Cape Breton Mi'kmaw elder Margaret Pelletier on the Spirit of Basket Weaving

"I think with me, there is a spirit within me that makes the basket. I always told my mother that. It's like I can make the basket, I'm just the physical form. You probably feel like that if you are a basket weaver. You are just the physical form that is there, but you have to have that spirit within you that moves your hands and makes the basket, and you're not actually making it yourself. And I think if we had more people that felt like that, I think we'd have so many basket weavers. But I really would like to increase as many basket weavers as we could, because it is really such a fine art, and it is so nice to do."

 - Clip from an interview with Margaret (Margie) Pelletier, a Mi'kmaw elder and basket maker from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. Recorded at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University, Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada, on 17 March 2012 by Dale Jarvis.

Mr Roy Oke's Baskets, Corner Brook, Newfoundland

A photo of Mr. Roy Oke, retired millwright, Corner Brook, circa 1980s, with his mill lunch basket under his arm, carried the traditional way men would carry their lunch baskets. This was Mr Oke's second basket, which he purchased for $15 from a man from Humbermouth. His previous basket, with a fully woven bottom, had started to wear out, so he bought this second basket, which had a wooden base. More photos below, including folklore co-op student Nicole Penney posing with Mr Oke's daughter, Paula Price.

ICH Roadtrip Day 3 - A Corner Brook Mill Recitation by Terry Penney

Yesterday was the first of our two "Tea 'n' Baskets" events, where we invite owners of traditional mill lunch baskets to come out and share their stories.  One of the participants was Mr Terry Penney, who brought along a vintage mill lunch basket (which he still uses to carry his lunch).  Mr Penney also shared a recitation he wrote, entitled "Continuous Production." Give it a listen!

Celebrating Grand Falls-Windsor’s Mill Lunch Baskets

In Newfoundland and Labrador traditionally-made baskets come in many shapes, sizes and styles and can be crafted from a variety of materials. Central Newfoundland has the mill lunch basket. While the origin of this distinctive two-handled splint style lunch basket is unknown, some workers began the tradition of crafting their own, and the lunch basket became a firm part of mill culture.

“It was a regular sight to see men walking to work carrying large woven lunch baskets, laden with home cooked food. Whether they be rectangular or oval, made from juniper, birch, or even steel, these baskets were a symbol of hard work and financial security,” says Dale Jarvis, a folklorist with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL). “Mill lunch baskets were once so popular nearly every pulp and paper mill worker in Newfoundland used one to bring hot meals to work.”

To celebrate that history, the Heritage Foundation is organising a series of events around the tradition of basket making in Newfoundland.

On Sunday, March 25th from 1-3pm at the Mount Peyton Hotel, Grand Falls Windsor, HFNL will be hosting an event called “Tea ‘n’ Baskets”. This free event is an opportunity for those who still have mill lunch baskets to come out and show your basket and share your memories. Bring your basket, refreshments provided. HFNL staff will be on hand to photograph mill baskets, to become part of an educational website.

Jarvis will also be leading a public workshop on oral history while in Grand Falls-Windsor, intended to give a background on how to conduct research interviews. It will give people a chance to try their hand at creating interview questions and conducting an interview. The workshop will take place Saturday, March 24th, at the Mount Peyton Hotel.

HFNL’s Intangible Cultural Heritage program was created to celebrate, record, and promote our living heritage and help to build bridges between diverse cultural groups within and outside Newfoundland and Labrador.

For more information, or to register for the workshop, contact Dale Jarvis at 709-685-3444, or email ichprograms@gmail.com

Tea 'n' Baskets today in Corner Brook! Bring your mill basket, we'll bring the tea.

Today, Sunday, March 18th from 1-3pm at the Glynmill Inn, Corner Brook, HFNL will be hosting an event called “Tea ‘n’ Baskets”. This event is an opportunity for those who still have mill lunch baskets to come out and show your basket and share your memories. 


Bring your basket, we’ll provide the refreshments! HFNL staff will be on hand to photograph mill baskets, to become part of an educational website.

ICH Roadtrip Day 2 - Baskets and more baskets!

