Thursday, April 28, 2011

Old Time Community Concert series starts tonight, Heart's Content 8pm


The Mizzen Heritage Society invites you to the Community Concert, tonight, with the some skits that are sure to get you to laugh out loud. Features include: A Banana Boa, Between Two People, The Flasher, Gonna Get Me Moose Licence, The Sunday Afternoon Drive with Clem, Bubba Jay from the Hill, Dis and Dat Local News, Uncle Dicky's Annual Appearance, and Airport Check.

Music will be played in between skits by members of the Mizzen Heritage Society.


Mizzen Heritage Society Old Time Concert
Cost: $7.00
Location: 8:00p.m. at The SUF Hall
Dates: April 28th, 29th, and 30th

All proceeds in aid of the Mizzen Heritage Society.

For info on other community concerts visit www.oldtimeconcerts.ca


Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Old Time Community Concerts on the Baccalieu Trail



HFNL and communities on the Baccaileu Trail team up to produce the Old Time Concert Series



Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) presents Old Time Community Concerts along the Baccalieu Trail. Hosted by the communities of Heart’s Content (April 28, 29, 30) , Cupids (May 6) , and Bay Roberts (May 25). Come join in the fun of a traditional concert, hear some music, and laugh the evening away!

Since last fall, HFNL has been working with community groups along the Baccalieu Trial to document local tradition bearers, and collect memories about concerts, traditional music, skits, recitations, drills and times. The foundation then looked around to set up a folklore project they could use to promote living traditions in their communities.

“When we held a public meeting in Cupids to talk about traditions in the region, old time concerts went right to the top of the list,” says provincial folklorist Dale Jarvis. “We wanted to help communities create something that would revitalize this tradition. So the idea of coordinating a festival of Old Time Community Concerts was born.”

The concert series will take place through April and May month in three towns: Heart’s Content, Cupids, and Bay Roberts. The local events are organized by the Mizzen Heritage Society, Cupids Legacy Centre, and Bay Roberts Cultural Foundation. The concerts cost $7.00 per person.

“The funds raised will stay in the communities, and help support future heritage projects,” says Jarvis. “It is a great way of using local tradition to support the future of heritage organizations.”

The first concert of the series takes place in Heart’s Content on April 28.

If you would like more information please visit www.oldtimeconcerts.ca or call Mel at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 3.

Changes to the ICH newsletter delivery

Hi all.

I know some of you have been getting the ICH newsletter twice, or to a couple different accounts (or maybe you don't want to get it at all). I'm trying to fix all that by switching over to a system that will help me better manage emails, and make it easier for you to subscribe and unsubscribe.

So, if you want to get ICH updates from me in your email from time to time, you can sign up here:

http://eepurl.com/dych9

Your friendly neighbourhood folklorist,

Dale Jarvis

Place Names, History and the Labrador Innu: A Lecture by Peter Armitage

The Newfoundland Historical Society will be holding its monthly free public lecture and Annual General Meeting on
Thursday, April 28th 2011
at 8 pm
at Hampton Hall Lecture Theatre, located at the Marine Institute on Ridge Road

This month’s lecturer will be Peter Armitage, and his talk is titled:

“From Uapamekushtu to Tshakashkue matshiteuieau: Place Names, History and the Labrador Innu”

On the Island of Newfoundland, we are surrounded by place names in daily life and would have a great deal of trouble living without them, yet we take them for granted. Moreover, few of us have any understanding of the origins of the names we use even though many of them have very important historical associations and are anchors for a great deal of memory about our experiences on the land.

The same thing applies to Innu place names in Labrador. They anchor Innu people to the land and help them remember events that took place there. Many Innu place names are already known to us because anglicized versions of them appear on the maps of Labrador, for example, Minipi Lake (from Minai-nipi, meaning 'Burbot Lake') and Snegamook Lake (from Ashtunekamiku meaning 'Canoe Building Shelter').

Armitage's talk will start with a mysterious Innu place name called Tshakashue matshiteuieau. It means 'Tshakashue's Point' which is located on the south shore of Lake Melville. Tshakashue is the name of two people, one Innu the other Settler. But who is the point named after - the Innu or the Settler person? Tshakashue matshiteuieau will lead us into a labyrinth of meaning and historical association that extends east-west from the coast of Labrador to James Bay, and north-south from Ungava Bay to the Quebec North Shore. By the end of lecture, we will understand better the uniqueness of Innu culture, the connectedness of the Innu people across the Labrador-Quebec peninsula, and the role that place names play in facilitating talk and memory about the land.

