Thanks for a summer filled with meals of lobsters and glasses of slush!

Petty Harbour

Things have finally settled down (a little) so I wanted to stop in and make a final blog post to say thanks! Since I last wrote on the blog I finished my job with the heritage foundation, took a quick trip out to the west coast of the island, attended the fishing for folklore workshop, headed to Witless Bay for field school, and am currently making my way through courses at MUN.

My summer job as a heritage intern with the Heritage Foundation was definitely one of the highlights of my summer! The Oral History Project in Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove taught me a great deal about interviewing, photography, working with the media, metadata, and much more.

As a heritage intern I had the opportunity to assist with cemetery clean ups, gravestone rubbing workshops, and heritage district plaque ceremonies. I was able to interview a number of people from Petty Harbour about the community's social events such as card games, community concerts, and garden parties. I also learned about growing up in Petty Harbour and the children's games played in the area (pidley, rounders). I was told stories about folk beliefs and instructed not to whistle on the water, turn against the sun, or have the gangboards turned over in the boat. I was given meals of lobsters and glasses of slush, I attended community breakfasts, and met wonderful people. I would like to send out a huge thank you to everyone in the community who took the time to talk to me, send pictures or plays, stopped by the oral history booth, sourced out potential interviewees, and all in all made me feel like a part of the community.

If you would like to listen to the interviews from the Petty Harbour Oral History Project check out MUN's DAI. Here you will find links to the interviews and accompanying pictures of the lovely people I had the opportunity to meet. There are still a handful of interviews to be processed by the DAI so check back for more interviews at a later date. Also if you would like to learn more about the community events found in Petty Harbour there is a small article in the ICH Update for July 2014.

Last but not least I would like to thank everyone at the Heritage Foundation, particularly Dale and Lisa in the ICH Office for a fantastic summer!

In closing I've added a short video of Petty Harbour resident (and my uncle) Gordy Doyle doing a recitation of the Smokeroom on the Kyle.

Thanks,
Terra

P.S. Thanks to Lisa for suggesting I turn the recitation into a short video!

"The Tale of a Town" storymobile touring Newfoundland!

"The Tale of a Town – Canada" is a national oral history and theatre initiative aiming to capture the collective community memory of our country’s main streets, one story at a time.

Over the next three years, The Tale of a Town will tour across the Canada, gathering downtown stories in small towns and big cities alike, and creating performance installations in the capital city of each province and territory. This national venture will culminate in a multi-platform celebration of the country’s main street culture, in commemoration of Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017.

And now the storymobile is coming to a town near you in Newfoundland!

Here's the list of places and dates that The Tale of a Town will be visiting in the next little while:

Oct. 7-9 -- Grand Falls-Windsor
Oct. 10-13 -- Stephenville
Oct. 14-16 -- Corner Brook
Oct. 17-19 -- Gander

Below, you'll find links to The Tale of a Town website, Facebook page, and a great Youtube video showing what's done with the tales after they're collected!

thetaleofatown.com
facebook.com/thetaleofatown
youtube.com/watch?v=6hfVUTjbTU8

Looking for stories and artefacts from Newfoundlanders working in Alberta

The Royal Alberta Museum is developing a new exhibit display that will tell the story of Newfoundlanders who work in the Alberta oil patch, particularly those who travel back and forth between home and work. We are looking to make contact with people who might help us in telling this story by sharing their story. We are also looking to collect objects associated with this story that we might feature in the display. If you would like to contribute, please email Mathew Levitt at Mathew.levitt@gov.ab.ca

Tiddly On The Lawn - This Sunday at The Rooms

TIDDLY TOURNAMENT AND OTHER
TRADITIONAL GAMES ON THE LAWN

Tiddly, also known as piddly, pippy, snig, or puss, was once a very popular game that was played all over Newfoundland and Labrador. While the rules changed from community to community, the game pieces were usually the same – two rocks or bricks and two sticks. Come and join us on the lawn of The Rooms for a fun-filled day of Tiddly and other traditional games.

We're bringing in the experts! Participants from Carbonear's World Cup of Tiddly will be in St. John's to show the Townies how it is done! Come watch, and learn how to play yourself.

The event will be happening from 1pm to 4pm on Sunday September 28.

1pm – 2pm Various races (sack races, egg and spoon races, three legged race)

2pm – 2:45pm Tiddly demonstration game

3pm – 3:40pm Visitors can try the game, various races

For more information, contact:

Jena Mitchell
Marketing Manager
Phone: 709-757-8144
Email: jenamitchell@therooms.ca

or

Dale Jarvis

Heritage Foundation of NL

ich@heritagefoundation.ca

709-739-1892 x2

Wednesday night Root Cellar talk and tour in Cupids

This Wednesday, September 24th, myself and folklorist Crystal Braye will be hosting an event all about root cellars at the Cupids Legacy Centre, at 7pm.  The event will include a tour of two cellars at the Cupids archaeological site, a presentation on root cellars, and a discussion of local traditions around root cellars and food preservation. Tickets are $8 at the door, and include light refreshments after the talk and tour!

See you in Cupids! - Dale

Convent Life -- The Witless Bay Folklore Fieldschool

Right now the new graduate students to MUN's Department of Folklore are nearing the end of their second week of the Witless Bay Field School.  This intensive round-the-clock research methods program is three weeks long and is taking place all around Witless Bay on the Southern Shore. The students are staying together in the local convent--a historic building with many rooms, two large staircases, a confession booth, and a chapel, which is serving as their classroom. It's also a building that is no stranger to communal living, so it's essentially perfect housing for the field school participants.

Over the past week, I visited the students a few times to check on their progress and provide a workshop on some of the data entry they will be doing when they are at the archiving stage of their work. Based on my time with them, I must say that I'm envious of the incredible experience they are having. I took a few photographs that I will share below, but they don't really convey the story of their lives in the convent. Lucky for us, the MA students are blogging about what they are learning and who they are meeting, so please follow them here:

http://witlessbayfieldschool.wordpress.com/

chapel/classroom

MA student Terra Barrett in her sleeping quarters.

Religious artifacts that come with the territory.

MA student Andrea McGuire as she explores the church next to the convent.

Dr. Pocius with some students as we check out the top floor of the Priest's house (currently for sale in Witless Bay!)

-Lisa

Back to School, Back in the Day

During the month of September I always think of the teachers and students who head back indoors for the fall as they go back to school. It has been a few weeks for students in Newfoundland, but in British Columbia the first day has been delayed due to a labour dispute and consequential teacher's strike.

Yesterday, just as this conflict was finally resolved, I came across these wonderful class photographs from the 1940s of young pupils in Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland. The top photograph is a grade 2 class, and the bottom is grade 1. Right now I am thinking about all the young kids who are just starting school for the first time, and the teachers in B.C. who've had a late start to their teaching year.

I wonder what it was like to be a student back then. Or a teacher for that matter...some of these kids look like trouble.

Special thanks to Charlie Payne of Winterhouse Brook, and the Town of Woody Point, for donating these photographs to the MUN's Digital Archives Initiative. Over the next few weeks a collection of close to 500 photos like the ones above will be made accessible online. I will post links to the collection as the work gets done.

-Lisa

For the Love of Blues & Bluegrass!

Quidi Vidi Village: BOOKLET LAUNCH PARTY!

Quidi Vidi from above, taken Sept. 2013 by Xuan Wang (M.A. student in Folklore)