Day 2 - Corner Brook

We had a day full of baskets and interviews. Nicole Penney did two interviews in the morning, one on a fabulous Mi'kmaw storage basket, and one on a mill basket. Then we headed off to the NL Emporium, who had a fantastic selection of mill baskets (some shown above), root baskets, ash baskets and even Labrador grasswork.

Last night we held our public symposium on traditional basket making, "Rooted In Tradition," with local basket makers Eileen Murphy and Helge Gillard, and visiting Nova Scotia elders Della Mcguire and Margie Pelletier. We had a fantastic session, and then Della and Margie showed the crowd the baskets they've been working on with local aboriginal women.

We've got hundreds of photos, lots of great audio, and hopefully some video that we'll be posting once we are back in St. John's. Stay tuned.

Today is the first of our "Tea 'n' Baskets" events, at the Glynmill in Corner Brook, where we are inviting people with mill baskets to come, share stories, and have their baskets photographed for Memorial's Digital Archives Initiative ICH collection.

13th annual Sharing Our Cultures event celebrates Newfoundland and Labrador's cultural diversity

The public is invited to the 13th official opening ceremonies of Sharing our Cultures - À la découverte de nos cultures, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, March 18, at The Rooms in St. John’s. Admission to Sharing Our Cultures is FREE but regular fees apply for The Rooms’ exhibits. The other two days – March 19 and 20 – are open ONLY to the media and to students who have registered.

This event highlights the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the province’s Multiculturalism Week (March 18-24). The theme this year is “sharing our languages”/«partager nos langues».

Mr. Les Linklater, Assistant Deputy Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, will bring greetings during the ceremonies. The guest speaker is Mr. Remzi Cej, past participant of Sharing Our Cultures, a Rhodes Scholar, and current Chair of the Human Rights Commission.

Two of the young authors, from Labrador and the West Coast, will read their stories in Cultural Con‘txt’ in English and French, respectively. Cultural Con‘txt’, the latest initiative of Sharing our Cultures, is a publication of stories by students from around the province. There will also be performances by the Mi’kmaq Dancers and Drummers, World Voices choir, and students from Natuashish and Colombia.

From March 19 to 20, about 1,200 Grade Six students from St. John’s, Dunville, and Chapel Arm will visit this unique educational event and engage in bilingual cultural activities, interact with host students, and learn languages from around the world.

This project is supported by Citizenship and Immigration Canada; Office of Immigration and Multiculturalism; The Rooms Corporation; Department of Education; Eastern School District; École des Grands-Vents; CBC Radio-Canada; Memorial University, and Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association.

For more information please contact: Lloydetta Quaicoe, Project Coordinator (709) 727-2372

ICH Roadtrip Day 1 - Freezing rain, delays, and pearls of wisdom

We started off the ICH road trip with delays in St. John's. Arriving at the airport at 6am, everything was delayed due to freezing rain and slippery runways. Three hours later, we were in the air, heading to a sunny, warm, gorgeous Deer Lake.

We had the first of our oral history and folklore interviewing workshops, at Glynmill Inn, and I was pleased with how it went. Everyone raised thoughtful questions, and we had some interesting discussions around informed consent, and how to make an interview a welcoming, comfortable experience.

We also talked about asking open-ended questions, and how sometimes simple, open questions can return astonishing results. As an example, I showed the class this video, which asks seniors to share their most valuable life lessons.





Tonight, we have our event "Rooted in History" where we talk with some of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia's iconic basket makers. See you there!

And we're off! The ICH roadshow en route to Deer Lake and Corner Brook

We're now officially on the road. Public folklore intern Nicole Penney and I are heading to Deer Lake, for the first of our interviews on traditional mill baskets, then heading to Corner Brook for a workshop this afternoon on oral history and folklore interviewing.

If you'd like to join us this afternoon, the workshop still has openings, just come on down to the Glynmill Inn. Workshop starts at 1pm.

Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Program 2012 - Grants for safeguarding aboriginal culture

Applications are now being accepted for projects that support Aboriginal initiatives safeguarding traditions and culture. This could include language; traditional knowledge and skills; storytelling, music, games and other pastimes; knowledge of the landscape; customs, cultural practices and beliefs; food customs; and living off the land.

