Tuesday, May 27, 2008

ICH Workshop: Stories, Memories, Facts and Family

Friday, June 13th, 2008
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The Lantern, Barnes Road, St. John’s


Ever want to collect and tell your family stories? Want to learn how to interview family members, preserve the oral stories, and weave together family facts and experiences into tellable tales? Join storyteller Cindy Campbell from Nova Scotia for this workshop that will help you create or re-create stories to pass along to the next generation. A Family Stories Workbook will be provided to help get you started.

About Cindy Campbell, Workshop Leader

Cindy is a storyteller, born and raised in Nova Scotia with roots in Prince Edward Island. She heard her first oral stories as a child while sitting around her grandmother’s kitchen listening to the adults talk. These were snippets of stories about people, events and community history. As an adult, she became interested in storytelling when she attended the 3rd Annual National Conference of Storytellers of Canada/ Conteurs du Canada in Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1995. Soon, she became fascinated with regional stories and histories, family stories and personal stories. Cindy has performed at festivals, conferences and special events all across the country. In 2006, Cindy toured the Gaspe Region as a Storyteller for CASA and was a traveling Storyteller for the TD Canadian Children’s Book Tour.

In 2006, Cindy was project manager for the Youth In Storytelling Initiative which encouraged the use of Storytelling in the schools, encouraged youth to collect their family stories, and the final stage was a Family Storytelling Contest. This project was in partnership with The Storytellers Circle of Halifax and Pier 21 National Historic Site. Cindy is also working on a Community Stories project for Cole Harbour Heritage Farm where the information from taped interviews are woven into stories. She is the Provincial Representative for Storytellers of Canada/ Conteurs du Canada, Coordinator of the Storytellers Circle of Halifax, and Storytelling Liaison for the Helen Creighton Folklore Society. In Halifax, from November 14 -16, the Helen Creighton Folklore Society will host the 2008 Conference for the Canadian Society For Traditional Music. Cindy is co-chair of this conference along with Clary Croft.

FREE Workshop, limited seating, participants must pre-register.

Register by fax (709-739-5413) phone (709-739-1892 ext 3) or email info@heritagefoundation.ca

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

First provincial folklorist a Memorial alumnus

By Janet Harron Reprinted from today.mun.ca

Memorial University alumnus Dale Jarvis has been named Newfoundland and Labrador’s first provincial folklorist. Mr. Jarvis, who holds an MA in Folklore, has worked for 13 years with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL).

Well known locally from his involvement in storytelling festivals and the famed St. John’s Haunted Hike, Mr. Jarvis is also the author of two popular books on Newfoundland and Labrador folklore and ghost stories and a third volume for young adults.

His entrepreneurial streak will serve him well in his new position as Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Development Officer for the province.

“Our intangible cultural heritage is in everything we do, and it is such a huge part of the vibrant, living culture we have in Newfoundland and Labrador,” says Mr. Jarvis. “It is going to be exceptionally exciting work, and I am very enthusiastic about diving in.”

Having worked as the provincial registrar for historic buildings, Mr. Jarvis is excited about moving from the tangible examples of our built heritage to the intangible and foresees much future crossover between his position and the folklore faculty of Memorial in terms of, among other things, providing technical expertise.

Department head Dr. Diane Tye couldn’t be more pleased at the government’s decision to recognize the culture and tradition of the province as one of its greatest resources.

“We are very pleased with the appointment of Mr Jarvis as ICH Development Officer,” says Dr. Tye. “We expect that this growing partnership will lead to closer collaboration between the university and the Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation in developing future policies and programs. The Folklore Department is committed to documenting and preserving local culture in Newfoundland and Labrador and this new position will help bring folklore to the public view in different and exciting ways.”

Mr. Jarvis is actively seeking input from the general public and encourages both communities and individuals to get in touch. The new provincial folklorist can be reached by telephone at 1-888-739-1892 or by email at ich@heritagefoundation.ca. His blog can be found at http://doodledaddle.blogspot.com.

April 21, 2008

Monday, May 12, 2008

Oral History Workshop Ideas

One of the projects I've been starting up with the province's new ICH position is a workshop of some sort on fieldwork and archival approaches for communities doing intangible cultural heritage work. I'll be putting up resources as I find them, but I stumbled across this very short video on Youtube about an oral history workshop, and thought I'll post it here.



I like this little video as well, part of an oral history project done through the College of Sante Fe:

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Oral Tradition and the Virtual World

On Saturday May 17 at 10 AM PDT the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS), with the collaboration of the New Media Consortium, is hosting a reflection on storytelling in virtual environments in the form of a panel in the online virtual world known as Second Life.

Joe Lambert (Director, Center for Digital Storytelling) and Ana Boa-Ventura (PhD Candidate, University of Texas at Austin) will be moderating, and speakers will be logging in from Newfoundland, Spain, China, New Zealand and the US, and covering areas from folklore to multimedia journalism to virtual performance.

Dale Jarvis, Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Officer for Newfoundland and Labrador, will be one of the presenters, with a talk entitled "Not in my time, and not in your time: Oral Tradition and the Virtual World." The following is the presentation abstract, taken from the conference outline:

Oral storytelling is the art of using language, vocalization, and/or physical movement to reveal the elements and images of a story to a specific, live audience. "Telling" involves direct contact between teller and listener. A central, unique aspect of oral storytelling is its reliance on the audience to develop specific visual imagery and detail to complete and co-create the story in their minds. The teller's role is to prepare and present the necessary language, vocalization, and physicality to communicate the images of a story effectively and efficiently. The challenge, in the 21st century, is to take this most ancient of art forms, and recreate it in virtual settings, where some of the physical intimacy between teller and audience is lost. Storyteller and folklorist Dale Gilbert Jarvis will present some thoughts on virtual storytelling and the impact, and potential, of the digital age on intangible cultural heritage.
The full list of speakers can be downloaded in pdf format. In-world participants can take part in the sessions at the Second Life Campus of the Center for Digital Storytelling.