Living Heritage Ep 179: Phantom Ships Along the Baccalieu Trail

Image courtesy of Karin Murray-Berquist.

In this episode, PhD candidate Karin Murray-Berquist shares her research on phantom ship sightings in Newfoundland and Labrador. Karin is a PhD Candidate in the Folklore Department at Memorial University. After working in Memorial University's Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA), she became fascinated by stories of shipwrecks and ghost ships. Karin created an online map that shows the location of all the ghost or phantom ship stories she’s found in the archive so far.

Photo courtesy of Karin Murray-Berquist.

In this episode, we talk about Karin’s research and dive into a few phantom ship stories from the Baccalieu Trail region.

This episode is part of a special series about the Baccalieu Trail region of Newfoundland and Labrador. Join us as we explore the hidden gems of the Baccalieu Trail- from stories of phantom ship sightings to local art and history.

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Living Heritage 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 HeritageNL and CHMR Radio.
Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Bark Pots and Bark Tanning - Heritage NL releases new paper on the history of a local tradition

Bark Pot, Cape Broyle, c 1950s, from the slide collection of Mr. Ronald O'Brien.

As part of our work on safeguarding skills at risk, we've been doing some research on the various traditions in Newfoundland and Labrador related to the use of bark pots for tanning, preserving fishing gear, and colouring canvas. 

You can read the report "The History and Practice of Bark Tanning in Newfoundland and Labrador" online, right here. 

If you have a memory of bark pots, email dale@heritagenl.ca, or comment below. 

What Will Happen to the Storytellers?: Storytelling, Painting, and Newfoundland Ponies with Clifford George. #MakerMonday

For #MakerMonday we'll be profiling some of the people practicing traditional skills on the Baccalieu Trail.
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Clifford George of Whiteway wears many hats. He is a storyteller, an artist, and has been rescuing Newfoundland ponies for decades.

Storytelling comes naturally to Clifford. He says that growing up without electric lights and without television, stories were all around him. He was inspired by the stories of his father, Esau George, and others, and has been remembering and writing them down to safeguard them for future generations. His favourite stories to tell are about Newfoundland fairies. These stories about ghosts and fairies were told to him by older family members to encourage him to be home before dark.

He has also always been a painter, and credits his isolation growing up in a small town in Newfoundland with training his eye to see the shapes and colours of the land. He practices plein air painting, capturing the vivid colours of Newfoundland and Labrador outports. He says you can probably hear his palette knives clicking all over the harbour as he lays on the paint. He plans to continue painting this summer, and you may see him on the side of a road with his easel surrounded by yellow caution tape.

Clifford George and one of his paintings. Photo by Jackie Evans.

Clifford has also worked hard to save the Newfoundland pony from extinction. With his own money, he would buy ponies that were destined for meat trucks, and established a sanctuary for retired Newfoundland ponies to spend their days. While the generation of Newfoundland ponies that he saved in the 1980s and 1990s are mostly gone now, their legacy lives on.

To hear more stories from Clifford George, check out the Living Heritage Podcast Hidden Gems episode.

This episode is part of a special series about the Baccalieu Trail region of Newfoundland and Labrador. Join us as we explore the hidden gems of the Baccalieu Trail- from stories of phantom ship sightings to local art and history.
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Do you live on the Baccalieu Trail and practice a traditional skill or know someone who does? Fill out our survey!

Living Heritage Ep 178: Green's Harbour Loyal Orange Lodge

The Green's Harbour Orange Lodge. Photo courtesy of Nancy Brace.

Nancy Grace is the founder of the Green's Harbour Heritage Society. She is a Green’s Harbour native who returned to Newfoundland in 2007. In 2009, she learned that the Orange Lodge in her community was for sale, and felt compelled to preserve one of the town’s oldest historic buildings. Nancy’s memories of the Green’s Harbour United Church being torn down when she was a teen motivated her to start the Green's Harbour Heritage Society and restore the community’s heritage architecture.

Mike Paterson delivering the Star of the East window. Photo courtesy of Nancy Brace.

The Loyal Orange Lodge, also known as the Orange Order, is a protestant fraternal organization. The Orange Lodge was established in Northern Ireland in 1795 in support of the Protestant monarchy in Britain. Every year on July 12th, the Orange Lodge celebrates the 1691 victory of Protestant Prince William of Orange, or William the Third, over the Catholic monarch King James the Second. Lodges all over the U.K. and North America traditionally hold an Orange Day parade on July 12th.

The Loyal Orange Lodge also had a women's association. This pin belonged to Jane Burgess (née Butt) born 1877 in Blow Me Down. She married Richard Burgess from Whiteway in 1901. As there was no lodge in Whiteway, they were both members of the Green’s Harbour lodge. Jane Burgess was made a honorary member of the Lodge on her 90 birthday in 1967.