The program deadline is April 15. Proposals could involve any of the following:

• Documenting and inventorying cultural traditions 
• Passing on cultural knowledge through teaching, demonstrations, publications, websites and other educational and awareness-raising activities 
• Recognizing and celebrating traditions, and those with traditional skills, through awards and special events 
• Identifying and supporting cultural enterprises that employ aspects of traditional culture (for example, craft production and cultural tourism) 
• Professional Development for cultural workers, educators and knowledge holders 

Established Aboriginal organizations in Newfoundland and Labrador with a cultural focus are eligible to apply. Professionals (Aboriginal artisans, cultural workers and educators) can apply for professional skills development if they have a demonstrated background in culture and have community support.

For further information, please contact Lucy Alway at lucyalway@gov.nl.ca or call: (709) 729-1409. Guidelines are available on the website: http://www.tcr.gov.nl.ca/tcr/heritage/aboriginal_cultural_heritage_program.html

Supported projects include documenting stone Inuksuit in Labrador; developing a Mi’kmaq Medicinal Walk; and offering traditional teachings to Mi’kmaq children in Bay St. George. For a list projects supported since 2008, please visit the website: http://www.tcr.gov.nl.ca/tcr/heritage/supported_projects/index.html .

In the summer of 2011, the Mi’kmaq Youth Mentorship program in Flat Bay provided traditional activities and teachings to 112 children between the ages of two and twelve.

In August 2009, twenty large banners were hung in a variety of sites within the community of Sheshatsuit, including the new school, the old school and the water tower. In addition, banners were hung around the town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, including at the airport and the military base. This project has helped to initiate discussions among the Innu of how to use photography and videos to revitalize Innu culture.

Graveyard Mystery: photos of unusual tin grave markers from Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland.

In this month's edition of the ICH Update newsletter, Patrick Carroll wrote about a set of unusual tin gravemarkers from Bonavista Bay.  I wanted to include more detailed photos here of the markers, because they are unlike anything I've seen before in Newfoundland and Labrador. 

The origins of these are a bit of a mystery, and both Patrick and I would love to know more about them. If you've come across something like this in your travels, let me know at ich@heritagefoundation.ca  or leave a comment below.

You can read Pat's full article on the grave markers in pdf here.

Wooden Baskets, Tin Grave Markers, and Steam Whistles

In the March 2012 edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update for Newfoundland and Labrador: we announce workshops on oral history and folklore interviewing in Corner Brook and Grand Falls-Windsor; a public lecture on Acadian and Mi'kmaw basketry; an unusual tin grave marker from Bonavista Bay; and a research project on the Corner Brook mill whistle.

Contributions by Dale Jarvis, Nicole Penney, Patrick Carroll and Janice Tulk.

Download the PDF

More photos of tin grave markers here

Rooted In History: The Tradition of Acadian and Mi’kmaw Basketry

Saturday, March 17, 2012
7pm
Arts and Science building, Room 379
Grenfell College

In Newfoundland and Labrador traditionally-made baskets come in many shapes, sizes and styles and can be crafted from a variety of materials. On the west and south coasts of Newfoundland, traditions included Acadian and Mi’kmaw style baskets.

“Baskets once served a very utilitarian role in the province, used for carrying items such as fish, potatoes, eggs and berries,” says Dale Jarvis, a folklorist with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL).

To celebrate that history, the Heritage Foundation is organizing a public talk around the tradition of basket making.

On Saturday, March 17th, at Grenfell College in Corner Brook, HFNL will be hosting a special talk and presentation on Mi'kmaw and Acadian spruce root and ash baskets, with visiting Mi’kmaw elders Margaret Pelletier and Della Maguire, traditional ash basket makers from Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland basket makers Eileen Murphy and Helga Gillard.

The talk will take place from 7-9pm in the Arts and Science building, Room 379, Grenfell College.

