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Charlene Rumbolt’s creative journey
Exploring Reconciliation
Latest from Silver Wolf Band
Big Land Trivia
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Published by Downhome Inc. 43 James Lane, St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3 1-888-588-6353 • www.insidelabrador.ca
Editor-in-chief Janice Stuckless
Marketing Director Tiffany Boone
Assistant Editor Nicola Ryan
Publisher and CEO Grant Young
Art Director Vince Marsh
President and Associate Publisher Todd Goodyear
Distribution and Subscription Representative Marlena Grant
General Manager and Assistant Publisher Tina Bromley
Advertising Sales Account Manager Barbara Young Account Manager Ashley O’Keefe
To subscribe, renew or change address use the contact information above.
Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement #40062919 The advertiser agrees that the publisher shall not be liable for damages arising out of errors in advertisements beyond the amount paid for the space actually occupied by the portion of the advertisement in which the error occurred, whether such error is due to the negligence of the servants or otherwise, and there shall be no liability beyond the amount of such advertisement. Pen names and anonymous letters will not be published. The publisher reserves the right to edit, revise, classify, or reject any advertisement or letter. © 2022 Downhome Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher.
Printed in Canada
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table of contents 6 Editor’s Note 8 From Our Readers 10 Home is Where the Harvest is Community freezers in NunatuKavut
16 Reclaiming Their History Telling the stories of residential schools
22 Labrador Life 24 Summers on the Labrador
44 Music & Friends Get to know the Silver Wolf Band
50 Brave Lucy Bolger A family’s history at Point Amour
58 How Well Do You Know Labrador? 60 To the Rescue Helping the HVGB SPCA
64 Photo Finish
Memories of Indian Tickle
30 Labrador Inspired The art of Charlene Rumbolt
38 What Does Reconciliation Mean? An essay about change
42 In the Big Land 4
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Labrador is a land of riches.
It is blessed with abundant natural resources and residents who know how to use them and how to protect them. The culture and history here, both Indigenous and settler, are rich with meaning and run deep, while coating the surface of every place you look. This wealth is not come by easily. The story of Labrador, past and present, reveals much about the pressures that produce such a gem: an often harsh environment, a history of colonialism, isolation, climate change, a global pandemic. Fortunately, the Big Land is home to people who are willing to meet these challenges and rise above them. Labradorians are innovators, creators, leaders and deep thinkers. You’ll meet several of them in this issue. They share their challenges, their losses and their wins. They express what it means to live in Labrador. We appreciate anyone who takes the time to talk to us about their passions, their problems, their values and their victories. If you have a Labrador story to share or know a Labradorian we should meet, we want to hear from you. Thanks for reading, Janice Stuckless Editor-in-chief janice@downhomelife.com
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Everyone has a tale to tell. And we want to see your stories about Labrador. Maybe it’s a recollection of the way things used to be, or a historical piece, or a story about somebody doing great things in your community. Maybe it’s a travel story about a trip somewhere in the Big Land. Whatever your story, in verse or in prose, our readers would love to see it and so would we. If you’re better with a camera than a keyboard, you’re in luck, too - we’re also looking for photos of Labrador. From snapshots while berry picking to compositional studies of the landscape and everything in between, we love looking at your images.
Published submissions will receive $20 in Downhome certificates to spend in our stores and online at www.shopdownhome.com.
Send your photos and stories to editorial@downhomelife.com or upload them to our website at Downhomelife.com/submit.
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From Our Readers Check Your Facts
I am messaging about an article written by Jenn Thornhill Verma in the Fall 2021 Inside Labrador, specifically on page 53. There are two major facts here that are incorrect and could be rather insulting to the family. The now deceased Richard Barney was not the captain of HMS Raleigh who “guided the ship into shallow water.” Secondly, the ship was in heavy fog at the time it ran aground – there were no icebergs involved in the incident. Richard Barney is my grandmother’s brother, who grew up here on the Labrador coast and was not, in fact, born at the time HMS Raleigh ran aground. These facts can be checked by a simple Google search or by contacting the Point Amour Provincial Historic site directly. IAN RYLAND Via email
We reached out to the writer of that article, and Jenn Thornhill Verma sends her sincere apologies. In going back over her research and notes, she determined it was an error in her editing from her original draft to the final submitted piece that led to the mistakes in that portion of the article. Richard Barney was, in fact, a local resident who was interviewed for a historical project by the lighthouse staff, and not, as you pointed out, the Raleigh captain. Since writing this article, she spent a week at the lighthouse with the staff, learning more about the Raleigh and the Point Amour lighthouse. Thank you for pointing out the discrepancy. We regret the error.
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How community freezers are helping NunatuKavut Inuit stay connected to their values and way of life BY JENN THORNHILL VERMA
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Home is where the harvest is –
that’s the traditional way of life for the people of NunatuKavut in southern and central Labrador. As is the Inuit tradition of following the wildlife – be it seasonal vegetation or the movement of land animals, fish and birds – people once travelled throughout the year from their winter homes in sheltered bays and inlets to seaside summer fishing places.
