Looking for supernatural stories, and poems and songs about Bay Roberts

Do you have a ghost story from the Bay Roberts area, or a memory of someone who was a wart charmer? The Bay Roberts Cultural Foundation is looking for stories, and would love to hear from you! We are interested in stories of the supernatural, as well as recitations, songs and poems about Bay Roberts. Call Cyndi toll free at; 1-888-739-1892 ext 3 or email her at cak046@mun.ca

Help wanted - The Cultural History of Jam Jams, Billy Boots, and Pineapple Crush

Purity Jam Jams, Billy Boot garbage bags, and Pineapple Crush pop have become iconic Newfoundland products, with unique ties to Newfoundland history and culture.

Morgan Murray at The Scope is trying to unravel/uncover/figure out the history of the cultural significance of these products in NL, e.g. how and why they have become so popular, and the important political, historical, and social factors that have made them, and kept them so.

If you have any information, theories, insights, or wild guesses about any of these products, please contact Morgan at morgan@thescope.ca.

Phantoms of the French Shore

Below, you will find links to Phantoms of the French Shore blogs (La Tapisserie du French Shore). They are about a French-Newfoundland tapestry project and the film based on the tapestry.

The contents on both blogs are the same; one is in English and the other in French.

http://french-newfoundland.blogspot.ca/

http://latapisseriedufrenchshore.blogspot.ca/

Fresh generated content is posted twice a week, and if you have any question, you can contact Terence Mbulaheni at terencebm@yahoo.com

Make and Break Festival, Heritage Plaques, UNESCO and Bay Roberts

It has been a busy few months for the ICH office at the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL), and we are gearing up for a very busy summer.  In this edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update, there are a few big announcements, including the accreditation of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador by UNESCO, and the launch of our 2012 Folklife Festival, which this year will take place in Bonavista on August 4th, with a celebration of Newfoundland’s iconic make and break boat engine. We also go looking for supernatural stories and local songs in Bay Roberts, and gather information about HFNL's historic plaque program.

Download the newsletter in pdf format.

"Runs on Screech" - The most awesome heritage photo you'll see this Friday

Our intern Nicole Penney is working on organizing the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador's old Registered Heritage Structure files, and came across this gem in the collections from 562-564 Water Street in St. John's.

We don't know much about the photo, only that it dates to c1940, and shows Morrissey's shop in the background. In the 1940s a Mr. Morrissey sold provisions and groceries from the store, up until 1969/1970. As for the young gentleman in the car, they are a mystery. Let us know if you have any ideas! Email ich@heritagefoundation.ca if you know anything about the car, or the men in the photo.

Read more about the history of the building in the background here.

UPDATE!

Folklorist Philip Hiscock writes:

I bet it's not as early as the 1940s. My guess is the mid-1950s.  Hairstyles seem to be mid-1950s.
The use of "kid" (around well before the 1950s) was popularised in that decade by popular songs etc.
"Screech" was hammered down as local usage in the mid-1950s when the Board of Liquor Control labelled one of its locally bottled Demerara rums "Screech." (But it had been popular as a local name for rum since at least the 1940s.)

Attention all Newfoundland Make & Break Engine Enthusiasts

Joelle Carey, our public folklore intern for this summer, has been hard at work spreading the word about our Make and Break Flotilla and Parts Swap in Bonavista this August.

You can check out the new Newfoundland Make and Break Engine Enthusiasts page on Facebook, and check out the interview she did with Ted Blades on CBC radio about the project. If you know of a working engine, email her at joelle@heritagefoundation.ca 

Make and Break Engines: Running the Past Into the Future

- The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador -

- recognizes iconic marine engines in 2012 Provincial Folklife Festival - 

There is a sound that was once ubiquitous to the waters in Newfoundland that has sparked the interest of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL). Putt-putt; putt-putt – the sound of Make and Break engines once filled the skies from dawn to dusk as busy fisherman worked to sustain their families and their island.

This summer HFNL wants to restore the interest that Newfoundlanders once had in these rhythmic engines. A series of oral history interviews, to be conducted throughout the island, will lead up to the 2012 Provincial Folklife Festival in Bonavista, which will focus on the iconic marine engines. Events for the festival will be held on Saturday, August 4 in Bonavista, as part of the town’s inaugural Church Street Festival.

Joelle Carey is a public folklore intern with HFNL and a graduate student in Memorial University’s Department of Folklore.

“By working on this project we hope to promote the marine history of the province,” says Carey. “It’s a great opportunity to get people talking about these engines that are such an important part of life in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

The oral history project will take the form of interviews conducted by Carey throughout the summer months. These interviews, along with pictures of the motors found, will then be added to Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative. This archive will be accessible to the public online.

The Heritage Foundation has secured the partnership of Parks Canada through association with Ryan Premises National Historic Site in Bonavista.

“Through the many conversations I have had in organizing this event, I am repeatedly inspired by the glazed-eyes that come over people and the small smiles that appear on their faces as they recall their particular fond memories of times spent on or near the water,” says Pat Carroll, with Parks Canada.

“The Ryan Premises National Historic Site of Canada is honoured to be a part of this event,” says Carroll, “and to have a role in the celebration and rejuvenation of one of the resounding traditions of Newfoundland and Labrador, Atlantic Canada and of the whole of Canada.”

The festival events will take place in Bonavista on August 4 and will include a Make and Break flotilla and a parts swap.

HFNL would like to hear from anyone with memories or an interest in Make and Break engines. If you are interested in getting involved by sharing your stories or if you have an engine, please email joelle@heritagefoundation.ca or call, toll free, 1-888-739-1892 ext. 5.