Margaret Pelletier was born on the Waycobah First Nation in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Basket weaving has always been a part of her life for as long as she can remember. As a child, Pelletier helped make baskets as a source of income to help support her family. At the age of 18, she entered nursing school in Sydney, NS and three years later started a career as a nurse. Pelletier joined the Maine Basket Maker’s Alliance as a board member which caused her to begin thinking about basket making as a fine art.Throughout the next 20 years, basket and quill work became a hobby for Pelletier, who enjoys creating one of a kind works of art. The natural materials vary in color and texture and Pelletier does the weaving free hand without the use of molds. Her baskets are woven with black ash splints, decorated with curlique designs, and are finished with braided sweet grass. As each basket is delicately woven, each piece takes its place as part of a unique creation made up of intricate designs and artistic forms.

Della Maguire is of First Nation’s Mi’kmaq ancestry and grew up in a home of constant basket making. Her parents Abe and Rita Smith were known as the finest Mi'kmaq basket-making team in Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, she was not part of that process, as watching her parents making baskets seemed to her 'just a part of life' and never once did she realize that their basket making was a cultural form of art. Upon retiring in 2006, Maguire took part in a basket-making workshop and soon realized this was something she needed to pursue. She has taken the art of basket making very seriously and spends her time trying to improve with each basket. Maguire is passing down her skills to her grand-daughters,as she believes it is her duty to continue learning and honing her skills and to share this valuable cultural art. In 2011 she received a grant from Canada Council of the Arts to enhance her skills and currently teaches the craft through workshops of her own.

Eileen Murphy was first introduced to basket making when she attended a class instructed by Mr. Anthony White in 1980. At the time he had been asked to instruct a few students from the new Visual Arts Program, at what was then called the Bay St. George Community College in Stephenville, on the techniques he used in spruce root basket making. Murphy, who is from and still resides on the west coast, enjoys a career as an art educator, teaching for both the local school district and at the Grenfell campus of Memorial University. Her interests surround the fine arts and she enjoys painting and drawing. Textile art is a particular favorite, and Murphy has been weaving baskets from roots, twigs, branches, grasses, vines for the past 32 years. Her interests surround the fine arts and she has spent most of her life surrounded by artisans and crafts persons. Murphy particularly enjoys the traditional arts and crafts of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Helga Gillard grew up and was educated in Englee, White Bay and was the fifth of six children. She went on to attend Memorial University and received a Bachelor of Arts/Ed. Gillard is now retired and living in Main Brook with her husband. Gillard’s interest in baskets was intrigued by locally made birch plaited baskets that were in her home growing up. She is a self taught basket maker, supplemented by basketry workshops held in various Atlantic provinces and interactions with other skilled basket makers. Gillard and has been making baskets since 1988 and joined the Nova Scotia Basketry Guild in 1999. While Gillard has woven many styles of baskets, her primary focus is on rib and split baskets. She also has a keen interest in utilizing materials from her natural environment, such as spruce root and red osier dogwood.

HFNL’s Intangible Cultural Heritage program was created to celebrate, record, and promote our living heritage and help to build bridges between diverse cultural groups within and outside Newfoundland and Labrador.

***

For information contact:
Nicole Penney
ichprograms@gmail.com
Telephone: 709-739-1892 ext 3
http://www.mun.ca/ich/events/

ICH roadshow - coming to Corner Brook and Grand Falls-Windsor

Over the next two weeks, myself and our public folklore intern Nicole Penney are taking the Intangible Cultural Heritage office on the road. We'll be doing a series of workshops, talks and public events in Corner Brook and Grand Falls-Windsor, and conducting a series of folklore interviews on baskets and basket-making as we go.

Friday, March 16th - Folklore/Oral History Workshop, Glynmill Inn, Corner Brook

Saturday, March 17th - Rooted in Tradition - public talk on Acadian and Mi'kmaw baskets, Grenfell College

Sunday, March 18th - Tea 'n' Baskets - bring your mill basket and join us for tea and biscuits at Glynmill Inn

Saturday, March 24th - Folklore/Oral History Workshop, Mount Peyton Hotel, Grand Falls-Windsor

Sunday, March 25th - Tea 'n' Baskets - Mount Peyton Hotel, Grand Falls-Windsor

If you want more info on any of these events, or if you are along our route and have a basket for us to photograph, email ichprograms@gmail.com.