But these days, moving with the seasons is less common as people live in permanent residences. Since colonization, residents have also grown increasingly dependent on imported foods. A winter storm (in a place that sees its share of spring and fall storms, too) is often all it takes to expose the vulnerabilities of local food systems, shutting down roadways, airways and ferries and, in turn, leaving grocery stores and pantry shelves bare. To counteract food insecurities, while paying tribute to a traditional way of life, NunatuKavut hosts a community freezer program. The program shares frozen fish, wild meats and other country foods like berries for those unable to hunt, fish and forage for themselves. “Seeing an elderly person with tears in their eyes because we came to the front door with a big grocery basket and to tell them, ‘This is for you because of who you are and where you’re from,’ it’s wonderful,” says Todd Russell, president of the NunatuKavut Community Council (NCC), the representative governing body of the 6,000 Inuit residing in south and central Labrador. “It’s the best gift you can give,” says Roxanne Notley, NCC’s food SPRING 2022
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NunatuKavut Community Council President Todd Russell prepares to deliver food hampers NCC photo
security coordinator. “When you go to their doors with the food, it’s as if you’re giving them a million dollars. They just can’t believe someone’s bringing them traditional food.” Hundreds of people living across two dozen communities in central and southern Labrador regularly benefit from the community freezer program. Most recipients are seniors aged 60 years and over, a demographic that’s growing in the province. Newfoundland and Labrador is home to the greatest proportion of residents aged 65 years and older (and the smallest proportion of those 14 and younger) of anywhere in Canada. It’s also the only province that reported population decline in 2021; every other province and territory, and the country as a whole, saw population growth. As a result, one of the primary benefits of the community freezer program is that it’s helping the 12
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parents and grandparents of those now living away from NunatuKavut, says Roxanne. “People who are living away feel like if they were living at home, then they would be able to pick the berries, hunt the birds, or find the fish for their loved ones or the senior people in their family who really are missing this in their diets. They are so appreciative that this is there for them, and they don’t need to feel guilty about being away and not being able to provide, especially for Mom or Dad, who are at an age in life where traditional food is so important.” Lending a helping hand to neighbours is part of what connects residents and the program to NunatuKavut’s traditional values, while also maintaining a connection to the lands and waters. The program has been especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, with NCC SPRING 2022
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having further invested in food hampers and a harvesting grant program, which encourages residents to get out on the land. Overall, the community freezer program has been in operation for six years and has freezers in nine locations: Happy ValleyGoose Bay, Cartwright, Black Tickle, Charlottetown (serving Pinsent’s Arm and Norman Bay), Port Hope Simpson, Mary’s Harbour and Lodge Bay, St. Lewis, Labrador West and Forteau (serving the Labrador Straits). While most of the freezers are located within NCC properties, some are hosted in the homes of residents. Roxanne is the program’s sole employee, with the rest of the labour provided by volunteers – those who gather the food and those who distribute it. Seniors and other vulnerable populations can avail of the freezer program once a month, Roxanne explains. “If we have a senior who says they’d really like to have a meal of this or that, then we can quickly source it for them,” she says. The food supply changes with the seasons, but the freezers typically
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NCC Environment and Natural Resources director George Russell Jr. with a stocked community freezer NCC photo
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have a store of meat (seal, duck, moose and occasionally caribou), berries (bakeapples, partridgeberries, squashberries and blackberries) and fish (Northern cod, Arctic char and Atlantic salmon). Annually, the NunatuKavut Inuit barter cod for char with their northern Inuit neighbours, the Nunatsiavut Government, trading about 3,000 pounds worth of cod for char.
“The rule of thumb is you leave one, keep one and share one. It’s the onethird rule and it’s often practised without even knowing that you’re doing it. If you have a meal, then you have a meal for yourself and a meal to share. It’s always been our way,” says Roxanne. Living off the land has a romantic ring to it, but it’s painstaking work that goes beyond Inuit tradition and
“The rule of thumb is you leave one, keep one and share one. It’s the one-third rule and it’s often practised without even knowing that you’re doing it. If you have a meal, then you have a meal for yourself and a meal to share. It’s always been our way…” “Bartering has taken place since the [community freezer] program started,” says Roxanne, noting that was before her time with the department and adding that the Nunatsiavut Government hosts a community freezer program, too. “They typically ship their char in August, and we ship our cod in September or October.” NunatuKavut’s community freezer program is overseen by NCC’s Environment and Natural Resources department, the same body that issues annual designations in the communal fishery for salmon, trout, char and cod. The department also oversees species protection measures in conjunction with provincial and federal counterparts, and operates on the premise that NunatuKavut Inuit can rely on traditional foods while protecting natural resources. That’s part of the care- and conservation-minded approach of the Inuit way of life. 14
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culture to subsistence and survival. Here, tiny remote communities are scattered along a patchwork of rugged coastline and interior waterways. Historically, people set out by foot, boat and dogsled, covering vast terrain, often carrying gear and food on their backs and overnighting next to campfires or in makeshift shelters. In winter, people hunted caribou, snared rabbits and trapped minx, otter, lynx and beaver. In spring through fall, they travelled along the Labrador coastline, following the migratory patterns of fish – including cod, salmon and char – as well as populations of seals and migratory birds. They also foraged berries, of which there are more than a dozen varieties – from black currents, blueberries and bakeapples, to partridgeberries, raspberries, red currents and squashberries. This land is as bountiful as it is SPRING 2022
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NCC staff delivers char to an elder in Charlottetown (pre-COVID, so no masks) NCC photo harsh. Even in spring and fall, temperatures can dip below zero, and sudden storms and sea swells are common. People regularly pushed their bodies to the brink to live off these lands,
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waters and ice. They also fought with their lives to preserve rightful access. The British-Inuit Treaty of 1765 is celebrated here each August for its promise of peaceful relations after more than two-and-a-half centuries of strife and warfare, as European whalers and fishers competed with the Inuit for resources and trading goods in Labrador and the Strait of Belle Isle. For many, seasonal hunting, fishing and foraging practices continue today in NunatuKavut, which means “Our Ancient Land” in Inuttitut. For example, in September, fishers from across Labrador visit fishing camps to harvest Northern cod in Black Tickle, a remote community of about 100 permanent residents on Labrador’s southeast coast. For others, particularly those who are older, carrying out these traditions is no longer feasible. Yet, maintaining a strong connection to the seasonal harvest is crucially important for a people whose culture, communities and very existence are intrinsically tied to their lands, waterways and ice. The NunatuKavut Community Freezer Program helps maintain these deep connections.
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A forthcoming book will help shed further light on the stories of residential school survivors in Labrador. BY LINDA BROWNE
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More and more Canadians
have been learning about the painful legacy of residential schools in recent years, thanks to former students who have bravely shared their stories. These individuals are survivors in every sense of the word, and for them, the path to truth, reconciliation and healing has been a long and winding one. On November 24, 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL, to formally deliver a long-awaited apology, on behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, to residential school survivors and their families in this province (who were excluded from the 2008 national apology issued by then prime minister Stephen Harper because it was argued the federal government didn’t oversee those schools). The Lockwood School in Cartwright, Yale School in North West River, Makkovik Boarding School, Nain Boarding School, and St. Anthony Orphanage and Boarding School – all operated by either the International Grenfell Association (IGA) or the Moravian Church – were part of that apology, bringing residential school survivors from this province into the greater circle of survivors across the country. But the apology only covered the years after 1949, after the province joined Canada. Therefore, the boarding schools at Muddy Bay and St. Mary’s River (now Mary’s Harbour), which closed before 1949, and the students who attended residential schools before Confederation, were not included in that apology. Top left: Marcus Ward in front of Lockwood School, Cartwright Wanda Lee Mesher photo Bottom left: Lockwood School dormitory, Cartwright The Rooms Provincial Archives, IGA 17-130 Above: Residential school students in Labrador www.arcticfocus.org SPRING 2022
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Above: Lockwood School, Cartwright. ca. 1935.
