Heritage Day 2018 - Heritage Stands the Test of Time

Introductory remarks by David Lough, Chair of  HFNL's Board of Directors. Photo by Katie Harvey.

Heritage Day is celebrated each year on the third Monday in February. In honour of this day, the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador held a public event at the Yellowbelly Brewery on February 19th (click here to read more about the history of the building). Hosted by Fred Hutton of CBC, a crowd gathered to celebrate the heritage of our beautiful province. The theme of the event was "Heritage Stands the Test of Time."

A highlight of the day was announcing the winners of our 13th annual poster contest. This year, we received over one thousand entries from students across the province. Images depicting various heritage structures were submitted by students from kindergarten to grade twelve, coupled with essays explaining the personal significance of the building. Dale Jarvis and Michael Philpott from our office selected the winners.

Photo contest winners (left to right): Katie Spurrell, Luke Shannahan, Chloe Flusk and Hayley Martin with the Hon. Chris Mitchelmore.  Photo by Katie Harvey.

The winners of our first "Registered Heritage Structure Photo Contest" were recognized as well. Owners of Register Heritage Structures throughout the island were invited to submit photos of their properties in action. First place was awarded to the Bristol Hope Heritage Society for their picture of the Mosquito School House. Second place went to Todd Warren for his photo of the George House B&B in Dildo. 

We launched two publications: the first of which is titled Stories From the Heart. This booklet is the sixth publication in our Oral History Roadshow Series. However, this booklet was a little different from the others, as the stories were collected by our Oral History Class of 2018. Throughout the month of January, we held a class for people who wished to learn more about the techniques and skills of collecting oral histories. They interviewed various people about stories of love, love gone wrong, childhood crushes, and other related topics. If you would like download the full PDF, click here. 

Stories From the Heart. Photo by Katie Harvey.

The second publication released is titled From Sealskin to Science Fiction: Taking Tradition into the Twenty-First Century. This magazine was the result of our Adapting Heritage Conference which took place in the autumn of 2017. Click here to check out the publication online!

We had a wonderful time celebrating heritage day. If you missed it this year, hopefully we will see you next year!

-Katie Harvey

Joe Moore remembers the newspaper boys of Solomon's Lane.

Solomon's Lane, 2009. Photo by Alex Pierson/The Scope.

Last week, my friend Karen's father,  Dr. Joseph A. "Joe" Moore passed away. His funeral is today, and I'm on the other side of the province, so I'm sharing this as my way of saying farewell.

In 2009, Joe was one of the participants in the HereSay project started by myself and audio documentary producer Chris Brookes.  The project shared short stories about Water Street via an online map and a series of signposts along the street, each sign with a phone number and a code you could punch in to listen to the tale for that spot.

In this short clip, Joe remembers Solomon's Lane, and his days as a newspaper delivery boy for the Evening Telegram. He describes his route, and finding people to buy his newspapers.



For more on the history of Solomon's Lane, you can read an article about the laneway on the old website for The Scope.

 - Dale Jarvis

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Stories of Hant's Harbour with Lester Mitchell and Gordon Rogers

Stages on rock in Hant's Harbour. 1993.
Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation slide collection. # 017.19.025.
Photo courtesy of Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative.

As part of the Collective Memories project the ICH office is showcasing community material which has been placed on Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative. Check out this interview which is part of a series of filmed oral histories, collected in 2005 by the Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation, from over 40 elders who grew up in the area. The Baccalieu Trail HeritageCorporation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving, promoting and protecting the heritage of the Baccalieu Trail Region. This project includes memories of living and working in the area, going to school, children’s games, home remedies, the first modes of transportation, supernatural beliefs, traditional industries and calendar customs and celebrations. This interview is with Lester Mitchell and Gordon Rogers of Hant's Harbour, NL. The interviewer is Linda Cooper. The camera was operated by Linda Reid. The video was edited by Mike Ryan and Darrell Barrett.