Oral History/Folklore Interview workshop added for Grand Falls-Windsor

Introduction to Folklore and Oral History Interviews Workshop

Saturday, March 24, 2012
Mount Peyton Hotel, Grand Falls Windsor

This workshop is open to anyone with an interest in local history, culture and folklore. It is intended to give a background on how to conduct research interviews in the field, and will give people a chance to try their hand at creating interview questions and conducting an interview. It will provide an overview of the methodology and explore the practical matters of creating, designing, and executing effective oral history research projects. Topics that the workshop will address include project planning, ethical issues, and recording equipment.

The workshop will be taught by folklorist Dale Jarvis. Dale works as the Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, helping communities to safeguard traditional culture. He has been working for the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador since 1996, and holds a BSc in Anthropology/Archaeology from Trent University, and a MA in Folklore from Memorial University. He is a past president of the Newfoundland Historic Trust, and has contributed as a board member and volunteer to many local arts and heritage organizations, and is a tireless promoter of the oral tradition.

Date: Saturday, March 24th
Time: 1pm - 5pm
Workshop fee: $40 (preregistration required)
Location: Mount Peyton Hotel, Grand Falls Windsor

To register call Nicole at 1-888-739-1892 ext 3,
or email: ichprograms@gmail.com

photo: Forestry Corps men with nurses, Wandsworth Hospital, London, England, 1917.Courtesy of the Heritage Society of Grand Falls-Windsor, Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland.

Two Corner Brook events celebrate the history of basketmaking

In Newfoundland and Labrador traditionally-made baskets came in many shapes, sizes and styles and can be crafted from a variety of materials. On the west coast, traditions included Acadian and Mi’kmaw style root baskets, and the popular mill lunch baskets.

“Baskets once served a very utilitarian role in the province, used for carrying items such as fish, potatoes, eggs and berries,” says Dale Jarvis, a folklorist with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL). “Mill lunch baskets were once so popular nearly every pulp and paper mill worker in Newfoundland used one to bring hot meals to work.”

To celebrate that history, the Heritage Foundation is organising a series of events around the tradition of basket making in Newfoundland.

On Saturday, March 17th, at Grenfell College in Corner Brook, HFNL will be hosting a special talk and presentation on Mi'kmaw and Acadian spruce root and ash baskets, with local and visiting experts, including Mi’kmaw elders Margaret Pelletier and Della Maguire, traditional ash basket makers from Nova Scotia. The talk will take place from 7-9pm in the Arts and Science building, Room 379, Grenfell College.

On Sunday, March 18th from 1-3pm at the Glynmill Inn, Corner Brook and Sunday, HFNL will be hosting an event called “Tea ‘n’ Baskets”. This event is an opportunity for those who still have mill lunch baskets to come out and show your basket and share your memories. Bring your basket, we’ll provide the refreshments! HFNL staff will be on hand to photograph mill baskets, to become part of an educational website.

HFNL’s Intangible Cultural Heritage program was created to celebrate, record, and promote our living heritage and help to build bridges between diverse cultural groups within and outside Newfoundland and Labrador.

"Nurse, you gotta come!" - An oral history for International Women's Day

This photograph from the collection of the Medical Services Branch of the Department of National Health and Welfare shows a nursing sister and a lay nurse caring for patients at St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital in St. John’s, Newfoundland, around 1955.  © Health Canada. Library and Archives Canada, Department of National Health and Welfare Fonds, e002504629

In cooperation with the School of Nursing, and Memorial's Digital Archives Initiative, we've been placing a series of oral history interviews with Newfoundland nurses online.

Today being International Women's Day, we're showcasing one of those interviews, featuring former nurse Gwen LeGrow discussing nursing practices in Newfoundland. In it, she talks about being called away on her wedding night to attend to a birth, and other adventures associated with being a district nurse in rural Newfoundland, as well as a great story about surviving a V2 bombing in England during World War II.

