Heritage NL receives Community Builder Award from the NL Association of Professional Planners

Lara Maynard, Heritage NL Heritage Skills Training Coordinator; Andrea O'Brien, Heritage NL Municipal Outreach Officer; Julia Schwarz, NLAPP President.

In celebration of World Town Planning Day 2022, Heritage NL has been awarded the 2022 NLAPP Community Builder Award for making heritage relevant to the present day. The award is presented by the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Professional Planners, the provincial membership body for professional planners.

Heritage NL has been running a long-standing heritage grant program, and an annual heritage poster contest in schools. It has expanded its community outreach for public workshops and events. The NLAPP Nominating Committee’s recommendation reads:

“Heritage NL is making heritage relevant to the present day in terms of housing, economic activity, community involvement, cultural awareness, historical memory, and place-making.  Along with a long-standing heritage grant program and annual heritage poster contest in schools, Heritage NL has been expanding its community outreach for public workshops and events – everything from documenting and cleaning headstones in graveyards to holding community story-telling days and building wooden wriggle fences.  Heritage NL has published a booklet of historic paint colours, mapped community assets in workshops with residents of many NL communities, and helped plan for adapting and reusing old buildings to new uses.  This work is the very definition of community building, with a planning lens to shape it.”

Heritage NL was established in 1984 to stimulate an understanding of and an appreciation for the historic places and living heritage of the province, through projects that support local economic development and tourism. The foundation also has an educational role and coordinates events, publications and other projects designed to promote the value of Newfoundland and Labrador heritage. 

Building heritage partnerships in the Heart's Content to Hant's Harbour region.

On Feb 19, 2019, Heritage NL staff met with representatives from Heart's Content, New Perlican, Winterton, and Hant's Harbour, as a follow-up to the "Building Heritage Together: Heart’s Content to Hant’s Harbour Heritage Area" meeting held last November.

The group met to discuss the recommendations made in the report generated from that earlier meeting, to talk about current plans and needs for the heritage communities in the region, and to make a plan for some future collaborative work.

One of the recommendations that came out of the February meeting was to create a shared Google Calendar of heritage events for the region. You can look at that new (mostly empty) calendar here - if you have events coming up in the area, email dale@heritagenl.ca and we will add them.

Happy Birthday to Darlene King, who celebrated her birthday with us that day!

Minutes of the meeting are available to read right here.

St. John's harbourfront before Harbour Drive #Folklorephoto

View of the St. John's Court House from wharf [1954]. Photograph courtesy of the Portugal Cove St. Philip's Archives (Allen and Pearl Squires Fonds)

These two photographs were taken by Allen and Pearl Squires in 1954 and show downtown St. John's before the addition of Harbour Drive. Do you remember the change to the harbourfront?

View of St. John's harbourfront and wharves [1954]. Photograph courtesy of the Portugal Cove St. Philip's Archives. 

Living Heritage Podcast Ep026 Building a Happy City, with Dave Lane

Dave Lane wears several hats: he is Development Partner at the marketing firm Dc Design House, managing a team web developers, designers, and social media experts; he is a Councillor at Large for the City of St. John's, chairing and sitting on several committees; he is an entrepreneur, building an online business; he is a musician, singing with the Quintessential and Innismara Vocal Ensembles; and he is a fiancée, washing dishes and driving his better half to and from work. We discuss how Dave got his start in heritage, the work of Happy City, community engagement, smart development, and built heritage.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep010 Community Heritage Programs with Julie Pomeroy

Julie Pomeroy has been the Heritage Programs and Services Coordinator for Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s since the fall of 2012 and has also been a member of the Heritage Committee in Logy Bay- Middle Cove- Outer Cove for the past 5 years. Julie graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from MUN and has completed a number of workshops with MANL (Museum Association Newfoundland and Labrador) and ANLA (Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives). We discuss Julie’s introduction to heritage work, her work as a Heritage Programs and Services Coordinator, the settlement of Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s, family history, and community museums and archives.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep003 - Community Engagement with Dennis Garreck @SaskCulture

In this episode of the Living Heritage podcast, folklorist Dale Jarvis speaks with Dennis Garreck of SaskCulture. 

Dennis Garreck has over 30 yrs experience working at the local, municipal, and provincial level as a programmer, manager and consultant. Dennis has been with SaskCulture for the past 14 years, working with communities on cultural engagement and planning, as well as managing three funding programs and liaising with provincial cultural organizations. Most recently he has been working on an ecomuseum advisory committee, community engagement animateurs, a living heritage region, and community outreach. Dennis talks about the work of SaskCulture to engage citizens across Saskatchewan in their own heritage and culture, inclusivity and cultural diversity, the ecomuseum concept, and the importance of maintaining and sharing local stories.

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.

PSA: Youth Heritage Forum, March 7th

The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Intangible Cultural Heritage office is looking for youth representatives from local heritage organizations and community groups to attend our upcoming Youth Heritage Forum. We hope to bring together youth, ages 18-35, from various backgrounds to discuss heritage and what they would like to see happen in this field in the future.

Heritage organizations and community groups in the Avalon Region are invited to nominate 1-2 youth representatives to attend.

