.ca/ich/resources/conferences/conf2009.php

Place, Narrative and New Media Symposium
Celestial Gallery, Johnson GEO Centre
Thursday, November 5th, 2009 1pm-4pm

Free admission to pre-registered participants.
RSVP to Jed Baker at: 737-3582, or by e-mail: jedediah.edwin.baker@mun.ca