If you've got half an hour, take a listen. Nurse LeGrow is an excellent storyteller, and her stories are full of passion, humour and an obvious love for the people who she served as a rural nurse in La Scie, as a midwife, and as a staff nurse at the Janeway Hospital.

• Interview here on the DAI
• The Development of Nursing in NL

Introduction to Folklore and Oral History Interviews Workshop in Corner Brook

Friday, March 16th, 2012
Glynmill Inn, Corner Brook

This introductory workshop is open to anyone with an interest in local history, culture and folklore. It is intended to give a background on how to conduct research interviews in the field, and will give people a chance to try their hand at creating interview questions and conducting an interview. It will provide an overview of the methodology and explore the practical matters of creating, designing, and executing effective oral history research projects. Topics that the workshop will address include project planning, ethical issues, and recording equipment.

The workshop will be taught by folklorist Dale Jarvis. Dale Jarvis works as the Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, helping communities to safeguard traditional culture. He has been working for the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador since 1996, and holds a BSc in Anthropology/Archaeology from Trent University, and a MA in Folklore from Memorial University. He is a past president of the Newfoundland Historic Trust, and has contributed as a board member and volunteer to many local arts and heritage organizations, and is a tireless promoter of the oral tradition.

Date: Friday, March 16th
Time: 1pm - 5pm
Workshop fee: $40 (preregistration required)
Location: Glynmill Inn, Corner Brook
To register call Nicole at 1-888-739-1892 ext 3, or email: ichprograms@gmail.com

What kinds of folklore and intangible cultural heritage workshops are you interested in?

I'm in the process of planning out workshops and events for the coming year. In the past, we've done workshops on oral history interviewing, using Google Maps, digital recording equipment, community memory mapping, folklife & festival planning, and many other kinds of folklore, ICH and oral history workshops.

What kinds of workshops would you like to see us offer? Send me an email at ich@heritagefoundation.ca or leave a comment below.

Tea, baskets, and the community conservation of intangible cultural heritage

In this month's edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update for Newfoundland and Labrador, we invite people to our "Tea and Baskets" events in Corner Brook and Grand Falls-Windsor; ICH intern Nicole Penney shares some of her research on mill lunch baskets; and we nominate inukshuk building as an item of provincial historical significance. Download the newsletter in pdf form.

I have been corresponding a bit lately with Misako Ohnuki, Deputy Director of the International Research Centre for ICH in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) based in Osaka, Japan. Curious about the work we are doing in Newfoundland and Labrador, she asked me about some of the difficulties and hurdles that we have have faced so far in documenting intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in communities in this province. Read my short report on "Challenges in the community conservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Newfoundland and Labrador."

And finally, Memorial University has published an article about our current Public Folklore Intern Nicole Penney's work placement with Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador and her work cataloguing baskets and baskets makers in Newfoundland.

Happy reading!

Help Wanted

The ICH office is looking for an individual to do some postering in Grand Falls-Windsor for our upcoming "Tea 'n' Baskets" event in March. If you live in the Grand Falls-Windsor area and would like to pick up a few hours work, please contact Nicole at 1-888-739-1892 ext 3 or via email at  ichprograms@gmail.com.

Origin Stories

The exact origin of this two-handled, splint style lunch basket design is unknown but research has pointed to a couple of possibilities. In her article, “The Multiple Roles of the Millworker's Lunch Basket in Central Newfoundland”, Jane Burns suggests the baskets were originally factory made imports that resourceful Newfoundlanders deconstructed and learned to make themselves. Research also suggests that the lunch baskets were sold right out of the pulp and paper mills, possibly starting in Corner Brook and carrying over to the others. The mill in Corner Brook opened in 1923 and the oldest lunch basket documented so far is dated 1928, belonging to Doris O’Dell of Corner Brook. O’Dell inherited the basket from her father who used it when he worked in the mill. The basket is factory made, purchased from the Peterboro Basket Company in New Hampshire. This company dates back to 1854 and it's possible the mill in Corner Brook purchased these baskets to sell to employees.