Peter Armitage is a consulting anthropologist based in St. John's, Newfoundland. He works with Algonquian-speaking First Nations in Labrador, Quebec and Ontario, and has been working with the Innu since 1982. He curated the Innu place names website called "Pepamuteiati Nitassinat: As We Walk Across Our Land" (www.innuplaces.ca).

Here's how to pronounce Tshakashue matshiteuieau:

1. Uapamekushtu

wop-mek-goo-stoo

2. Tshakashue

chuck-ash-way

3. matshiteuieau

much-a-teo-wee-ow (that' ow as in ouch)

the 'a' between much and teo is a schwa as in the 'u' in u

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Old Time Music, Tea Buns and Hookers! Happy Easter, Newfoundland and Labrador!

In this edition of Newfoundland and Labrador's ICH Update for April 2011, we announce the dates for the Old Time Community Concerts series in Heart's Content, Cupids and Bay Roberts; Melissa Squarey talks to Betty Rumbolt about the tradition of Easter tea buns in Upper Island Cove, and folklorist Sandra Wheeler introduces us to a group of young fabric artists working in the old tradition of rug hooking.

Download the pdf

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The passing of a tradition bearer - Honora (Nora) Skanes, Colliers


In the early stages of the first mummers festival, festival coordinator Ryan Davis and I went out and conducted several folklore interviews in Conception Bay. Dennis Flynn was our local guide, and he introduced us to people who were keeping the old St. Stephen's Day tradition of The Wren alive.

The definite highlight of the day was the interview we did with Honora (Nora) Skanes at her old family home in Colliers. Nora shared her memories with us, and made us all feel like family.

I got an email today from her niece, Trina, telling me that Nora had passed away on Sunday, and asking for a copy of the interview we had done with her aunt.  I was saddened to hear of her passing, because my memories of Nora are of a woman infused with a joy of life. The last time I saw her was at a book launch of Dennis's in Cupids last year, and she was as much fun then as she was the afternoon we spent in her home.

I'm very pleased that we have her interview online as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory - an excellent example of how important it is that we record the voices of our tradition bearers while we can. Because of the inventory work we did in 2009, you can listen to the full interview with Honora (the last 30 seconds are my favourite part!) or enjoy her recitation of The Wren Song.

Dennis tells me Nora will be waked tonight in Conception Harbour. I'm sure many stories will be told!

ABOVE: Honora Skanes, (centre) with Ryan Davis, Dennis Flynn, and Dale Jarvis (l-r). Photo by Dennis Flynn. Read Dennis's article on Nora, An Outport Aunt.

Cultural Connections and the Newfoundland and Labrador Studies Textbook

The Association of Heritage Industries hosted a meeting this morning with Karen Hewett and Mary Dinn of the Department of Education's Cultural Connections program. This initiative aims to increase the presence of cultural content in the school curriculum and foster links between the arts and heritage, and school communities.  Karen and Mary presented on the work of the Department, and their various initiatives to increase students' involvement and engagement with local culture.

There is a definite interest within the heritage community to build stronger ties with education, and the need for better communication between education and heritage organizations was discussed. It was also strongly suggested by those heritage representatives present that a stand-alone funding program be created that would see tradition bearers and heritage professionals able to work in schools, similar to the programs for professional artists currently administered by the NL Arts Council.

After the meeting, Karen circulated the link to the online version of the new Newfoundland and Labrador Studies textbook. If you haven't seen it, check it out. It intersperses historical and cultural information with sections on  storytelling, songwriting, comic arts, playwriting, and film-making, as well as profiles of some of Newfoundland's traditional and contemporary artists.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Intangible cultural heritage alive and well in Scotland - a review


Alright, this is it, my last report from the Measures of Support for Intangible
 Cultural Heritage conference in Quebec City!

On Sunday morning, the Scots were up bright and early after a night of dancing to Quebecois folk music, ready with “Intangible Cultural Heritage in Scotland: developing appropriate methodologies” presented by Alison McCleery, Edinburgh Napier University (ENU), and Joanne Orr, Museum Galleries Scotland (MGS) (twitter.com/JoanneMGS).

