Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Job Posting: Doors Open St. John’s Coordinator

Job Posting: Doors Open St. John’s Coordinator

Doors Open (http://www.doorsopendays.com) is a unique opportunity for the citizens and visitors of Newfoundland and Labrador to celebrate our architecture and heritage through the exploration of some of our hidden historical, architectural and cultural gems. The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador is hiring a coordinator, who will work with participating sites to ensure they are able to offer visitors well-interpreted access to sites normally unseen, or accessible by fee only. Doors Open this year will run the last weekend of September.

Job will run from July 19th - October 1st, 2010

Based on a wage of $14/hour, dependant on funding.

Skills:  Applicant must have exceptional organizational skills, event planning, excellent organizational skills, strong communication skills, liaising between institutions/organizations, promotions, computer skills including word processing, email, knowledge of Newfoundland and Labrador history, interest in or knowledge about heritage and culture.

Eligibility Requirements:
Pending funding, the position is open to youth aged 19-30.

Deadline:  Monday, July 12th

To apply: Please review eligibility criteria carefully before applying. Send resume and cover letter, with 3 references, by mail or email to:

Mr. Dale Jarvis
Heritage Foundation of NL
PO Box 5171, St. John’s, NL A1C 5V5

Symposium of Music, Dance and Place


Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media and Place (MMaP)
July 2, 2010

Session I: 8:00 to 9:30 a.m.
PETTAN, Svanibor
(University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Dance House – A European Model of Folk Music and Dance Revival in Urban Settings; A Case
Study from Slovenia

HARRIS WALSH, Kristin
(Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)
Identity, Community and Irishness in the Diaspora – Step Dancing in Ireland and
Newfoundland and Labrador

KIDULA, Jean
(University of Georgia, USA)
Nostalgia, Memory and Currency in the Music and Dance of Kenya Rugby Sevens Events

[15-minute break]

Session II: 9:45-11:45
ARAƚJO, Samuel
(Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Expressive Praxis and Political Action: Perspectives from a Participatory Action-Research
Experience in Rio de Janeiro

HEMETEK, Ursula
(University of Music and Performing Arts, Austria)
Imagined and Concrete Places in the Music of Migrant Communities: “Home” in Different
Manifestations

BLAIR, Graham
(Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)
It Rings True: Verisimilitude in Post-Revivalist Recreations of Oldtime Music and Dance in a
Canadian Coastal City

TRAN QUANG Hai
(National Center for Scientific Research, France)
Throat Singing: Western World vs. Siberian World

Lunch: 11:45-12:30

Session III: 12:30-2:30
TAN Sooi Beng
(Science University of Malaysia, Malaysia)
Articulating Multi-Locality: Eclectism in the Musical Cultures of the Peranakan of Penang

WILD, Stephen
(Australian National University, Australia)
Dislocation and Revitalisation in Central Australia: Music and Dance in the Identity of Place

VAN ZANTEN, Wim
(Leiden University, The Netherlands)
Space and Time in the Performing Arts of the Baduy Minority Group in West Java

KAEPPLER, Adrienne
(Smithsonian Institution, USA)
Indigenous Knowledge of Placenames as Perpetuated in the Story of the Volcano Goddess
Pele

[15-minute break]

Session IV: 2:45-4:15
SHEEN Dae-Cheol
(The Academy of Korean Studies, Korea)
Royal Shrine and Confucian Shrine in Seoul, Korea: To Be Called What Place?

CASTELO-BRANCO, Salwa El-Shawan
(New University of Lisbon – FCSH, Portugal)
Regionalism and Expressive Culture in Portugal

TULK, Janice Esther
(Cape Breton University, Canada)
Sound, Place, and Identity: The Corner Brook Mill Whistle as Soundmark

[15-minute break]

Session V: 4:30-5:30
Newfoundland Traditional Singers: Pat Byrne, Eleanor Dawson, Jean Hewson


For more information, contact:

Dr. Kristin Harris Walsh
Project Coordinator
Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media and Place
School of Music
Memorial University of Newfoundland
(709) 737-2051

Help track down a mystery recitation from Bell Island or Conche

We have a mystery for you to help solve!

I got an email from Mr Ray Byrne, a native of Conche on the Northern Peninsula, now living in Edmonton. He is trying to find the words to a recitation his father used to do.

"My father's name was Jim Byrne and he worked on Bell Island in the early part of the 20th century," says Ray. "I mention this because I wonder if that's where he found it and if so there may be a possibility that someone out there is familiar with it."