Others, like Wayne Green, also of Corner Brook, feel the baskets may have been originally designed by female basket makers of the Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq tradition. He recalls a woman and her two daughters who would stay with his family when he was a child. Green recounted that the women would come from Nova Scotia, riding the Newfoundland Railway, stopping where the trains did in order to sell baskets of all sorts. His father would take orders from this basket-maker before her arrival and Green remembers the mill lunch basket was always a very popular item. 

 One thing we know for sure is that there were Newfoundlanders who eventually began making the baskets themselves. One of the most prolific and well-known mill lunch basket makers was Angus Gunn Sr. of Grand Falls-Windsor. He began making baskets in the early 1950s and is said to have made hundreds of lunch baskets for local mill workers.

Show us what you've got!

Poster design by Graham Blair, check him out at grahamblairdesigns.com

Come on out to "Tea 'n' Baskets" and show off you mill basket and share your memories. We provide the treats!

A biscuit a basket

This coming March we're coordinating "Tea n' Baskets", an event to bring together those who have a mill lunch basket of their own. Whether you worked in the mill yourself or the basket was handed down from a family member, we welcome you to come out and show your basket and share your stories.

 

A mill lunch basket belonging to Kevin Gunn, which was made and used by his father, Angus Gunn

A mill lunch basket belonging to Julie Rideout, handed down from her father, Gerald Crawley. This basket was made by Julie's grandfather, Angus Gunn

 A mill lunch basket, belonging to Bob and Tina Houston. Tina acquired it from a former employee of the Abitibi Mill in Stephenville. Tina cleaned, repaired and painted the basket, added the fabric lining and repurposed it as a potato basket

Join us on Sunday, March 18th from 1-3pm at the Glynmill Inn in Corner Brook and on Sunday, March 25th from 1-3pm at the Mount Peyton Hotel in Grand Falls-Windsor. 


We provide the tea and biscuits!

A call out for mill baskets

 
The  Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Office is currently working on a collection project focused on baskets and basket makers in Newfoundland. We are particularly interested in Mi'kmaq root baskets, trout baskets and mill lunch baskets.  We will be putting photos and descriptions of these baskets on the online archive, the Digital Archives Initiative, which can be found at http://collections.mun.ca/.



We are very interested in collecting photographs and reminiscence of mill baskets, the distinctive two-handled splint style lunch baskets used by the paper mill workers in central Newfoundland. The paper mill in Grand Falls-Windsor was open for operation from 1905 to 2009 and was quite literally the backbone of the community.  It was a regular sight to see men walking to work carrying large woven lunch baskets, laden with home cooked food. Whether they be rectangular or oval, made from juniper, birch, or even steel, these baskets were a symbol of hard work and financial security. Many men worked in the paper mill their entire lives to provide for their families and these baskets were often generational, passed down to a younger male member of the family, if he became employed with the mill.



It seems a number of these baskets were made by the same people so many looked very similar. In order to personalize their baskets, the mill workers would etch their names, doodle, or affix stickers and photographs on them. The baskets were also used for practical joking and initiation into the mill. If a new worker was too eager to leave at the end of his shift his basket may have been nailed down or filled with rocks so that when he grabbed it the handles would come right off!



The mill basket was also a way for young children to get a glimpse inside the paper mill, which for most was a mysterious, even scary, place. Many children delivered their father’s mill basket when they worked shift work. Don Taylor, whose father worked for the mill from 1956 to 1992, remembers that you would lay your baskets “in the front porch of the mill...no one was allowed to go in unless they worked there”. Often young boys of the community could be seen walking proudly with their father’s mill basket, putting on an act as though they were a mill worker. I recently met with Don and have included some photographs of his basket.



Some of the best known mill basket-makers were Angus Gunn of Grand Falls Windsor and Ray Osmond and Ken Payne, both of Botwood. All three men are no longer living, but as of 2001 Clarence White of Botwood was still making mill baskets.