Orr, who isn’t half bad at a fast polka, by the way, started off by explaining how MGS represents over 350 museums and galleries in Scotland. 50% of the workforce are volunteers (which will sound familiar to the museum community in Newfoundland and Labrador). The sector contributes over 800 million pounds in value to the Scottish economy. The members are widespread geographically, and many serve as cultural hubs for their communities, a theme which was repeated in the presentation.

McCleery gave a history of their ICH work. A research team from ENU was commissioned to scope ICH activities in Scotland, map support mechanisms in place to safeguard ICH, review, evaluate and make recommendations. They decided that an inclusive definition of ICH should be used in terms of level of participation, diffusion and ethnicity (i.e. ICH in Scotland, rather than Scottish ICH). The study noted that recording ICH is an inventory is the first step towards ensuring that ICH is safeguarded, and that safeguarding of ICH should take the form of supporting education channels and community groups.

In Scotland, the emphasis has been on living practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and skills, that communities, groups and individuals themselves recognize as part of their own ICH. Ideal approaches to safeguarding should be community centred and owned, unforced, uncontrived, and authentic. McCleery, admirably, also made the point that celebrating diversity promotes social cohesion.

Scotland is developing a very open inventory, that anyone can contribute to, which is in an easily edited wiki format: www.ichscotlandwiki.org. McCleery gave the Heart of Midlothian as an example of a cultural space and practise that is recorded on the inventory.

Orr presented on a few projects that member organizations have undertaken with an ICH focus. One was a knitted fish project, where traditional knitting techniques were used to knit fabric fish which including local sayings. The project has resulted in regular groups meeting to knit, which has moved the tradition forward in terms of subject matter.

Another project was conducted by a local fisheries museum – a boatbuilding project which included rowing clubs that compete against each other. In this way, skills are maintained, and the tradition moved forward to fit people’s lives today, and to involve people who never would have considered themselves part of the tradition.

Orr argued that the local memory of family and village histories is the heart of community collections. There is a strong wish in villages to hold on to traditions, a sentiment that certainly, again, sounds familiar here in Newfoundland and Labrador.

McCleery noted that ICH in Scotland faces two problems. There is what she called the “authenticy/ownership challenge” - for whose benefit is cultural tourism? Should it be outward facing for tourists, or inward facing for locals? She also noted a generational mismatch challenge – older people have knowledge of ICH, while the younger generation has technology and virtual knowledge to share it, but not the interest the material. She argued that we must find a compromise between doing nothing and doing something, and that we need to find a way to bridge gap. She suggested that education in schools is one important approach to this question.

Orr then described an online “Remembering Scotland at War” project, which contains curated exhibitions by museums in one part, and user generated content in another part. People can post their own material, which can then be moved into the curated section.

“When people engage and share their knowledge, we are richer,” Orr said.

Orr also argued that we need to combine the tangible and intangible, with less focus on materiality, and more on meaning. Museums can be cultural meeting places, where the process of ICH can be witnessed daily. She referenced the Festival of Museums, which encourages museums to share tangible and intangible in creative ways.

You can check out one example, a fishtastic festival. Other museums developed projects around basket weaving and peat cutting.

“ICH is dynamic, about living processes,” said Orr. “We’ve got to move the perception of heritage to something that is dynamic.” Right on!

Overall, ICH is alive and well in Scotland, embedded at community level. People are comfortable with the concept of ICH, and ICH benefits from the gentle support of the museums network. Inspiring work, Scotland!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Networking to support Intangible Cultural Heritage in Flanders, Belgium

“The Flemish Community: supporting Intangible Cultural Heritage through a network of intermediate organizations” 



Having just returned from Belgium two weeks ago, it was great to hear Dries Van Den Broucke talk about the work being done on intangible cultural heritage in the Flemish community.

Van Den Broucke works at the Arts and Heritage Agency of the Flemish Ministry of Culture. He is responsible for developing a policy on intangible cultural heritage in Flanders. Mr. Van Den Broucke also participated in the development of the Flemish Decree on Cultural Heritage of 2008. From 2000 to 2004 he worked for the city of Bruges as coordinator of the municipal heritage centre of excellence. He graduated as an Art Historian in 1997 at the University of Ghent in Belgium, specializing in Ethnic Arts.

Van Den Broucke explained how ICH work has been unfolding in Flanders since the ratification of the UNESCO Convention in 2006. According to him, the Convention was easily ratified in Belgium. He attributed the ready willingness to ratify to the fact that both the Flemish and French community had sent experts to be involved in the early UNESCO ICH meetings.