Jim Byrne's title for the recitation was "The Trawler". Some of the lyrics his son remembers are:

(OPENING VERSE)

Now the capelin have struck the beach
And the time has come for spawning
See the trawler there with his oilskins on
He's been there since the dawning

Aw, he says, it's fishin' I'll give up
And I'll go berry pickin'
I'll sell them and get the cash
And it's the merchants I'll be trickin'

There is also a mention of Baccalieu in one line, according to Ray. If you have any thoughts, or know the piece, comment here, or email your friendly neighbourhood folklorist at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Job Posting: Preservation Advisor

The Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives (ANLA) is seeking an individual for a contract to provide preservation-specific advice to member institutions for a maximum of 199 hours over the year 2010-2011.

The individual selected to carry out this project will perform duties as
follows:
  • Inquiries: responding to member inquiries by phone and arranging follow up consultations (69 hours)
  • Site Visits: it is anticipated that there will be visits to central Newfoundland, as well as locations in the St. John's area. Time spent in each location will be subject to member needs (105 hours)
  • Administration: Preparing reports, gathering statistics and meeting with Professional Development and Outreach Officer and ANLA Executive (5hours)
  • 'Blog Updates: Providing useful information and references, based on incoming inquiries, through use of ANLA's archival 'blog (10 hours).
  • PDO (Professional Development Officer) Assistance: Providing training to the PDO for responding to future inquiries from member institutions about preservation needs (10 hours).

The successful applicant will have graduated from a recognized conservation training program and will have a background in preventative conservation and in the treatment and handling of a variety of paper and digital media. Experience in working with community groups would be an asset. A driver's license would also be an asset.

The position will run for 199 hours, these hours to be allocated by the ANLA executive in consultation with the preservation advisor.

The successful candidate will be expected to work independently from home and report on a regular basis to the ANLA executive.

The competition closes on July 2, 2010.

Please submit applications to the ANLA office (address below) or via email at anla@nf.aibn.com .

Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives
P.O. Box 23155
St. John's, NL
A1B 4J9

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Storytelling, Digital Media, and Intangible Cultural Heritage - June Update



In this month's edition of Newfoundland and Labrador's ICH Update, SmartLabrador and its project partners launch a CD of stories and songs entitled Between the Wind and the Wave; the community of Rigolet is in the process of creating the My Word: Storytelling and Digital Media Lab, the first Northern centre in the world dedicated to using digital media and storytelling to share information about Inuit culture, history, and lifestyle through personal narrative; we release a sample tape log form for people indexing and transcribing oral history interviews; updates on the Digital Archives Initiative; and Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada announce a scholarship for young storytelling enthusiasts in Newfoundland and Labrador.


Download the newsletter in pdf format at: http://tinyurl.com/26x5rp3


Thursday, June 3, 2010

Sample Tape Log Form for Folklore and Oral History Interviews

Earlier this week, I had a conversation with a historical society. The group is planning on digitizing and organizing some old taped interviews. When they said they didn't really know what was on the tapes, I suggested a good place to start might be with a Tape Log for each tape. Basically, a tape log is an index of topics that the interview covers. It is easier than doing a full transcription, and makes it easier for later researchers to go directly to that section of tape and listen to the part of the interview they are interested in.

"With this tape log, you will later be able to go back and select portions of the tape to listen to and transcribe (word-for-word translation of the tape-recorded interview). Complete tape transcriptions are important, but they are also very time-consuming. A good compromise is to do a combination of logging and transcribing: log the general contents of the tape and transcribe, word for word, the parts that you think you might want to quote directly."

- taken from "The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide" available online at:
http://www.folklife.si.edu/education_exhibits/resources/guide/introduction.aspx

While you can certainly do this with tapes themselves, digitizing the material makes things easier in today's digital age. It is also helpful from a conservation perspective.

"I'd digitize first and work with the digitized copies," says Mary Ellen Wright, Professional Development and Outreach Officer with ANLA. "That would be better from a preservation perspective -- save wear and tear on the original tapes."

We've developed our own version of a tape log form, based on the example given by the Smithsonian. The forms can be downloaded, along with other sample forms such as consent forms, at:
http://www.mun.ca/ich/resources/

Or you can download the pdf version directly at:
http://www.mun.ca/ich/resources/TapeLogFolkloreInterviews.pdf

Or the word document version directly at:
http://www.mun.ca/ich/resources/TapeLogFolkloreInterviews.rtf

The US-based Veterans History Project has a similar form on its website at:
http://www.loc.gov/vets/forms.html