The ICH office is helping communities place previously recorded materials online. If your community has material you would like to make publicly accessible reach out to the Heritage Foundation at 1-888-739-1892 ex.2 or ich@heritagefoundation.ca

Living Heritage Podcast Ep101 Exploring the Centre for Newfoundland Studies

This February, Joan Ritcey retired as Head of Memorial University’s Centre for Newfoundland Studies (CNS). Joan worked with Memorial University Libraries for 38 years, and throughout her career, she shared her extensive knowledge of all things Newfoundland and Labrador, working to collect and preserve the print culture of our province, making it widely accessible through digitization initiatives and research tools. The Periodical Article Bibliography (PAB) was developed under her leadership and is an essential tool for finding articles about all aspects of life in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In this episode of the Living Heritage Podcast, we talk about the history and development of the CNS, the PAB, changes in research, digitization, and the library holdings.

Download the MP3

Heritage Day is coming, and you are invited!

Heritage Day is the Canadian holiday celebrating the country’s history and architecture, celebrated on the third Monday in February. Heritage Day was created in 1973 by the Heritage Canada Foundation to preserve and promote Canada’s natural, architectural, and historical heritage.

This year, Heritage Foundation of NL is celebrating Heritage Day by launching several projects, and announcing the winners of our annual school poster contest. Along the way, we're reporting on our living heritage workshops, partnering with architectural conservationists from Ireland, and sharing stories of love (appropriate for the days after St. Valentine's!).

To read more about the celebrations, and about our coming events and workshops, download the pdf version of our special Heritage Day issue of the Heritage Update newsletter!

Labrador Wedding #FolklorePhoto

Photo courtesy The Rooms Provincial Archives.

In honour of Valentine's Day, this week's #FolklorePhoto is of a wedding that took place in Labrador in the 1920s. Note the boy on the left holding a shotgun. It was customary in parts of Newfoundland for someone to fire a gun on the day of a wedding.

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Moravian Memories with Reverend Lawrence Junek

Nain church and building, Nain, Labrador. 1995-26-07.
Moravian Architecture of Labrador - Dale Jarvis collection.
Scanned from colour slide number CF18.
Courtesy of Memorial University's DAI. 

As part of the Collective Memories project the ICH office is showcasing community material which has been placed on Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative. Check out this interview with Reverend Lawrence Junek at his home, the Moravian manse, in Nain, Labrador, conducted by Dale Gilbert Jarvis as part of his thesis research in 1995. This interview is primarily about the Moravian system of dividing the congregation into age and sex based groups called "choirs" dead houses, funeral rituals, and the role of chapel servants.

The ICH office is helping communities place previously recorded materials online. If your community has material you would like to make publicly accessible reach out to the Heritage Foundation at 1-888-739-1892 ex.2 or ich@heritagefoundation.ca

Living Heritage Podcast Ep100 Beware the Dried Persimmon

Jae Hong Jin is a researcher, photographer, and musician who is currently working as a library assistant at the QEII library at Memorial University, with a background in the anthropology and folklore of his native Korea. Since his college days, Jae Hong has been a tradition bearer of the intangible cultural heritage of traditional farmers' music and drumming ensembles, and his MA research focussed on traditional music learners and audiences, continuity, and change.

In this episode of the Living Heritage Podcast, we talk about how Korean culture has changed over the last fifty years, the work being done to safeguard intangible cultural heritage and musical traditions, cultural tourism, Korean folktales, and discuss if there is anything in the world more terrifying than a dried persimmon.

Download the MP3

#CollectiveMemories Monday - Recollections of Hopeall with Lillian Smith

Walter Edward Davidson fonds. Three girls on see-saw.
Series, Item A 51-124. Between 1915-1917.
Photo courtesy of The Rooms.

As part of the Collective Memories project the ICH office is showcasing community material which has been placed on Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative. Check out this interview which is part of a series of filmed oral histories, collected in 2005 by the Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation, from over 40 elders who grew up in the area. The Baccalieu Trail HeritageCorporation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving, promoting and protecting the heritage of the Baccalieu Trail Region. This project includes memories of living and working in the area, going to school, children’s games, home remedies, the first modes of transportation, supernatural beliefs, traditional industries and calendar customs and celebrations. This interview is with Lillian Smith of Hopeall, NL. The interviewer is Linda Reid. The camera was operated by Linda Cooper. The video was edited by Darrell Barrett.

The ICH office is helping communities place previously recorded materials online. If your community has material you would like to make publicly accessible reach out to the Heritage Foundation at 1-888-739-1892 ex.2 or ich@heritagefoundation.ca