At the time of ratification, things were already happening in Belgium. Even though ICH wasn’t a known term, organizations were doing work that was essentially ICH-based. In the Flemish part of the country, there was already an existing act on popular culture and Flemish centre for popular culture. There was an extant organization that deals with tradition sports, other organizations that deal with puppetry, folklore, and regional products and recipes.

One local organization seized on the idea of ICH, and built a website around the concept, based on a traditional game from the area: www.un-touchable.be.

Belgium started in 2008 to nominate items to the Representative List of the ICH of Humanity, and started work on drawing up an inventory. Groups could apply for nomination to the national inventory, or to Representative List if they were ready.

The national ICH inventory was kept very simple, with just the name of the tradition being nominated, and place where the tradition took place. In keeping with the goals of the convention, consent to be nominated is given through the application process. There is no complicated database, just a list, with paper and digital documents stored in the office. There was no large investment spent on making the inventory; the country opted to do the work in the easiest and cheapest way, but this still fits the requirements of the convention. I was intrigued to hear this, as it clearly demonstrates that an expensive, complicated inventory is not required for signatory nations (are you listening, Ottawa?).

Currently there are 19 elements on the Flemish inventory, with six elements on UNESCO’s Representative List, including the remarkable Carnaval de Binche.

Van Den Broucke argues that the Flemish public now understands the concept of ICH. The work done through their office means that heritage bearers are recognized for what they are doing, ICH has gotten positive press coverage, and they’ve seen positive effects for traditions and for the communities where those traditions are maintained. Recognition at the national level also helps local organizations with their own fundraising.

Not surprisingly, Van Den Broucke said that the “usual suspects” came forward for nomination, namely well established processions and festivals. He spoke of the difficulty in reaching groups who do not think what they are doing is “intangible cultural heritage,” but said that there are a few items in the list, such as Flemish sign language, which speak to less documented traditions.

One other issue he raised was the concern that groups thought that nomination was the pinnacle, but Van Den Broucke argued that nomination is not the end, but the beginning, of the process of safeguarding.

One of the ways that the Flemish organizers has reached out to groups is by establishing a network of cultural heritage organizations: groups working on a national level alongside groups working on a local level, specialists working with generalists. Their working definition of “Heritage Community” is a group which “consists of people who value specific aspects of cultural heritage which they wish, within the framework of public action, to sustain and transmit to future generations.”

Van Den Broucke said that one of the goals of his organization is to help develop sustainable policies for ICH. It is the job of communities to keep traditions alive; it is the job of government supports them. Government plays a facilitating role, helps to make sure that good practices are developed and shared, and gives local groups the knowledge to safeguard and transmit local culture.

Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Austria

Challenges of implementing the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Austria



The Quebec ICH conference started this morning with a talk from Anna Steiner, Senior Officer for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture, Austria. She is also and Deputy Head of Department for bi- and multilateral Cultural Affairs. Ms. Steiner has worked at the Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture since 1991.

She has been in charge of intangible cultural heritage since 2004. Previously, she worked in the Department for International Relations/International School Links and Exchanges and was Deputy Head of the Department for Cultural Policy.

Austria ratified the Convention in 2009, but started with implementation of Convention of 2006. Work is carried out through the Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture. There is a national agency for ICH which works to network, implement the convention, and create a national inventory of ICH in Austria through an online database. Their 24-person advisory council consists of the five federal ministries involved, representatives of nine provinces, and ten experts corresponding to the five domains of ICH, and a chair.

The National inventory for ICH in Austria has an application process where local groups can nominate items to the list, such as Viennese Tootling, an urban singing tradition with its origin in the 19th century. There is an application form online, which must be submitted with two recommendation letters and a signed letter of consent. The advisory committee then decides what is listed, and it has listed some 45 elements since 2010. There are no legal or financial implications for listed elements.

According to Steiner, some associate ICH with rural traditions, but both rural and urban traditions are important. Currently, there is a focus on knowledge and practices concerning nature and traditional craftsmanship, and not on performance-based traditions, which are already well documented. She gave the example of collective knowledge about avalanches, a body of folk knowledge not understood by younger generations, and how this traditional knowledge can be used to develop cultural strategies to prevent and cope with natural hazards like floods and avalanche protection.

