Sunday, March 15, 2015

Taking in Strangers - Quebec and Newfoundland Stories with Louise Moyes



TAKING IN STRANGERS - Quebec and Newfoundland Stories

MARCH 17-21, 2015 @ 8pm at the LSPU HALL
Call the Hall 753-4531 or Book online at rca.nf.ca
Tickets $28/ $22 seniors, students, artists, groups of 5+

On the road from Montreal to St. John's via ‘forgotten coasts’, Louise Moyes finds threads of Newfoundland and Quebec, home and the road, deceptions and truth. Kept company by a ‘bag lady’ beloved by many, Louise weaves "a bit of history and a lot of humanity" (The Telegram) in this one-woman tour de force.

"A series of priceless gifts...a delicate blend of movement, monologue, music and sound. A great evening of entertainment." (The Telegram)

Taking in Strangers is based on interviews with residents of the isolated south coast in Newfoundland and the Lower North Shore of Quebec (into Labrador), by way of Montreal and St. John's.

An updated version of a show that sold-out at the LSPU Hall 15 years ago (and has since been performed in Quebec, Vancouver, Germany, and Brazil and toured NL schools), Taking in Strangers reflects on themes of rural development, homelessness and mental health, woven through funny and moving stories on everything from quitting smoking and how to have fun in an ice storm, to the tragedy of losing one's child . The beloved 'bag lady', the proud and beautiful Marilyn (Trixie), accompanies Louise throughout this story of their 15 years on the road between St. John's and Montreal.

On Tuesday March 17, stay for the artists and rural community developers panel: Anne Troake, Tom Gordon, John Fisher, moderated by Michael Clair, with the theme: Re-imagining Rural NL: “Making our rural communities viable into a bright and vibrant future.”  Co-sponsored by Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Well done, Mr. Ackerman - a cherished memory from Cupids

On Tuesday, Peter Laracy took some time out to talk to us about having fun when he was a kid. Here he is at the beautiful Cupids Legacy Centre, telling us a story about getting from his home in Cupids to Harbour Grace to play on the hockey team.



Peter's interview was part of the Hoist your Sails and Run project about traditional Newfoundland and Labrador play and games. If you're interested in knowing more about this project, please give me a call at 739-1892 ext 3 or email me here.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Our Multicultural Province - An Engaging Evening at The Rooms, 7pm March 11th




Our Multicultural Province
The Rooms
9 Bonaventure Avenue
St. John's, NL
7pm, Wednesday, March 11th, 2015
Free event.

Did you know that Newfoundland and Labrador has a growing multicultural community? Immigrants have brought diversity and the opportunity to experience other cultures, their food, their music, and their art. Come hear the stories and challenges of people who have chosen to make this province their home.

Presented by The Rooms in collaboration with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Folklorist Dale Jarvis will introduce you to three talented and engaged people making a home in St. John's: Zainab Jerrett, Hadi Milanloo, and Hazel Ouano Alpuerto. Come have a chat, and learn more about our growing and changing community.

Zainab Jerrett is the Executive Director of Tombolo Multicultural Festival Newfoundland and Labrador Inc. She is also the owner of two businesses: Multi Ethnic Food Kitchen; and the annual International Food and Craft Expo shows in St. John's, CBS, and Paradise. Zainab is originally from Nigeria but immigrated to Canada in 1992 to do PhD in Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She obtained her PhD in Folklore at MUN in 1998. She has been married to a lovely Newfoundlander from 2000 to the present.

Hadi Milanloo was born in the north of Iran, in a family for whom music was of great importance. He started to play the setar when he was 13. Having finished a BMus and an M.A at the University of Tehran, he and his wife, Saeedeh, moved to St. John's in December 2013 in order to pursue their studies at Memorial University. Saeedeh studies Folklore and Hadi is in the Ethnomusicology programme.

Hazel Ouano Alpuerto is a Filipino-Canadian living here in St.John's. She is a Psychiatric Registered Nurse by profession and is working with Eastern Health. She is also the Philippine Honorary Consul General, whose role is to oversee fellow nationals requiring assistance.

Photo of Zainab Jerrett by Martin Connelly/The Scope.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Young Heritage Professionals Panel - audio podcast #YHF2015



We are still abuzz here at the Intangible Cultural Heritage office after the wonderfully successful Youth Heritage Forum 2015 held this past Saturday at The Lantern here in St. John’s.

One of the highlights was the young heritage professionals panel. Six talented and inspiring young women spoke about their work in the heritage sector, and then took questions from moderator Alanna Wicks and the assembled crowd.

You can download the full, unedited audio of the panel as an MP3 here or visit archive.org for other audio formats.