The Rooms Provincial Archives, IGA 18-21.
Right: First Labrador Public School, Muddy Bay. The Rooms Provincial Archives. VA 16-20.
Shortly after, Ministerial Special Representative James Igloliorte (a retired judge and former residential school student) led a series of community healing and commemoration sessions throughout Labrador, where former students shared their memories and experiences. Dr. Andrea Procter, an anthropologist and professor with the department of archaeology at Memorial University, who’s spent two decades working with Indigenous communities in Labrador, was brought on board to document many of these stories. What she heard resulted in her 2020 book, A Long Journey: Residential Schools in Labrador and Newfoundland. Now, thanks to a collaboration between Dr. Procter and the NunatuKavut Community Council, another forthcoming book will shed light on even more survivors’ stories and help paint a clearer picture of this part of our history for all Canadians.
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REDRESSING, RECLAIMING, REVITALIZING The NunatuKavut (which means “Our Ancient Land” in Inuttitut) Community Council (NCC) is the representative governing body for approximately 6,000 Inuit who live primarily in south and central Labrador. Last February, the NCC launched Ikupiatsik (meaning “to share”): NunatuKavut Inuit Education Action Plan, with the goal to “share and learn by honouring our past, embracing our present and reclaiming our future,” states the NCC website. It broke down its objective under three headings: redressing, reclaiming and revitalizing. Under this plan, Dr. Procter, with the guidance of a residential school survivor advisory group, is working on a resource book about two Cartwright area boarding schools: the Labrador Public School at Muddy Bay and the Lockwood School. The former was built in 1920, housing many children who had lost parents to the Spanish flu pandemic, and was burned down in 1928. The IGA rebuilt the dormitory and school across the harbour in 1930, renaming it for an American woman named Lockwood, who donated money for it. The dormitory burned down in 1934, in an accidental fire, taking the life of 17-year-old student Lizzie Learning. The Lockwood School eventually closed in 1964.
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Kristy Dyson, a community social worker with the NCC who joined Dr. Procter for some of the healing sessions, says the plan is supported and led by the people and communities most impacted – something that’s critically important to the council. “From our community visits, we’ve been building relationships, speaking with former students and their family
Student Maggie Dyson washes some dishes at the Lockwood School The Rooms Provincial Archives, IGA 17-217
members. So the feedback that we’re getting from the individuals and the community, that is going to ensure the opportunities for culturally relevant healing,” she says. While her previous book was part of the now completed Healing and Commemoration Project and was more scholarly in tone, Dr. Procter’s new book will be geared towards a general audience, focussing more on individuals’ stories and less on the
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Dr. Andrea Procter (right) with Viola Holwell in Cartwright. Viola went to Lockwood School there. Behind them is a collection of old school photos from Lockwood.
academic and historical background. It’s hoped to become a resource in schools across the province. “There’s really very little curriculum material and school material that’s about the residential schools in Labrador. I think when children are learning about the residential schools here, it’s often focussed on the ones in the rest of Canada, which is great and absolutely necessary, but… they [the NCC] really wanted to create education materials based on the Cartwright schools, the Cartwright experience,” Dr. Procter says. “That’s a powerful movement that’s happening now, and I think it’s partly in response to the boarding schools and to seeing what happens when the education is taken out of local people’s hands. So I think it’s pretty inspiring what the NCC is doing to work to change the education, to make the curriculum better reflect the unique perspectives and to make it more relevant to the kids in local communities.” 20
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A RIPPLE EFFECT While one of the stated goals of residential schools was to provide Indigenous children with care and an education, in the process they separated children from their families, communities, culture, language and traditions, stripping them of their very identities. And while the intergenerational trauma they caused reverberates to this day, the story of survivors and their families is also one of strength and resilience. “That was something that really came through with the healing and commemoration sessions that we held a few years ago, that people were very clear that this is not a picture of them being simply victims,” says Dr. Procter, pointing to the small community of Spotted Island as an example. Since there was no school there, the children attended the Lockwood School – until their parents realized what was happening. “They took their kids out of LockSPRING 2022
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wood and got the Anglican Church to open a school in Spotted Island instead, so that the kids didn’t have to go away for school. And when that happened, the numbers went down in Lockwood, so the IGA decided to close [it] down. So that was part of the reason Lockwood closed in the end, was from this community kind of uprising against the boarding schools,” Dr. Procter says. “Even though Lockwood closed in 1964, you can really still feel the trauma that it’s caused in the community. So, it’s really still quite impactful. And that’s also something that we want to bring out in this book, is looking at how the boarding schools have affected families through the generations... The students themselves were affected as individuals, but then their children were affected, their grandchildren were affected. So you get this kind of ripple effect in the community.” For many years, the stories of residential schools were told by those who operated them, leaving the vital voices of former students out of the conversation. By giving others the opportunity to hear about the experiences of survivors, Dr. Procter is working to balance the scales and helping the public to better under-
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Children play in the playground of the Lockwood School in Cartwright. The Rooms Provincial Archives, A 101-55
stand the residential school story in its entirety. “That’s a very important part of the healing and reconciliation, is keeping the stories alive and remembering it all,” Dyson says. “So that’s why we’re very excited to compile all these stories with Andrea and get them out there for everyone, and be able to read them and know personal experiences of what happened and how they affected our families and how they affected our communities.”
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Labrador Life
Labrador Dogs
Khaba and Matty enjoy the view over Hopedale and the Labrador Sea on a sunny Saturday afternoon. JOYCE MOROUNEY Hopedale, NL
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Spotted in Summer
These colourful stages line the shore of Spotted Island, off Black Tickle. BERNADETTE CAREW Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL
Iceberg Ahead
Roxanne Watkins enjoyed this close-up with an iceberg near Battle Harbour a few seasons ago. HOLLY RUMBOLT Labrador City, NL
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BY LORNE COMPTON Fort Saskatchewan, AB
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I was born in St. Lunaire on the Northern
Peninsula of Newfoundland, where my dad, John, was a fisherman and purchaser for Fishery Products International (FPI). When the cod started to deplete around St. Lunaire, he moved his fishing operation to Indian Tickle, Labrador, located between Black Tickle and Cartwright. He operated out of there from 1965 to 1969. These were some of the greatest summers of my life.
The author watching his father, John, and brother, Ray, come in from fishing in Indian Tickle in 1967. The boat riding low shows a good catch that day.
