Thursday, August 20, 2009

Billy Crane Moves Away - NFB film from 1967 now online

by Colin Low, 1967, 17 min 48 s

This short documentary features Newfoundland fisherman Billy Crane, who speaks frankly on the state of the inshore fishery and how the lack of government support has contributed to the industry’s downfall. He is being forced to leave home to seek employment in Toronto.

Billy Crane Moves Away is one of 27 films made during the legendary Fogo Island Experiment of the Challenge for Change project in the late ’60s. Fogo is heralded as one of the program’s great successes. In the late ’60’s, the government of Newfoundland had unilaterally decided that the small villagers of remote Fogo should leave the island, but the people didn’t want to go. Talks had broken down, and an NFB Challenge for Change filmmaker, Colin Low, along with an academic from Memorial University, came to the island to use film as an experiment. They would film life on the island, show the footage back to the villagers and then to the government. They also filmed the bureaucrats watching and responding to the films, and then showed that back to the community.

By using film as a way to participate in mediation and dialogue between two groups who were no longer talking face-to-face, the Challenge for Change process was credited with helping all sides come up with a viable solution: the creation of a co-op fishing cannery.

http://www.nfb.ca/film/billy_crane_moves_away/

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Snubbies and Salting Fish: Conversations from Fogo Island


Over 16 hours of audio interviews with residents of Fogo Island, collected over the past thirty years, is now available on-line through the Intangible Cultural Heritage Collection on Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative.

The Province’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer, Dale Jarvis says “In the 1980s and 90s, Dr. Gerald Pocius and Mark Ferguson visited different communities in Fogo Island and recorded their conversations with residents of Tilting, Joe Batt's Arm, Little Fogo Island, Barr'd Island, Shoal Bay, Seldom-Come-By, Deep Bay, Island Harbour and the Town of Fogo. They feature topics like the placement of stages, the methods for catching and cleaning fish, the community aspects of fishing, and personal anecdotes.”

“Even by the 1990s, no one had started to document the Newfoundland fish stage--the most important architectural form of our culture. I knew Fogo Island had the largest number of surviving examples, and was the logical choice to begin such a study.” says Dr. Gerald Pocius, University Research Professor, Department of Folklore

These audio interviews are available in full on the Digital Archives Initiative and provide a clear picture of the old and current ways of fisherman on Fogo Island. The materials collected vary across the wide spectrum of intangible cultural heritage. Included in the inventory is fishing premises and practices, berry picking, wedding customs, fiddling, vernacular architecture, cultural landscapes, food preparation, textile traditions, and furniture.

  • Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative can be found at
    http://collections.mun.ca/

  • Interview with Bill Godwin, Barr'd Island - Part 1
    http://tinyurl.com/BillGodwin

  • Bill Godwin describes a "choice fish"
    http://tinyurl.com/choicefish
  • Sunday, August 16, 2009

    Top 6 Sites With Sample Oral History Interview Questions


    A little while ago, I posted my Top 6 Online Guides for Folklife and Oral History Documentation. In preparing for a couple interviews I'm going to be doing, I was looking up some sample questions for basic oral history and folklore interviews, and so I thought I would post my top picks here for people who were looking for similar resources.

    1. The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide
    http://www.folklife.si.edu/education_exhibits/resources/guide/introduction.aspx
    This is sort of cheating, because I included it in my earlier post, but it still remains an excellent resource, complete with sample questions.

    2. Fifty Questions for Family History Interviews
    http://genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interview.htm
    Subtitled "What to Ask the Relative" this is a good starting list for anyone doing research on family stories, genealogy, or family traditions.

    3. Oral History Questions
    http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson805/questions.pdf
    Also a good list for people doing family oral histories, this collection of questions was compiled specifically for youth researchers.

    4. Sample Interview Questions For Veterans
    http://www.loc.gov/vets/questions.html
    Prepared by the Library of Congress for its Veterans History Project, this is a good list of questions for people doing interviews with members and former members of the armed forces during World War I, World War II, and the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf wars.

    5. Family History Sample Outline and Questions
    http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/familyHistory.html
    This outline can be used to structure a family oral history interview and contains examples of specific questions.

    6. Oral History Interview, Questions and Topics
    http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/Quest.html
    A list of questions that may be used when interviewing an older member of the family, prepared by the Museum of Jewish Heritage


    UPDATE 19 Oct 2016 - I've added a new #6, as the Draft Oral History Interview Questions for the Fairfax County Asian American Historical Project seem to have vanished. But you can still check out their project here.