If you have a mill basket please contact us. We would love to get photos and with your permission add your basket to our online collection. You can reach us at ichprograms@gmail.com

Don Taylor imitating the way his father carried the mill basket

Sonny's Dream Book Launch and other ICH notes

In this edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update from Newfoundland and Labrador, Memorial University's Department of Folklore will be hosting the the launch of the Dr. Peter Narvaez book Sonny's Dream: Essays on Newfoundland Folklore and Popular Culture; ICH Development Officer Dale Jarvis explores the revitalization of the Christmas Hobby Horse tradition in Newfoundland and Labrador; we meet the new public folklore intern, Nicole Penney; and notes on our ongoing basket and basket makers project.

Download the PDF

The Barnable Bassinet: A woven Newfoundland crib

One of the traditions that we are working to document is basket making. After I did an interview with CBC's Weekend Arts Magazine on basket making (listen here to that interview), I got a call from Frances Barnable about a woven bassinet that she had bought in 1959.

The crib was made as part of a craft training program run by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) and was purchased at the CNIB shop which was located in the building which now houses Coffee Matters, across from the Newfoundland Hotel.  If you have any information on that training program, or on other Newfoundland or Labrador baskets, email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca.

Material culture nerds: Compare this to the reproduction of a 15th century crib at the archeological site of Walraversijde, near Oostende, Belgium.

Call for papers: Ethnology at the Crossroads

Ethnology at the Crossroads
CALL FOR PAPERS, Workshops or Roundtables
May 26-28, Waterloo, Ontario

The FSAC/ACEF 2012 conference will be held with the Congress of the Humanities and Social Science, in Waterloo, Ontario and co-hosted by Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo. The theme for this year's Congress is Crossroads: Scholarship for an Uncertain World.

Building on the Congress 2012 theme, the theme for our meeting will be Ethnology at the Crossroads. Ethnologists and Folklorists are committed to engaging with topics that fall at the crossroads and margins of our societies. As our discipline has developed, we have often found ourselves as lone members in diverse departments, and therefore have brought our unique methodologies and theories to interdisciplinary research groups. We have often studied the practices that occur when cultures cohabitate and influence each other (or purposefully remain uninfluenced by each other). We work with populations who are confronted with their own crossroads; facing changes in the economy, family composition, social constructs, and technology.

Suggested paper topics include:
* The future of Ethnology and/or Folklore in Canada
* Canadian responses to the UNESCO 2003 convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage
* Cultural "crossroads"; both past and present
* Disciplinary intersections; experiences and best practices

Proposals dealing with other topics will also be considered as space permits. Applications for Panels and Workshops are strongly encouraged.

PLEASE NOTE, IN ORDER TO BE CONSIDERED:
1) All applicants are required to fill out the attached form-fillable PDF form ONLY and email it to Jodi McDavid. Please adhere to the space provided for your abstract. Please indicate any AV needs in the space provided on your form.
Be sure to include your strict maximum 100-word abstract for your formal presentation (in English and French if possible, or simply in your first language) along with your name, department, institutional affiliation, and contact information by February 15, 2012.

2) Hard copy/surface mail submissions of abstracts will not be accepted.

3) Only current members may participate in this event or have their submission considered (see membership form). Your abstract will not considered until the Secretary-Treasurer has received your membership fee, preferably via Paypal, although cheques are also accepted.

NEW THIS YEAR:
The Association no longer charges a translation fee, to avoid varying quality in supplied translations, and unnecessary pressure on our administration.

We are attempting to move into a fully-electronic system of membership payment, abstract submission, and communication. Please join us in this endeavour!

FSAC CONFERENCE FEES will be collected by Congress, and is $30 for all delegates, however, when meeting with Congress, you also must pay Congress fees. 2012 fees have not yet been set, for comparison, in 2011 early registration fees were $55 Congress fees + $30

FSAC fees (unwaged, student, underemployed, etc.), regular member $150 Congress + $30 FSAC fees.

Accommodation & Travel
How to get to Waterloo: http://congress2012.ca/attend/how-to-get-to-waterloo/
On campus accommodation: http://congress2012.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/On-Campus-Accommodation-Options_FINAL.pdf
Where to stay in Waterloo: http://congress2012.ca/attend/where-to-stay-in-waterloo/
Some funds are available for member reimbursement. See the Travel Funding Policy to see if you qualify: http://www.acef.ulaval.ca/voyageaf.htm