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A young Lorne trout fishing in the pond over the Big Hill in Indian Tickle
Being initially too young to fish, I spent my Indian Tickle days beachcombing and trout fishing in the pond over the Big Hill. There were families here from a number of communities: from St. Lunaire were the Earles and Saunderses; from Griquet were the Snows; from Main Brook were the Saunderses and Powells; and from Cartwright were the Burdetts. There were also families from other parts of the island with names like Penney, Slade and Fitzgerald. We travelled by coastal boat. The fleet of boats at that time included the Northern Ranger, Burgeo, Bonavista, Springdale and Nonia. In 1965, my dad and older brother Ray went to Labrador early, and my mother and sister Betty and I went later. It was a
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very memorable trip, as we got stuck in ice for several days in the Strait of Belle Isle, finally getting into Port Hope Simpson to replenish our water and food. Over the next four summers, we took that trip with stops in Battle Harbour, Mary’s Harbour, Port Hope Simpson and Black Tickle. Our last summer was 1969, and that one stands out for a couple of reasons. First, when people ask where I was when man first walked on the moon, I tell them I was in Indian Tickle. It was a clear night and we were looking up at the moon while listening to landing news on the radio. The second reason that summer stands out is that cod was scarce early in the season; we hardly got anything in the traps. By the end of July, many
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people left for home. But Dad, Ray and I stayed to set gill nets. One day, when Dad and Ray were pulling the nets a bit north of Indian Tickle, I was jigging at the back of our trap skiff, but not getting much. For some reason, I looked over the side of the boat and all I could see were cod swimming a few feet down, which was unusual for that late in the season. Dad and Ray finished pulling the nets and all three of us jigged until the boat was full. I pulled in some big ones – Ray had to help me get a couple of them into the boat. We then headed back to the Tickle, and when we landed we could see cod swimming on top of the water through the Tickle. Ray and I talked about taking
the punt out to try and dip some cod, but I can’t recall if we actually did. We did get one or two more good days of fishing, but that was it. Dad decided that he would shut down his fishing operation that year. In 1970, Dad and Mom moved to Goose Bay for work. While I stayed in St. Lunaire to go to school until 1973, I spent the summers in Goose Bay. I have great memories of the sandy beaches and hanging out at Jim’s Restaurant. One of my favourite memories from the summer of 1973 was when Dad took a week off work, so we could take the boat from Goose Bay to Nain, with stops in Hopedale and Makkovik. The weather was beautiful and we spent much of our
Lorne’s parents, Alverda and John Compton
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time on deck admiring the scenery. It still stands out as the most beautiful trip I have ever taken – and I have seen the Swiss Alps and the Rockies, and travelled through every province in Canada. On the way back, Dad got off in Goose Bay and I continued on to St. Lunaire. In 1974, I moved to Goose Bay for my last year of school, attending Robert Leckie. I made two great friends that year: Wade Diamond and Gerald Evoy. I worked with Labrador Linerboard as a security guard. (One of my jobs was making picture IDs for employees, so naturally I made one that said I was 21 during my last year in high school, but that’s another story.) I worked the midnight shift, seven days a week, until the bay iced up in November. I would get off work at 8:00 a.m., go to school for the day, then go home and sleep until I had to go to work. I also played with the
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school hockey team, going to Twillingate for the Provincials, where my roommate at the billet house was Peter Woodward. That was another great trip and memory. After graduation I worked at Gull Island as a security guard with Gerald, varying shifts. I remember working nights under a sky so clear it felt like you could reach out and touch the stars. I watched the northern lights that seemed to dance to the tune on the truck radio. I was taken to Gull Island by helicopter, flown by game wardens responsible for monitoring the wildlife in Northern Labrador, so I had a chance to see some of that beautiful country from the air. Shortly after Gull Island shut down, I joined the Air Force and have been back to Goose Bay only twice since: Christmas 1982, spending New Year’s Eve at the Bulldog club; and the summer of 2004, when we stopped in for a
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short visit on our way to St. Lunaire. In 2010, we took the ferry from St. Barbe and visited Red Bay, staying overnight in L’Anse-au-Loup. The Air Force took us around the world, including five years in Germany. Our two sons have their memories of Europe and skiing the Swiss Alps. My wife, Cathy, and I have fond memories of Europe as well, of friends we met and places we saw. I retired from the Air Force in 1994, and moved to Alberta, where I applied the training and experience gained in the Air Force to a number of companies here, where I’m still working. This is a small sampling of a life that I am blessed to have lived and continue to live, raising a family with Cathy over the past 40 years, seeing four grandchildren born and grow, and having a professional career that still excites and motivates me today.
Lorne and his wife, Cathy, on a return trip to Labrador in 2002
There’s
off the beaten path. And then
there’s this place.
Overnight accommodations accommodation ns in the wonder of a National Histo Historic oric Site. battleharbour.com 709.921.6325 SPRING 2022
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Charlene Rumbolt of Mary’s Harbour has spent the last number of years recreating people, places and herself. BY KIM PLOUGHMAN
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Indigenous visual artist
Charlene Rumbolt is quick to admit that “it’s tough” being a professional artist in Labrador, in large part due to the lack of galleries to exhibit, which opens doors to funding. However, this has not stifled her creativity nor lessened her deep respect and love for the land of her ancestors. In fact, it’s the majesty of Labrador – with its remarkable landscapes, wildlife, wild berries and diverse cultures, including her own Inuit roots – that weaves through her soul and nurtures her as one of the province’s most versatile visual artists and craft makers.
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Charlene’s work is a diverse blend of mediums, mainly oils but also acrylics, ink and pencil. She also practises fibre art (often using seal or caribou skins), printmaking, silks, traditional beadwork and sewing, all inspired by the flora, fauna and culture of Labrador. Charlene currently resides in Mary’s Harbour (pop. 350) on Labrador’s south coast, in NunatuKavut territory. She shares the fact that while of southern Inuit heritage, she was born in Toronto, ON, and was raised on a hobby farm in Hanover. “Dad was from Mary’s Harbour, and we have been visiting here since I was a kid,” she explains. Her parents, Wallace and Susan Rumbolt, eventually retired to Mary’s Harbour, and whenever Charlene visited them, she was captured by the magic. “I fell in love with the place – it sets me at peace,” she says. In 2010, at the age of 43, she moved to Mary’s Harbour to look after her ailing father – and, as it turns out, to rebuild a life for herself as an artist and a person.
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Charlene Rumbolt with the colouring book she illustrated for a NunatuKavut Community Council project in 2021.