    Tuesday, August 11, 2009

    Oral History Association Launches Online Resource on Digital Technologies


    The Oral History Association's website is hosting a new resource, "Oral History and Digital Technologies," http://www.oralhistory.org/technology, which provides useful information on technologies associated with the practice and preservation of oral history interviews. The resource includes detailed information and user friendly tutorials on rapidly changing technologies. Over the next few months it will grow to include information on preservation and video-recording, in addition to the digital audio information currently online.

    Suggestions for specific topics and resources should be sent to Doug Boyd, Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries: doug.boyd@uky.edu.

    Monday, August 10, 2009

    Dale Jarvis on the Voices of the Past Podcast

    According to its website, "The purpose of the Voices of the Past netcast, podcast and accompanying website is to help inspire the advancement of heritage values in our society using the new form of communication called social media."

    Director Jeff Guin writes: "With Voices of the Past, you will find a new type of journalism using the heritage preservation community as its focus. It retains the news gathering techniques and production values of traditional media as familiarized by six o’clock television news programs across the country. But it also integrates social media tools to help viewers understand how to communicate heritage values in the new Web 2.0 world."

    This week, your friendly neighbourhood folklorist, Dale Jarvis, is the featured guest on the podcast, talking about how he uses social media for intangible culture heritage work and for storytelling.

    Read the transcript at:
    http://www.preservationtoday.com/2009/08/10/podcast-dale-jarvis-on-the-art-of-storytelling-on-the-world-wide-web/

    or go directly to the MP3 at:
    http://tinyurl.com/DaleJarvisVOP

    Friday, August 7, 2009

    Short Summer ICH Update!


    The Summer 2009 edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update is now out. It is a short one, and we'll be back in September with a longer edition. In this edition:

  • HFNL undertakes an survey of folklore and oral history recordings in the province
  • SmartLabrador continues its oral history research on the Labrador Straits
  • Remembering Violetta Halpert

    Download the pdf version of the newsletter at:
    http://www.archive.org/download/IchUpdateSummer2009/ichupdate008small.pdf
  • Thursday, August 6, 2009

    Inventory of sound and video recordings in Newfoundland and Labrador repositories



    Are you part of a local archive or museum that has a box of old tape recordings of community stories hidden away under someone’s desk? If you do, we want to know about it!

    As a part of this year's work plan, the documentation and inventory committee of the Heritage Foundation's Intangible Cultural Heritage division is trying to find out what sound and video materials are out in the community. We are attempting to discover the extent of existing sound and video collections in Newfoundland and Labrador related to oral history, folklore and intangible cultural heritage.

    HFNL is beginning with collections of recordings held by heritage organizations. Information collected in this survey will be used to help determine the scope and condition of sound and video holdings in Newfoundland and Labrador archives, museums and community collections.

    Local organizations can take the survey online, using SurveyMonkey, an easy-to-use online questionnaire. You can find the survey at:

    http://tinyurl.com/ICHrecordings


    If you are working for an archive in the province that is a member of the Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives, you may soon get a phone call from someone who will ask you some questions about your holdings along these lines. Once we know what's out there, we can explore further actions towards preserving it and making it accessible!

    For more information, contact Dale Jarvis at:
    1-888-739-1892 ext 2
    ich@heritagefoundation.ca

    Dr. Elizabeth (Russell) Miller, Professor Emeritus, Memorial University in Bay Roberts August 16

    Bay Roberts NL, July 23, 2009 – Clarence G. Mercer, Chair, Bay Roberts Cultural Foundation Inc. is pleased to announce that Dr. Elizabeth (Russell) Miller, Professor Emeritus, Memorial University, will be presenting "Uncle Mose: The Life and Times of Ted Russell" on Sunday, August 16th at 2:30 pm, in the Holdin' Ground Room, Bay Roberts Visitors’ Pavilion, Veterans' Memorial Highway near the Bay Roberts exit.

    Mercer says, "The Foundation is extremely pleased that Dr. Miller, an avid supporter of our cultural project, has agreed to share her thoughts on her father’s life and literary works. Both bring us to outport Newfoundland as it existed about 60 years ago. Her presentation will be a highlight, building on this summer's Holdin' Ground Festival (www.bayrobertsevents.com)."

    ”The Holdin' Ground Room, surrounded with items of interest from my father's life, is the ideal setting for my presentation,” says Dr Miller. "The Room has a permanent display of Ted Russell memorabilia that was donated by our family; a display of sketches by Newfoundland artist, Sylvia Ficken, that is based on "Tales from Pigeon Inlet"; a large-size cut out of my father, when he left Coley's Point at sixteen to teach in Pass Island; a portrait of my father by Newfoundland artist, Gerry Squires; as well as a large storyboard devoted to my father's unique life story which is so tied to the history of outport Newfoundland in the pre- Confederation, Confederation, and immediate post- Confederation era."