If you are a youth passionate about heritage and would like to become involved please contact Alanna Wicks at 1-888-739-1892 [Ex 5] or email to alanna@heritagefoundation.ca

Listen to Alanna speak with VOCM's Paddy Daly:

A Grand Day for a Celebration

A crowd of Bay Roberts residents gather to celebrate Cable Avenue's 100th birthday.

Last Friday afternoon the HFNL with help from the Town of Bay Roberts and the Bay Roberts Heritage Committee held a public plaque presentation and cake cutting ceremony at the Western Union Cable Station.  It was a successful event as we officially recognized Cable Avenue as a Registered Heritage District while celebrating its 100th birthday. Past and current residents of the district gathered under the shade of the iconic chestnut trees to hear speeches and reminisce about life on the Avenue. The cake was unveiled and cut by Randy Collins, a long-time homeowner on the Avenue, and contributor to the "100 Years of Cable Avenue" display at the Road to Yesterday Museum.

Special thanks to Marilyn Dawe, Eric and Betty Jerrett (and the Bay Roberts Heritage Society Inc.), Mayor Phillip Wood, and M.H.A. Glenn Littlejohn for all of their support in the planning of this community event. 

Some current and former residents of Cable Avenue come together at the community celebration.

Glenn Littlejohn (centre) presents a Heritage Foundation plaque to Eric Jerrett (left) and Mayor Wood (right) on behalf of the province to commemorate the restoration of the Western Union Cable Station (ca. 1913).

-Lisa

Quidi Vidi Village Oral History and Folklore Project Launch

Memorial's Department of Folklore, Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, and City of St. John's, in cooperation with The Quidi Vidi Village Foundation, invite you to the launch of the

Quidi Vidi Village Oral History and Folklore Project
Wednesday, May 8th, 7pm
The Plantation

Starting this summer, MUN Folklore and the Heritage Foundation will be researching the folklore and oral history of the Village. On Wednesday night, folklorists Jerry Pocius and Dale Jarvis will be presenting on this exciting project, and who will be involved.

Hope to see you there!

Coffee, tea and conversation to follow.

Facebook event listing here.

Making Memory Maps

On Saturday November 10th, the ICH team at the Heritage Foundation put on a Memory Map Workshop facilitated by visual artist Marlene Creates. We had a good turnout with around 20 participants ranging from Memorial University students and faculty to community organization representatives and other people who have an interest in mapping projects.

Marlene first talked about some of her previous mapping work, including an excursion to Labrador to make memory maps with elders, as well as projects which involved asking community members to give awards to special places in their towns. After setting a foundation for how memory maps are made and how they can be useful tools in learning more about a community, she asked the participants to make a map of their own. We all sat down with paper, pencils and pencil crayons to draw a map from memory of a place that we feel closely connected to. One of Marlene's techniques that I found quite useful is to put tracing paper over a foundation map in order to create layers with specific themes. For example, on tracing paper above my memory map, I indicated where all of the vanished buildings once stood in my Mother's hometown. Other layers that I could have chosen to add include green spaces/trees, waterways and footpaths. Doing such layers asks the map maker to think about the space and visualize what it looks like (or looked like in the past) and how it makes use of space. My map, along with all the others made on that day, became a celebration of our special places, both past and present, from very personal perspectives.

Marlene Creates giving a talk on making memory maps.

Workshop participant working on the foundational layer of her memory map. 

Workshop participants working on their personal memory maps. 

A second layer is added to the map using tracing paper and colored pencils. This participant marks off the social spaces of her hometown, with indications of gender and frequency through the size and color of her dots. 

Workshop participant showing the map that she created for the workshop. After this we added a third and final layer which involved writing down information about the places marked off on our maps. We were encouraged to be as creative as we wanted to be!

One of the last things we did together during the workshop was share the contents of our maps with the other participants. It was very interesting to see how diverse the range in topic and style was. Some maps were very traditional with streets and buildings, others with more innovative with only one building and it's associated memories, plants, animals, and other unexpected features showing up. It was clear to us how mapping from memory can be used in many ways for all kinds of different personal and/or community building activities. More documentation and information regarding Marlene Creates' mapping projects can be seen on her website: http://www.marlenecreates.ca/ .
-Lisa

Avalon Folklore Project - working with communities to safeguard culture

We are launching new folklore project which I'm very excited about!

Since 2008, the Intangible Cultural Heritage office of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) has worked to provide a broad range of training workshops throughout the province. While this approach has reached a lot of communities, there is often little opportunity for follow-up support, or on-site guidance, as community groups develop their own projects.

In response to this lack of follow-up, we have developed a project-based training program to help community groups, this year with a focus on the Avalon peninsula region.

The Avalon Folklore Project is exciting for me because I will get to work alongside a community group, from start to finish, as they develop a small local folklore project.

Communities in the area will submit ideas for projects to the foundation, which will select two projects for work in 2012.

The foundation will walk the community through the process of planning and implementing their project. We will give project-specific training and lead community-based workshops.

The training will culminate in a final presentation or community activity, where the general public will be invited to see the collected research.

We often hear about traditions that are under threat. The Avalon Folklore Project will allow us to work with communities on those parts of their culture that they feel are important to safeguard.

Interested communities can contact me toll free at 1-888-739-1892 ext 2, or email ich@heritagefoundation.ca. Priority will be given to projects where traditions are currently in danger of being lost, or which are in communities where the ICH office has not done work in the past.

Deadline for submissions is July 31st, 2012.