Always a creative type, Charlene started sewing at a young age and entered art competitions while growing up in Ontario. It was in Grade 10 that she met someone who would forever influence her passion for art. “I had this amazing art teacher, Mrs. Stanley, who mentored me,” she says. After high school, she graduated from The Georgian College of Fine Arts in
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Owen Sound, then worked in graphic and fine arts for a decade. A major car accident sent her back to school, achieving a bachelor of arts in psychology from the University of Waterloo. When she relocated to Labrador, Charlene worked as a child and behavioural specialist with the International Grenfell Association and travelled the north coast for six
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years, incorporating her love of art into her work. BUILDING A BUSINESS In 2018, after years of exploring and developing her art, Charlene opened Great Caribou Studio. The name honours Great Caribou Island, an historic fishing village and Indigenous hunting ground where her father was
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born (in Indian Cove). The island is located about 45 minutes from Mary’s Harbour by boat. Her first studio space was in a renovated shed at the water’s edge. By 2020, her enterprise was so successful that she outgrew the shed and purchased a larger building. Charlene offers more than a storefront for her art; she runs an interactive creative
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arts studio where she creates her own works and teaches others by hosting workshops and popular paint nights. The Great Caribou Studio is a registered Économusée (a global network of small-scale producers of crafts, culture, living arts and artisanal food, who boost employment and promote 36
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cultural heritage in their region). She admits she’s struggled with the pandemic restrictions, but she has ploughed through. “You just have to keep working it… things usually come back together,” she says. One of the benefits of the slowdown, she notes, is that it gave her time to SPRING 2022
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expand. The studio now has a boutique, where she carries other artists’ work, and a café. AWARDS & RECOGNITION In 2019, Charlene won in the Senior Visual Arts category of the provincial Arts and Letters Awards with her fibre art wall hanging called “Teachings of My Grandmothers” (pictured on page 33, bottom). Created from conventional materials in the shape of a traditional Inuit woman’s coat, this piece was inspired by stories passed down through generations. In 2021, she won another Senior Visual Arts Award for “We Dance for Healing,” which incorporated sculpted caribou hair and dried cod skins on moose hide. A registered Inuk artist, Charlene was the headliner of a summer 2020 weekend getaway special in Battle Harbour, where she taught guests botanical scarf making, caribou tufting and fish skin jewellery making. Anyone who began to their trip to Battle Harbour with a flight into Happy Valley-Goose Bay would have no doubt noticed the gorgeous airport piano hand-painted by Charlene for the Business & Arts NL Public Piano Program. Most recently she’s been chosen to teach the art of cossack (traditional Labrador parka) making for Heritage NL, aiding in their efforts to revitalize endangered crafts in the province. Now 55, and a mother of two and grandmother of three, Charlene is often out and about in the Big Land soaking up inspiration. Whether in a car, in a boat or on a walk, her pencil, sketchpad and camera are always with her. “I’m creative 24/7,” Charlene laughs, adding, “What a job... actually, not a job. It’s a great lifestyle.” SPRING 2022
Goose Bay
www.cafconnection.ca gbmfrc@nf.sympatico.ca P.O. Box 69, Station C Goose Bay, NL A0P-1C0 (709) 896-6900 ext.6060 (709) 896-6916 (fax)
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What Does Reconciliation Mean? BY STANLEY OLIVER
In Canada, reconciliation has become the new catchphrase; it is a very powerful word and can evoke a lot of emotion and debate. But what does it really mean? 38
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That depends. Reconciliation can mean different things to different people. And, in my humble opinion, each group/assembly associated with First Nations, Inuit and Métis established bodies may wish to define what reconciliation means from their perspective. So I’ll start with why there is a need for reconciliation. Many Canadians admit to knowing or understanding very little, or nothing, about reconciliation and the profound historical wrongdoings and past conflicts between Indigenous peoples and settlers in this country. This absence of knowledge and general understanding has had grave consequences for First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples, and for Canadian society as a whole. At the federal government level, this has made and continues to make for extremely poor formal policies relating to Indigenous people. Among the general public, this lack of understanding only strengthens feelings of discrimination, racist attitudes and resulting distrust between Indigenous peoples and other Canadian citizens, including elected officials. Too many Canadians do not know the true history of Indigenous people’s incredible contributions and the positive impact their longstanding valued knowledge has had on Canada as a whole. All peoples of Canada (nonIndigenous and Indigenous), especially our youth, need to know and deserve to know Canada’s truthful and frank history. This includes what happened to the thousands of children in residential schools. SPRING 2022
WHERE ARE WE WITH RECONCILIATION? Not long after being elected as leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister of Canada in 2016, Justin Trudeau proclaimed a National Day of Reconciliation. He also pushed his Indigenous rights recognition framework and stirred debate on ending, or “decolonizing,” the 1876 Indian Act, which gave Ottawa control over most aspects of Indigenous life, from health care and education to land development. Then at a press conference shortly after his re-election in 2019, as reported by APTN, Prime Minister Trudeau stated, “I was pleased to have good conversations this morning with both Natan Obed [President of Inuit Tapirit Kanatami, ITK] and Perry Bellegarde [National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, AFN]… We will continue to engage with Indigenous leaders across the country, Indigenous communities, strong voices to ensure that reconciliation isn’t just a word that we use, but we continue the concrete actions we’ve taken over the past four years and do even more to make sure that the partnership and respect that is so necessary as we move forward with Indigenous peoples in this country is at the core of everything we do.” The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) final report, released in 2015 by its chair, Murray Sinclair, describes the term reconciliation as “an ongoing process of establishing and maintaining respectful relationships.” It further adds that “a critical part of this prescribed process inside LABRADOR
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involves mending and repairing damaged trust by making well-deserved apologies, providing specific and communal compensations, and following through with tangible actions that demonstrate real societal change.” But the question remains, how do we as a society and people realize actual change? The TRC report makes it clear that creating respectful relationships also requires the revitalization of related Indigenous law and legal customs. It is vital that all Canadians better under-
forward as peoples of Canada, it is of the upmost importance for all of us to consider by what means we can best accomplish this. One way, as set out in the TRC report, is to implement the principles laid out in the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples (which the Government of Canada has endorsed). There are 10 guiding principles outlined in the document, but I will not get into all of them. Instead, I’ll focus on those that I consider to be vitally significant and actually attainable.