Two online fora for NGO work on the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage

At the UNESCO NGO meeting this morning in Paris, two online resources were referenced to help NGOs network with each other:

The NGO Forum To the Convention on Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage

and

The Intangible cultural heritage and civil society Facebook page

If you are part of a  heritage organization doing work on ICH, check them out.

Paris Notes: ICH Researchers Forum and UNESCO General Assembly on ICH

I arrived in Paris yesterday, and since then have had a day and a half of interesting meetings and conversations already.

I got here in time Sunday to take in the second half of the Forum of ICH Researchers meeting at la Maison des Cultures du Monde. The first panel session was on community participation in the safeguarding of ICH under the Convention, chaired by Toshiyuki Kono. There were several different papers presented, but the two that interested me particularly were the papers given by Win van Zanten, an ethnomusicologist from the University of Leiden, and Marc Jacobs, the director of the Flemish Interface Centre for Cultural Heritage.

Van Zanten looked at some of the short films on the UNESCO website for Intangible Cultural Heritage (see some of them here). He argued that they were important because they increase the visibility of ICH, but thought that they could do more to document the tradition in relation to community, and that the larger social context could be better documented. He also raised the idea of showing the film back to community, filming their reaction, and include their comments.

Jacobs presented on heritage communities and safeguarding programs, and argued that the critical success factor to safeguarding programs is the presence of a cultural broker, someone who can walk the community through the processes involved in an ICH project. He argued that these mediators are crucial for building bridges, and providing followup that goes beyond pure documentation. It was music to my ears, and a validation of the work we are undertaking with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, particularly the project-based training model we are working on, and which we will hopefully be doing more with later this year.

The second panel session was on identifying priority areas for research, facilitated by Harriet Deacon, Hon. Research Fellow at the University of Capetown. I've followed her excellent posts on Twitter @the_archive for a while now, so it was nice to meet her in person. Misako Ohnuki, Deputy Director of the International Research Centre for ICH in Asia and the Pacific Region, who I'd also only ever met online, was first up, talking about documentation as a tool for safeguarding the ICH of communities. Then Deacon and Chiaro Bortolotto talked about their impressive project to document and track current published research on ICH. It was noted that there are gaps in the research, with a large amount of grey literature that has not been documented, and a growing body of practical handbooks, guides and suchlike documents being produced by NGOs which are not part of the academic literature.

The meeting ended with a decision that the Forum should meet again, annually if possible. I'll keep you posted on developments.

This morning was the start of the fourth session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage at UNESCO Headquarters. It was a fascinating day, with some very interesting comments made by a variety of state party representatives.

One of the topics up for debate was whether there should be a ceiling placed on the number of nominations the secretariat can examine each year for the Convention's Lists, which include the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, and the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The presentations were insightful and at times passionate. The general consensus was that a ceiling on the number of nominations is necessary because of the time and resources required to properly assess each nomination. But there was also a general sense that the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding not be limited, as it represents traditions under particular threat.

There is also a listing of programmes, projects and activities for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage considered to best reflect the principles and objectives of the Convention, a list which seems to be somewhat undersubscribed, and it was suggested that due to the small number of listings, a cap not be placed on that list either.

A need for best practices led to many state party representatives talking about the importance of safeguarding ICH, stating that the listing of traditions is less important within their jurisdictions than the active safeguarding of those traditions to ensure they continue at the community level. Many state parties returned to this theme over the course of the day: Austria noted the importance of UNESCO capacity-building initiatives in safeguarding ICH, Cuba talked about the need for ICH training at regional level; Jordan expressed the importance of community-level work in safeguarding ICH; and St Lucia stressed that listing is less important to some regions than the work inventorying and safeguarding. 

All in all, a fascinating day, and a remarkable first look, for me, at how the ICH General Assembly works.

The day ended with a rather remarkable presentation from Mongolia, mixing traditional ethnic costume, high fashion, traditional (and very modern) music, dance, throat singing, gymnastics, contortionism, and hand-balancing. All in a day's work, really.

Sleep, soon, perhaps, with another three days yet to come, and the ICH non-governmental organizations' meeting first thing tomorrow morning!

Two more baskets: a creel and a picnic basket from Carbonear

My obsession with Newfoundland baskets continues... I've got a series of photos sent to me by Frank Parsons of two baskets which he inherited from his father. The first, a creel, or trout basket, was bought in Carbonear in the 1950s, possibly the late 40s. The date of the picnic basket is more uncertain, but it dates to the 1950s at least. A query for Carbonear natives: which shop would have sold these, or items like this?

If you have an idea, email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca 

Putt-Putt-Putt-Putt: Looking for memories of "Make and Break" Engines

There is a distinct sound that can be heard on the waters around Newfoundland and Labrador, putt-putt, putt-putt; the sounds of an antique “make and break” engine cuts through the air. At one time this sound was ubiquitous to small fishing communities throughout the province, but now the rhythmic chugging of the make and break is to be cherished when heard.

Make and break inboard motors were among the first technological advances to help revolutionize fishing in Newfoundland and Labrador. They allowed fishermen to save their strength for fishing, not wasting it on paddling or hauling sails as they had done before. Most often installed in trap skiffs, the hull was first cut to accommodate water intake and output, which helped cool the engine. The large motor was then bolted to the inside of the boat, usually in a motor house, with the propeller advancing through the stern, driving the vessel forward. These dependable, sturdy, single cylinder, gasoline engines have been called many names, and while make and break is the most common, putt-putt engine, one-liners, or pik-a-puk, are all used to describe the same type of engine.

Do you, or someone you know, have a make and break engine? If so, we would love to hear from you! The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador is looking for running engines and stories from their owners. If you have an engine or a memory to share, please email joelle@heritagefoundation.ca or call, toll free, 1-888-739-1892 ext. 5.