Bios of the presenters in the order of speaking:

Crystal Braye - Crystal received her Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2008 before completing her Masters of Arts in Folklore at MUN. During her time at MUN, Crystal’s work focused on documenting root cellars for the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, with additional research on Newfoundland’s “Screech-In” customs and mummering traditions. She is presently on the board of directors for the Mummers Festival and has been working as a folklorist for the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador since 2012.
Follow The Wooden Boat Museum on Twitter @WoodenBoatNL

Nicole Penney BA, MA. - Nicole is a folklorist and archivist living and working in St. John’s, Newfoundland. She has been working within the heritage community since 2004 and holds a BA in Folklore / English Literature and an MA in Public Folklore from MUN. Nicole currently works full time at the MUN Medical Founders' Archive, part-time on The Rooms reference desk and sits as vice president and education committee chair on the Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives board of directors. She is a strong advocate of community-level projects and inter-generational activities and regularly assists with educational activities that combine art and archives.
Follow Nicole on Twitter @AuntTriffie

Katherine Harvey - Katie is a folklorist whose primary interest is Museology. Since beginning her career in the heritage sector in 2009, she has worked in a variety of capacities with the Cupids Legacy Centre,The Rooms Provincial Museum, The Museum of Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove and The Railway Coastal Museum. She obtained her B.A. in Folklore from Memorial University in 2014, and has plans to return to complete her M.A. in Folklore.
Follow Katherine on Twitter @katieaharvey

Aimee Chaulk - Aimee is the editor of Them Days magazine, an oral history quarterly about Labrador, and the de-facto archivist at Them Days Archives. She received her Hon.B.A. from the University of Toronto, in English and Mediaeval Studies. She also attended Ryerson University’s Magazine Publishing program. Aimee is on the ANLA Executive, is a co-founder of the Tamarack Camera Club, and organizes community events in her spare time. You may have seen her breastfeeding and canoeing at the same time in Metrobus shelter ads.
Follow Aimee on Twitter @themdays

Dr. Lisa M. Daly - Lisa has been working in the heritage sector since 2001, first with the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador, then Parks Canada, and now as a tour guide, both independent and with Wildland Tours. She holds a B.A. in archaeology from MUN, a M.Sc. in forensic and biological anthropology from Bournemouth University, and has just completed a Ph.D. in archaeology at MUN. Her study focus is aviation in Newfoundland and Labrador. Up to now, most of her academic work has focused on World War II aviation in Gander, Goose Bay and Stephenville, but she has also done some work on pre- and post-war aviation history in the province. She is also collecting stories and images of the Hindenburg as it flew over Newfoundland.
Follow her work on Twitter @planecrashgirl or her blog, www.planecrashgirl.ca.

Caitlyn Baikie - Caitlyn is from the province's most northern community of Nain, and has been living in the capital studying Geography and Aboriginal Studies at Memorial University for the past four years. With experience in both the Arctic and Antarctic, she has been participating in climate research for nearly a decade and has been attempting to communicate the effects it has on Inuit culture. An avid volunteer, lover of chocolate, political junkie, and a curious mind for the world we live in Caitlyn thoroughly enjoys exploring her own history as an Inuk and sharing it with those who are willing to share a bit about their own history.
Follow Caitlyn on Twitter @CaitlynBaikie

Friday, March 6, 2015

Robyn Pike will be live-tweeting the Youth Heritage Forum! Follow along at #YHF2015


Our Youth Heritage Forum 2015 starts tomorrow, and we'll be live tweeting the event. You can follow along using the hashtag #YHF2015, and follow our @ICH_NL twitter account. 

To do this, we have recruited a pro to help us out!  Robyn Pike will be the person behind the tweet stream tomorrow, and we are delighted to have her help. Robyn is the President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Historic Trust. She received her B.A. from Memorial University in History and Newfoundland Studies. She's currently enrolled in the University of Victoria's Diploma in Public Relations program. Robyn works as a Social Marketing Consultant with Eastern Health's Health Promotion Division. 

We asked Robyn why she is passionate about heritage:
I spent five summers working as an interpreter at the Rorke Stores Museum in Carbonear and the Newman Wine Vaults Provincial Historic Site while I was attending MUN. Getting to share the stories of this place with visitors from here and abroad during my first summer encouraged me to pursue a History major and it all just went from there. I was employed by the Trust when I worked at the Newman Wine Vaults and I joined their board of directors a few years later. Holding on to our built heritage and adapting it for new uses during a period of huge economic development is near and dear to my heart.
Tune in tomorrow!

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Children's Songs and Rhymes

Sandra Antle (second from left) tells onlookers Don Antle, Andrea McGuire, Sharna Brzycki and Marg Connolly about a game she used to play. Photo by Jillian Gould
During the final Hoist your Sails and Run session, tradition-bearer Sandra Antle set down to remember some of the songs that she and her friends used to sing. Rhymes were part of skipping, clapping, and ball-bouncing games. She remembers this one about quarreling mothers:

My mother and your mother 
Lived across the bay,
And every night they picked a fight 
And this is what they'd say:
Icka Backa Soda Cracka
Icka Backa Boo
Icka Bakca Soda Cracka
Out goes you.