Reconciliation is about coming to terms with events of the past in a manner that overcomes past conflicts and creates a more respectful and healthy relationship on a go-forward basis. stand traditional First Nations, Inuit and Métis approaches and philosophies around resolving conflict, repairing harm and ultimately restoring broken relationships, all of which can benefit the reconciliation process. These Indigenous approaches can help identify the appropriate healing process for restoring relationships – first, between the federal government and Canada’s Indigenous people, by recognizing and admitting what has not worked in the past and make corrections while moving forward in the spirit of peace and friendship. Second is the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous parties and the land and seas. Finally, reconciliation is about coming to terms with events of the past in a manner that overcomes past conflicts and creates a more respectful and healthy relationship on a go-forward basis. As we reflect on how we may move 40
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i) “Reconciliation must create a more equitable and inclusive society by closing the gaps in social, health and economic outcomes...” To close these gaps, formal strategies must be developed and advanced by all levels of government (municipal, provincial and federal) that focus on building real capacity in Indigenous communities in a meaningful, collaborative way. Governments must recognize and respect that there are unique circumstances and geographic challenges, and be willing to work together to better understand these challenges in order to ensure all our efforts result in specific positive outcomes that rectify past wrongdoings. ii) “Reconciliation requires the political will, joint leadership, trust building, accountability, investment and transparency.” Whether people want to hear it or not, I will boldly say it is not enough just to use the clichés SPRING 2022
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So, are we there yet? Most will acceptably say, not yet! But I sincerely believe we are getting there, albeit very slowly and sometimes painfully… and catchphrases of the day; it can’t be just words. We must go beyond the formal apologies and deliver real tangible actions in and with our Indigenous communities. Then and only then will we be on the right path of reconciliation. So, are we there yet? Most will acceptably say, not yet! But I sincerely believe we are getting there, albeit very slowly and sometimes painfully, and all of us citizens and peoples of Canada must advance our mutual efforts in a respectful way with the same ambition. It is incumbent on all of us to educate ourselves regarding Indigenous matters. Reconciliation starts with each and every one of us. I have participated in many courses to broaden my own perspective on Indigenous history and culture in this country. Although there are many courses and universities that offer great training, I recommend that people consider the free online course
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titled “Indigenous Canada,” offered by Coursera through the University of Alberta, as a place to start. Indigenous people of Canada deserve better. It can no longer be an “about us, without us” approach. Hence, I leave you with this question to deliberate: Is reconciliation important enough for all of us, as an absolute necessity, to settle age old wrongdoings? Or are we merely window dressing to avoid the uncomfortable truth (and maybe some very costly court procedures)? Stanley Oliver was born and raised in Labrador; his father is from the north coast (Rigolet) and his mother is from North West River. Stan is an Inuit and has spent the last 30 plus years working in the natural resources and Indigenous government field. He currently holds the position of Manager with the Labrador Office of Indigenous & Northern Skilled Trades.
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Weathering Well
The submitter took this photo in Red Bay, during what she called her “best trip ever!” EILEEN SIMMS Pasadena, NL
In the Big Land Day’s End
Taking in the sunset over Hadder’s Cove. JASON DERRY Baie Verte, NL
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Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Elise Pardy and her family enjoy a paddle in Packs Harbour. NORMA MESHER KNIGHT Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL
We’re Baaaa-ack! These dinosaurs were spotted enjoying a large Labrador day last summer. PAMELA FREAKE Labrador City, NL
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Award-winning Silver Wolf Band, buddies who have grown up together and whose sound never gets old. BY WENDY ROSE
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Silver Wolf Band emerged in Happy Valley-Goose Bay in
2007, but their story goes back much further. Members Jamie Jackman (guitar, vocals), Matthew Barrett (piano, keyboards), Justin Jackman (drums, percussion) and Brandon Pardy (bass guitar) have been friends since childhood. The pals spent their teenage years playing in other bands before teaming up to create the Indigenous folk-pop band we know today.
They’ve been together for so long that some of the details are lost in history, like the first song ever written and the first gig ever played. “The first real meaningful one, to us, was at a spot called Tribeca in Halifax,” says Jamie. “We had just moved out to Prince Edward Island while I was finishing my last year of university in Charlottetown, and we were so excited to play in Halifax [Nova Scotia]. We travelled there together from PEI, and a lot of our
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friends from back home [in Labrador] who were going to school there came out to the show.” Jamie continues, “We were super nervous, but we had so much fun… Gigs were hard to come by for us then, as we were really just getting started and trying to find our voice. We did a great job, considering. It was a catalyst for us to keep going.” They have certainly kept going. Three albums later, Silver Wolf Band have won Indigenous Artist of the
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Year at both the MusicNL Awards and the East Coast Music Awards, and received nominations for Rock Artist of the Year and Group of the Year from MusicNL, and Inuit Group of the Year from the Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival. Over the years, they’ve performed locally at the NL Folk Festival; Trails Tales Tunes Festival; Petapan First Light Indigenous Arts Symposium in NL; Spirit Song Festival; Labrador Winter Games opening ceremonies; and on the mainland at the Northern Lights Arts Symposium in Ottawa and the ECMA Artist Showcase in PEI, just to name a few. The band did, however, take an extended break from 2011 to 2016. They eventually reunited after Jamie, Justin and Matthew moved back to Labrador. “Although we didn’t officially disband, we all kind of went our separate ways. For me, personally, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t pursue music anymore in a serious way,” Jamie recalls. “I don’t remember who initiated it, but I think we realized there’s no reason we couldn’t still get together and play. We did so with no plans other than to hang out and play music together, purely for enjoyment and with no plans or expectations. “One thing led to another, and some people reached out to us to play for a local fundraiser, and we did, it went well, and we were just hooked again. We absolutely love playing together
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Lifetime Achievement Award for The Flummies In November 2021, MusicNL bestowed upon multi-award winning Labrador band The Flummies an Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award. Since 1978, this Indigenous traditional folk band has been producing and performing songs of Labrador. Deeply rooted in the Big Land, even their name has cultural relevance – flummies were the bread made in the woods by Labrador trappers. Over their career, the band has produced seven albums and won numerous awards, including MusicNL Aboriginal Group of the Year (2002) and ECMA Aboriginal Group of the Year (2003 and 2009). Based in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, original members Alton Best and Richard Dyson have, over the years, been joined by Tunker Campbell, Leander Baikie, Sim Asivak and Raymond Montague.