Photo Courtesy of Burgess Heritage property.

In Newfoundland, the Orange Lodge serves many functions. One of the tenets of the Lodge is to encourage its members to do good works in their community without seeking recognition. The Green’s Harbour Orange Lodge is now amalgamated with nearby communities, but Nancy and the Green’s Harbour Heritage Society are looking to adapt the historic Lodge building as a multi-use center for the community. In this interview, Nancy shares stories about the lodge and the new life being brought to the building through restoration.

This episode is part of a special series about the Baccalieu Trail region of Newfoundland and Labrador. Join us as we explore the hidden gems of the Baccalieu Trail- from stories of phantom ship sightings to local art and history.

###

Living Heritage 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 HeritageNL and CHMR Radio.
Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

It Was the Music That Got Me: Tin Whistle and Wooden Flute with Gerry Strong. #MakerMonday

For #MakerMonday we'll be profiling some of the people practicing traditional skills on the Baccalieu Trail.
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Gerry Strong is a self-taught tin whistle and wooden flute player living in Carbonear. He has always been interested in music, playing in the brass band in his high school, but it wasn't until he moved to Ireland after graduation that he found his calling in the tin whistle.

Gerry Strong playing the wooden flute. Photo provided by Gerry Strong.

The tin whistle has given him the opportunity to travel the world and share traditional Newfoundland and Irish music with people in other countries. He has been a member of several bands including Tickle Harbour, A Crowd of Bold Sharemen, What Odds, and Cotillion with Dave Panting and Hugh Scott. The only challenge he finds with the tin whistle is to always keep learning and improving.

Knowing to play a traditional instrument allows Gerry to connect with his heritage. As long as he has one or two people who appreciate the music, he will sit and play for them all day.  He is part of a project which is working to get tin whistle introduced into school music programs to foster a love for the instrument and traditional music with future generations.

Heritage Foundation NL · Gerry Strong On Newfoundland Traditional Music

It means a fair bit. It's part of what we are and who we are and it's important that we keep it alive, to keep it going. It's made us unique in the world. When I started playing, I was mostly Irish traditional music and stuff, and I was up in Toronto at a session. A session is where you're just sitting around at a bar with a bunch of other musicians and you're just playing. There's no set list or anything you have to play. It's like a kitchen party. And people were really interested. Those musicians were saying, "Play some of your music now!" And I had one or two Newfoundland tunes, not an awful lot, and it made me realize that you go out into the world and you can hear the Irish music pretty well anywhere. It's very popular all around the world now. But the Newfoundland, the pure, traditional Newfoundland music is not that well known, and people are eager to hear it. So, it's important that we learn it, and carry it on, and pass it on to others. And it is starting to get a much broader audience now. There are musicians from Ireland that have come over here and gone back over to Ireland, now, and they've recorded some Newfoundland tunes they've learned while they're here. So, I mean, it's important that we learn these and pass them on to the future.

The reaction from the crowd when playing traditional music inspires him. But it also brings him a personal joy. He says that if you've had a hard day, and you can get a chance to sit down and play a few tunes, all is forgotten.
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Do you live on the Baccalieu Trail and practice a traditional skill or know someone who does? Fill out our survey!

Living Heritage Ep177: Hiking and History on the Baccalieu Trail

Photo courtesy of Barb Parsons-Sooley.

We’re hitting the trails with Barb Parson Parsons-Sooley. Barb is a founding member of Hike Baccalieu, a trail maintenance association in the Baccalieu Trail region. She’s also a hiking tour guide for Roots Adventures. Barb grew up in Bay Roberts and lived away in Alberta working as a flight medic and firefighter for many years. When she returned to Newfoundland, she settled in Hearts Delight and began hiking. She started taking her garden clippers with her on trails that needed some trimming, and she’s been maintaining the trails ever since.

Barb Parsons-Sooley sits beside the outport village built by her father on the Western Point Trail.

This episode is part of a special series about the Baccalieu Trail region of Newfoundland and Labrador. Join us as we explore the hidden gems of the Baccalieu Trail- from stories of phantom ship sightings to local art and history.

###

Living Heritage 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 HeritageNL and CHMR Radio.
Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

A (very incomplete) history of the Mary March Museum, Grand Falls-Windsor.

I had a request for information on the history of the Mary March Museum, in light of the recent discussions over its name. Here is what I've found.

The Mary March Museum started in 1973 and was housed in the Penthouse room at the top of the Provincial building in GFW. It was run by a board of directors. In the early 1970s the board managed to get Federal funding to establish an Exhibition Centre which would become the current museum.