    Both Dr. Miller and her brother, Kelly Russell, have been instrumental in preserving outport Newfoundland's cultural traditions. Dr. Miller has encapsulated her father's life, times, and works in her biography, Uncle Mose: The Life of Ted Russell, and her edited collection of her father's works: The Chronicles of Uncle Mose, both published by Flanker Press. Kelly Russell is a highly respected performing traditional musician and award winning story teller. In addition, with his Pigeon Inlet Productions (www.pigeoninlet.com), he has produced a three volume CD collection for the 50th anniversary of Uncle Mose, entitled "Tales from Pigeon Inlet," as well as the works of Newfoundland traditional musicians such as Rufus Guinchard and Emile Benoit.

    The Bay Roberts Cultural Foundation is devoted to the preservation of the values and traditions that make Newfoundland a holdin' ground, as depicted in Ted Russell's play of the same name. This summer, the town, with the assistance of Heritage Canada, has been sponsoring a "Holdin' Ground" Festival (www.bayrobertsevents.com) with "A Time in Pigeon Inlet," a dinner theatre (www.pigoeninlet.ca), featuring Kelly Russell, Ted's son, and the Pigeon Inlet Players, which is continuing every Saturday night until August 29th.

    Mercer goes on to say, "Part of our mandate is to develop events promoting the cultural history of our municipality, region and province. Because of the great interest, more events and presentations are being planned for the future.”

    For further information contact:

    Clarence G. Mercer, Chair
    Sandra Roach, General Manager
    Bay Roberts Cultural Foundation, Inc.
    Town of Bay Roberts NL A0A 1G0
    Telephone: 709-683-1195
    Email: sroach@pigeoninlet.ca
    www.pigeoninlet.ca

    Saturday, August 1, 2009

    Call For Proposals: July 2010 Storytelling Conference

    Call for Proposals
    International Perspectives on the Art and Tradition of Storytelling
    Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada National Conference and AGM
    Wednesday, July 28 to Sunday, August 1, 2010
    St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

    Join the Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada for a 5 day conference as part of the 400th anniversary of English settlement on the much-storied island of Newfoundland, with workshops, professional development, concerts, tours, story slam, and international symposium.
    The 2010 Conference Planning Committee invites you to submit proposals for consideration in the following two categories:
    1. Professional Development Workshop
    2. Panel Discussion Participants

    1. Professional Development Workshops (90 minutes)
    Attendees at the 2009 SCCC conference listed workshops on Collecting Oral History, Newfoundland and Labrador Ballads, Stories behind the Storyteller (life stories and practical experiences of storytellers), Vocal Warmups, Storytelling and the Internet, and Storytelling in Education as their top choices for workshops for 2010. Other topics identified included Mask and/or Clown, Storytelling Techniques, Grant Writing, Press Release Writing, Stories with Music, Critiquing, Researching Stories, and Body/Movement workshops. The committee will be looking for innovative approaches, hands-on practical workshops for storytellers at different levels of their careers and workshops that will help tellers with the business of storytelling: addressing marketing, technology, and other tools for working storytellers.

    Who May Apply:
    We welcome proposal submissions from anyone. Presenter does not need to be a member of Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada(SC-CC). Non-members are strongly encouraged to join SC-CC if their proposal is accepted. Workshops will be funded to a total of $300 per workshop, and presenters are responsible for their own travel, accommodation, and conference registration costs.

    2. Panel participants - International Perspectives on the Art and Tradition of Storytelling
    As part of the 2010 Conference, one day will be devoted to panel presentations on international perspectives on the art and tradition of storytelling. The morning will focus on the oral tradition of storytelling, while the afternoon will focus on contemporary performance, art and use. We are seeking representatives of national, regional, state, or provincial storytelling organizations and academic programs who would be willing to address issues of current focus or concern to their organizations or areas.

    Who May Apply:
    We welcome proposal submissions from anyone, though official representatives of established groups are preferred. Presenter does not need to be a member of Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada(SC-CC). Non-members are strongly encouraged to join SC-CC if their proposal is accepted. Panel participants will be given an honorarium of $50, and participants are responsible for their own travel, accommodation, and conference registration costs.

    Please include • a one-two paragraph description of your proposal
    • a copy of your recent CV or artists profile
    • complete mail, telephone and email contact information

    Send to:
    SCCC2010proposals@gmail.com
    Deadline for submissions is September 30, 2009. Only successful applicants will be contacted, by mid November.