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and everything that comes with playing music live.” With his original tunes collecting dust, the band refocused their creative energies on recording and releasing their second album, Pockets Filled With Rocks, in 2018. “The rest is history. We haven’t slowed down and I think we’re much more comfortable now that we are older, have more experience and are working from home in Labrador.” In 2020, the band released Storms & Prayers to immediate critical acclaim. The album was described as “punctuated by classic odes to Labrador” and “a love letter to the place the band calls home” by The East arts and culture magazine. Last year was also “a huge success” for the band, says Jamie, with award nominations giving them the “encouragement and affirmation that we’re going in the right direction,” he says. “We are becoming much more sure of ourselves, and we’re pleased with the opportunities that come along with these awards. At the end of the day, we’re working hard on our music and growing as musicians and as a band.” In 2021, Silver Wolf Band joined a slew of local legends on the album
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Covers From Away, a compilation of songs from the famous “Come From Away” musical. “We jumped at the opportunity because we saw it as a chance to have a Labrador contribution to this fantastic project. Some people may not be aware, but Happy Valley-Goose Bay, which is our hometown, also hosted several airplanes from around the world during 9/11,” Jamie says. The band recorded a version of “Lead Us out of the Night,” throwing in some new lyrics as well as the Lord’s Prayer in Inuttitut, the Inuktitut dialect spoken in Labrador. “We draw a lot of support and inspiration from the people and places of Labrador. Labrador is a huge place and it’s difficult to travel within the region, but we manage to play here a lot because of the support we get from our community,” Jamie continues. “We have a regular gig at Maxwells in Happy Valley-Goose Bay; we play Labrador City a couple of times a year; and there are lots of festivals, conferences and other opportunities to play here. Everyone loves live music, and we want to play for Labradorians all over the Big Land.” The band hopes to tour Labrador’s isolated coastal communities this
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spring, travelling up the north coast to areas only accessible by plane. “The people there are huge supporters of our music, and Brandon, Justin and I are from there originally. It’s a shame that we don’t get to play there more frequently. In fact, few artists ever do,” he muses. “We owe it to them to make that effort, and it’s been a dream of ours for a long time to do so. We have played in Makkovik and Rigolet in the past, and those shows have been some of our most memorable gigs. So we’re eager to play in those communities and, hopefully, this Labrador North Coast Tour will inspire other artists from around the province to do the same,” he says. “Labrador is a major part of this province, but still few actually get to go there, and it still remains a mystery to many people.” Details of Silver Wolf Band’s next album are not a mystery, however. They are currently working on a new record, set to release this spring.
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“The record is being produced by Amelia Curran, which we are absolutely thrilled about. She is one of my favourite songwriters, and it’s just been an absolute pleasure for all of us to work on this project with her. Just like our last album, we’re recording it again with Krisjan Leslie at his studio in St. John’s,” Jamie shares excitedly.
“We have plans to do a lot of touring in 2022 to promote the new record, including the Labrador North Coast Tour, which is daunting, but equally as exciting,” he says. “Hopefully we’ll see some of you folks on the road soon!”
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What her great-granddaughter learned about her as she followed her light at Point Amour lighthouse BY JENN THORNHILL VERMA
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“There’s no such thing as ghosts,” she said.
“If you’re not afraid of ghosts, then go down tonight at 12 o’clock and take the watch out of the last man’s pocket and bring it up,” dared one of the men, “and I’ll never torment you again.”
That evening in early August 1922, the lightkeeper’s maid, Lucy Bolger, would prove to the workers at the Point Amour lighthouse in southern Labrador just how gutsy she was. At midnight, she’d follow the trail to the foghorn building, where she’d step over the bodies of 11 dead shipwreck victims to collect the pocket watch of the last man in line. Lucy plucked up the courage on the same night as what was arguably the worst marine disaster in the history of the Strait of Belle Isle. On August 8, 1922, HMS Raleigh, a British light cruiser commissioned for the Royal Navy and carrying 690 officers and crew, ran aground in the shallow waters of Forteau Bay, about a half-kilometre south of Point Amour lighthouse. The shipwreck claimed the lives of 11 men, their recovered bodies arranged sideby-side in the foghorn building with pennies covering their eyes and sheets draped over them.
HMS Raleigh, run aground near Point Amour in 1922 SPRING 2022
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Nearly a century later, in September 2021, I’m hearing this story from Valerie O’Brien, an interpreter at Point Amour Lighthouse Provincial Historic Site. When I tell Valerie I’m here to learn about Lucy Bolger, my maternal great-grandmother, she does a double-take from behind the plexiglass of the interpretation centre desk. Valerie tells me she played a young Lucy in the theatre production that marked the lighthouse’s 150th anniversary celebrations a decade ago. My jaw drops behind my face mask. I want nothing more than to hug Valerie, but we’ll bond over stories this week instead. It’s the next day when Valerie, now joined by site supervisor, Bonnie Goudie, shares that Lucy was likely an easy target for such tormenting and games at Point Amour. Perhaps Lucy had a sense of humour, though I imagined it was because Lucy was a haunted young woman with reason to believe in ghosts.