Sod was cut to start work on the museum June 14, 1976. More:

http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/compoundobject/collection/trident/id/637/rec/4 page 5

The Museum opened in 1977:

http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/compoundobject/collection/trident/id/610/rec/5 page 4

And closed in 1981 due to lack of funds (plus information on the locomotive in the photo) page 52

http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/compoundobject/collection/cns_decks/id/4312/rec/1

The Museum was taken over by the province in 1985:

https://www.assembly.nl.ca/houseBusiness/Hansard/ga40session1/May27-1985.pdf 

page R974

At some point in the 1980s there was a reconstruction of a Beothuk encampment associated with the museum. Do photos of this exist??

Archival photo of the building circa 1988:

http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/decksphotos/id/3283/rec/8

A petition was made in 2006 by local students to change the name:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/rename-museum-for-beothuk-s-sake-students-1.579197

And

https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/demasduits-museum-grade-two-students-petition-to-set-the-record-straight

The petition was presented to the House of Assembly by Anna Thistle, the member for Grand Falls-Windsor:

https://www.assembly.nl.ca/HouseBusiness/Hansard/ga45session3/06-11-20.htm#1470

Discussion resurfaced in 2020 with the town council seeming to be in favour of a name change:

https://www.saltwire.com/lifestyles/local-lifestyles/renewed-interest-in-changing-name-of-provincial-museum-in-grand-falls-windsor-460778/#.XufzBI4Mtws.twitter

And

http://ntv.ca/mary-march-museum-may-soon-be-changing-name/

One response to the proposed change suggested the museum needed to go further, and operate as more than a seasonal museum:

http://ntv.ca/qalipu-councillor-says-changing-name-of-mary-march-museum-would-be-good-first-step/ 

UPDATE: The first Curator of the Museum was Glen Stroud. The Beothuck village reconstruction was never part of the Museum, it was established by the EVTA, Exploits Valley Tourism Association and run seasonally by them. It was put in place with the help of Don Pelley, Lloyd Seaward and a few other people.

It's Just the Love of the Craft: Stained Glass With Michael Laduke. #MakerMonday

For #MakerMonday we'll be profiling some of the people practicing traditional skills on the Baccalieu Trail.
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Michael Laduke remembers seeing his first stained glass piece, a gift given to one of his friends, and the love of glass was instantaneous. Originally from Quebec, he and his wife have been operating the SeaGlass Bed and Breakfast in New Perlican for the past 6 years. After moving to Newfoundland and Labrador permanently last year, Michael brought with him all the glass he needed to continue making stained glass and selling it out of his studio.

Jellyfish stained glass sun catchers by Michael Laduke. Photo from Sea Glass BnB.

Influenced by nautical themes and the scenery of Newfoundland, Michael likes to play with colours and textures in glass to catch the light in different ways and bring dimension to his work. He uses his wife's photography as layouts to design unique Newfoundland inspired pieces.

Heritage Foundation NL · Michael Laduke On Stained Glass

I really like the way the light plays on the glass in different intensities. In the sunlight sometimes it looks completely different than if you're in the shade. So, that's kind of cool. I really like that aspect of it. I try my best to think about that. I mean, sometimes I finish a piece and hold it up to the light and go, "Oh my God, what was I thinking?" But probably most of the time, I hang it up anyway because, a piece that's completed, it'll sell right away. So, I have my tastes, but that's probably not the same as anybody else. I mean, everybody's taste is individual, so what I think doesn't go well together, somebody else might really love.

According to Michael, stained glass has one speed: slow. It is a solitary process, and you need to be comfortable to sit down for hours and do the work. He says that for self-isolation during this pandemic, it has been the perfect refuge.

Michael Laduke working on a piece. Photo from Sea Glass BnB.

Michael says that the way this tradition will continue is for other people to fall in love with the craft as he as. His best advice for new practitioners is patience. It will take time to learn how to put thin, smooth lines of solder on and to grind the glass to the appropriate shape. Even though he has been practicing this craft for over 40 years, he says he is still getting better at it and there are always new things to learn.

Puffin stained glass sun catcher by Michael Laduke. Photo from Sea Glass BnB

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Do you live on the Baccalieu Trail and practice a traditional skill or know someone who does? Fill out our survey!

A Window on History: the June Heritage Update for Heritage NL

In this edition of the Heritage Update: restoration of the Basilica windows; heritage staycations; the Baccalieu Trail Traditional Knowledge Inventory; and engaging seniors in heritage work. Download the pdf here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ps2krKSV5q6RXufbekjWy-Cu5KlYOwK4/view?usp=sharing