Some listings have been controversial, such as traditional fowling in Upper Austria, which involves catching birds in autumn, a bird-related festival, and then letting the birds free in spring. Animal rights activists complained about the attention given the tradition, but the listing was found to be compliance with the criteria of the convention as well as with local law.



Steiner concluded by saying that the Austrian ICH list has received good press coverage, which contributes to public knowledge, but a careful approach has to be found to ensure that listed items do not change because of tourism. She also believes that their work represents the beginning of a process, as interest in ICH growing fast. She predicts an increase in applications to their national list.

Austria is currently making two applications for Representative List of the ICH 2011: the carnival of Imst, a masked procession of carnival characters; and falconry.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Sharing and networking on ICH in Asia and the Pacific region

Just finished listening to a presentation by Dr. Seong-Yong Park, who is the Executive Director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific (ICHCAP), based in Korea. The presentation was entitled “Information sharing and networking on intangible cultural heritage in Asia and the Pacific region”

The mission of ICHCAP is to promote the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Asia and the Pacific region. The centre builds and strengthens networks of tradition bearers, experts, and relevant institutes in this field. It also establishes information systems and disseminates ICH information.

The goal of the centre is promote cultural diversity, and facilitate sustainable development through promotion of ICH.

Thoughout Asia and the Pacific, as the world undergoes dramatic transformation due to globalization and modernization, regional ICH faces devastation and destruction. Park spoke of how transmission of ICH is in danger – in part due to the aging of practitioners, and a decrease in apprentices, in spite of a respect for the tradition of apprenticeship.

In order to combat some of this, ICHCAP has as its primary functions the sharing of information, and the strengthening of ICH networks. In terms of information sharing, ICHCAP is working on a field survey project of ICH safeguarding efforts, collecting information on cultural policies, events, and inventories, and sharing info on legal protective measures from different jurisdictions. It promotes online databases and web-based archives, and is helping to restore and digitize ICH related materials under threat, working to digitize damaged collections in Mongolia, for example. It also undertakes publication projects – newsletters, translating ICH books into Korean, and recently publishing a book on ICH in Mongolian.

Network building is their other priority, and the organization brings together workers from different Asian and Pacific countries to train as ICH experts, with inventory making being one theme they work on.

The centre faces many regional challenges. It is time consuming to learn about the vast region they represent. There is a lack of policies and awareness of ICH, different socio-cultural environments, the complexity of coordinating across such a region, and a large workload with limited resources. That part, at least, sounds familiar!

In spite of this, Park spoke optimistically about the future of ICH in the region. He concluded quoting the section of the UNESCO Constitution which reads “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.” Park suggested that safeguarding ICH represents a significant building block in cultural understanding, hopefully leading to the dissemination of a culture of peace.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Measures of Support for Intangible Cultural Heritage Conference, first thoughts

I'm in Quebec City, and just back from the opening reception for the international conference on Measures of Support for Intangible Cultural Heritage: Governments, Institutions and Municipalities, organized by the Conseil québécois du patrimoine vivant (CQPV – Quebec Council for Living Heritage). There were opening remarks from Christine St-Pierre, Quebec's minister of culture; Koïchiro Matsuura, UNESCO; and Normand Legault, with CQPV. All in French, of course, and most of it beyond me, apart from a few helpful whisperings in my ear from Mathias Bizimana (from the Canadian Council for UNESCO, who it was great to see again).

What is interesting so far is that there already seems to be a bit of a buzz tonight around the fact that while Canadian provinces and NGOs are being recognized for, and doing, great work in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, the federal government is still apparently resistant to the idea of signing the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, a fact alluded to by Mr. Matsuura in his opening remarks.  I'm hopeful that this conference, and the discussions that come out of it, continue to add to a growing interest in, and recognition of, the importance of ICH to Canadians. Let's sign that Charter!

There is an interesting lineup of speakers for the next few days, and I had an interesting first chat with the Scottish contingent who are doing interesting stuff with community programs and living heritage in museums.

More to come!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

"Notes from Newfoundland" by Lisa Moore


Readers of the ICH blog may remember that a while back, we were looking for mummers to take part in a photo shoot for the Walrus magazine, to accompany an article by local writer Lisa Moore.

Well, the issue is out, and the article is online, along with gorgeous photos by Johan Hallberg-Campbell.

Check out Lisa's article, or visit Johan's mummer parade gallery.