And this rhyme with a nautical theme:

I'm a little Dutch girl
Dressed in blue.
Here are the things I
Like to do;
Salute the Captain;
Bow to the Queen;
Turn my back
On the submarine.

Some circle games require the players to reenact the song. Take, for example, The Farmer in the Dell:

The farmer in the dell,
The farmer in the dell,
Hi-ho, the daireo,
The farmer in the dell,

The farmer takes a wife...

The wife takes a child...

The child takes a dog...

The dog takes a bone...

At the beginning, one person - the "farmer" - stands in the middle of the circle, and then chooses a "wife" to come stand in the circle with them. The "wife" chooses a "child," and so forth. As the song continues,

The farmer leaves the wife...

The wife leaves the child...

The child leaves the dog...

The dog leaves the bone...

the players step back into the outer circle one by one as they are called. Finally the player who has been chosen as "the bone" is left in the middle and the game can begin again.

What rhyming or singing games do you remember?

The launch of the booklet Looking Back; Games We Played will be at MacMorran Community Centre at 10am on Tuesday, March 24th. All are welcome. Please be in touch with me at 739-1892 ext 3 or by email for more details on the Hoist your Sails and Run project.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Two community approaches to oral history programs - #oralhistory



I'm always keeping an eye open to see what other community organizations and towns are doing with oral history and the collection and sharing of local stories.

Today, two different oral history projects ended up in my inbox, and I figured I would share them.

The first is from the community of Waterford, Ontario. Local freelance writer Brenda Dredge has been collecting local stories and writing them up in the community newspaper. In a February 27th article entitled "Oral history of bygone Waterford businesses," Dredge documents how she sat down with two residents, Bob and Marg Mason, to talk about the history of small businesses in the Southern Ontario town. She writes,
"While I have always known Waterford was once a thriving little business centre - thanks to stories told by my late maternal grandparents - I did not fully realize just how thriving it really was. The Masons were able to 'walk' me down Main St. and list all of the businesses that once operated there."
You can read Dredge's full article here.

Meanwhile, in Orlando, Florida, the College Park Neighborhood Association’s Historical Committee has been busy organizing what they call "Oral History Nights." College Park is a a distinct neighborhood within the city of Orlando. It derives its name from the many streets within its limits that were named for institutions of higher learning such as Yale, Princeton, and Harvard. Journalist Michael W. Freeman explains that,
 "Oral History Nights are special events sponsored by the committee, when they invite longtime residents to gather and talk about what the neighborhood was like in past decades, and recall College Park as they remember it growing up."
You can read the full article about Oral History Nights here.

I love the idea of Oral History Nights, which is very similar in some ways to the "Mug Up" program developed by our colleague Martha MacDonald at the Labrador Institute.  

If you know of a community in Newfoundland and Labrador doing something creative with local oral histories, give me a shout at ich@heritagefoundation.ca.


Monday, March 2, 2015

Youth Heritage Forum 2015 Guest Speaker - Aimee Chaulk

 Guest Speaker: Aimee Chaulk

Aimee Chaulk is the editor of Them Days magazine, an oral history quarterly about Labrador, and the de-facto archivist at Them Days Archives. She received her Hon.B.A. from the University of Toronto, in English and Medieval Studies. She also attended Ryerson University’s Magazine Publishing program. Aimee is on the Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives Executive, is a co-founder of the Tamarack Camera Club, and organizes community events in her spare time. You may have seen her breastfeeding and canoeing at the same time in Metrobus shelter ads.  

Why are you passionate about heritage?
Looking back, my love of (obsession with) Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books was probably an indication that I would be editor of Them Days someday—they’re basically an extended Them Days story about the American Midwest. I’ve always been interested in people’s stories and the way things were done, in how those things have changed and how they’ve stayed the same. On a personal level, working in heritage has been a way to explore and deepen my appreciation for my roots. I love the way it has also widened my social circle—despite my youth, I’m practically an honorary member of the Friendship Centre’s 55+ club! Learning traditional skills is a great way to close the generation gap.
Want to hear more from Aimee? Join us for Youth Heritage Forum 2015!

Keep up to date, join our Youth Heritage Forum Facebook Event!  

Friday, February 27, 2015

Saving Our Stories - Oral History Workshop in Norris Point March 20th



The ICH office is hitting the road! I'll be running a community oral history workshop at the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital, 2-6 Hospital Lane, Norris Point, on March 20th, 2015. The workshop is being organized in Norris Point by the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital Heritage Corporation.

It is free to attend, but you need to register in advance.

Contact: Joan Cranston; Coordinator; 709-458-2875 (daytime); or 709-458-8032 (cell); or email jcranston@nf.sympatico.ca.

Facebook event listing here.