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I wore the weight of my knowledge about Lucy like a heavy cloak as I drove to the lighthouse for the first time that September afternoon. I was there as part of a solo research trip, having already started to dig into my family’s ancestry with the assistance of my cousin, Christian Eason. On approach, the lighthouse slowly rises out of the earth, its light tower shifting back and forth in view through the windshield; driving is a twist-and-turn affair along the 4-km stretch of gravel winding road that dips and bobs to and around L’Anse Amour and up over the hill to the point. At 33 metres (the equivalent of a 10-storey building), it’s the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada. Its foghorn no longer sounds, however, and since being automated, it runs without need of a lightkeeper, his assistant, families and the many
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others who would have called these grounds home. The lighthouse has a panoramic view of the Strait of Belle Isle. On a clear day, the thin slab that is the northern tip of Newfoundland is all that interrupts legions of blue. And yet, as dazzling as that horizon is from under the domed roof of the lantern room, the light that shines from within the stone tower is even more brilliant. There, hundreds of pieces of cut glass comprise the Fresnel lens that intensifies the beacon, casting its light widely to grant mariners safe passage. But we know not all passersby are so lucky. Beyond is a watery graveyard of 59 known shipwrecks, some of which predate the lighthouse, according to the interpretation centre. Many other wrecks “have escaped the attention of the newspapers,” reads the display. And these figures don’t capture small fishing vessels lost in the stormy seas of the Straits. Standing between the lens and the lighthouse’s panoramic windows, I feel immediately small – like a microscopic specimen sandwiched between a glass slide and covering slip. I’m feeling the heat of the penetrating light, which intensifies my feeling of unrest. It’s been a year of pandemic
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restrictions and lockdowns, tucked at home in Ottawa, far from the seascapes that inspire my writing and painting. I haven’t painted a single landscape all year, lacking all motivation. Until now, overlooking this landscape, where nearly 100 years ago my great-grandmother, a woman I am only now getting to know, took the
along the shores and embedded in the banks. Sharp to touch, these fragments do more than mark history – they serve as a continued warning. When those wreck wounds were fresh, Lucy was here and surely helped respond. I wonder if the catastrophic event somehow gifted her strength. As a child, Lucy had lost her mother,
To walk the beach below the lighthouse today, you’ll still see the Raleigh’s rusted metal bones strewn along the shores and embedded in the banks. Sharp to touch, these fragments do more than mark history – they serve as a continued warning. dare. She probably entered the foghorn building (now reduced to its concrete foundations appearing as a headstone) hundreds of times, not thinking twice about it. Most days, Lucy tended to life here – the children, the families, the animals and the grounds where they lived. But on that day, she walked among the dead. To walk the beach below the lighthouse today, you’ll still see the Raleigh’s rusted metal bones strewn
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Charlotte, to tuberculosis. As a teenager, she lost her father James to suicide – or what church records would record as a case of him having “strayed away.” Two years later, and already working at the lighthouse as a maid servant, Lucy gave up her firstborn child for adoption. We don’t yet know the identity of the baby’s father, my great-grandfather. “He will be know more my mind” (meaning “he will be no more mine”)
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Lucy had written in the adoption letter addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Marshall of Summerside, Newfoundland, dated June 19, 1918. That child was my grandfather, Francis David, born May 23, 1918. That same year, Lucy would lose one of older sisters, Mary, (perhaps to the Spanish flu) and learn of her brother David’s near-miss on the battlefield in Ypres, Belgium. Private David Francis (after whom Lucy named my grandfather) enlisted in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, joining the 1st Battalion, and serving
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with the British Expeditionary Force during the First World War. David survived a German attack – a plumb of poisonous chlorine gas – which nearly killed him and put him in hospital for a month. Back home, he developed pleurisy, a chronic condition marked by sharp chest pains that worsen with breathing. David surely coughed the way Lucy surely grieved, often enough I imagine they became known for it. To me, they were tragic characters who seemingly attracted havoc, one may say, the way a lighthouse brings storms or shipwrecks to its shores. But as Valerie and Bonnie recount the story of Lucy taking that midnight dare at Point
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Amour a century ago, I start to see Lucy’s own quiet confidence rising. The light of the lighthouse cycles between 16 seconds of flashing light and a four-second eclipse. In those seconds of darkness, as Valerie O’Brien tells it, Lucy stopped dead in her tracks, awaiting the light so she could dart down the hill from the lighthouse residence to the foghorn building. Just as Lucy opens the door to the foghorn building, Valerie says, the light goes out again. The moment the light casts through the doorway, Lucy steps over the men and blesses herself with the sign of the cross – an act of attrition as she observes the scene of
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these young men. She holds her breath in that next moment of darkness. Then, quick on the mark afforded by next light, she lifts the sheet, which upsets the pennies from the man’s eyes. She startles herself, but quickly regains composure (all of this supposedly happens in a 16-second burst of light), then Lucy collects the watch, returns everything else as it was, and steps back over the bodies, before she closes the door behind her. This time, Lucy doesn’t stop for darkness, says Valerie. Lucy races up over the hill and into the residence. “Here, that’s it,” Lucy says, handing one of the men the watch. “No more talk of ghosts. And no more frightening me.” The next day, the lighthouse keeper, Jeffrey (Jeff) Wyatt, a young man himself in his mid-20s confronts Lucy
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about the ordeal. “I heard you found a pocket watch?” he asks. Lucy denies it, not wanting to reveal she had carried out such a dreadful deed. We’ll never know if Jeff was in on the dare, says Valerie. Perhaps Jeff watched the scene unfold from the lantern room, towering above as Lucy stole back her dignity. The community response to the Raleigh wreck made heroes of the light-station staff – and I count Lucy Bolger as one of them. A dozen lives
were lost in the wreck (the 12th recovered sometime later from underneath a locker at the wreck site), while the remaining officers and crewmen, some approximately 680 individuals, spent that night scattered about the buildings of the Point Amour light station. On the day I learned about Lucy taking the dare (and with Bonnie’s invitation), I set up my oil paints at the light station. My visible brushstrokes, distinct on the canvas, became one landscape, then another and another. I painted 10 small paintings in a single sitting. The strokes, like cut glass, carried the light I felt from this Labrador landscape far and wide, lifting any residual hauntings and heartache. Jenn Thornhill Verma is an author, journalist and landscape painter from Newfoundland and Labrador, now living in Ottawa, ON.
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1. Who designed the Labrador flag and when was it first flown? 2. How many languages are regularly spoken in Labrador? 3. Who wrote “Ode to Labrador”? 4. What community was once a trading post named Fort Smith? 5. What’s the name of the famous caribou herd that straddles Labrador and Quebec?
9. Which of these is not native to Labrador? A. Eastern chipmunk, B. porcupine, C. Norway rat 10. How many time zones are in Labrador? 11. What’s the name of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Labrador? 12. What is the northernmost community in Labrador?
6. What does the Inuttitut word Nunatsiavut mean in English?
13. What Labrador town is twotime Olympic curler (and gold medalist) Mark Nichols from?
7. What is the name of the territory of southern and central Labrador Inuit?
14. What world-class running race takes place in Happy ValleyGoose Bay?
8. What is the only companyowned town in Labrador?
15. Where in Labrador would you find the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada?
ing Station 12. Nain 13. Labrador City 14. Trapline Marathon 15. Point Amour 7. NunatuKavut 8. Churchill Falls 9. A. Eastern chipmunk 10. 2 (AST and NT) 11. Red Bay Basque WhalInnu-aimun 3. Dr. Harry L. Paddon 4. North West River 5. George River herd 6. Our Beautiful Land Answers: 1. Labrador South MHA Michael Martin, March 31, 1974 2. 4: English, French, Inuttitut and
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FLASHBACK
Making Memories on the Job
Marine biologists entertain a few locals and visitors near a beach in northern Labrador, 1963. The usual black flies were everywhere, of course. JOHN CHRISTOPHER Toronto, ON
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A generous grant provided by the Nunatsiavut Government is a major help to the Happy Valley-Goose Bay SPCA. BY NICOLA RYAN
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The SPCA animal shelter
in Happy Valley-Goose Bay is Photos courtesy HVGB SPCA always bustling with activity. “We’re very, very busy,” says Bonnie Learning, vice-president of the executive board. She speaks quickly – probably in relation to the fast pace of a day at the shelter. “We’re the only chartered SPCA in all of Labrador, so we service all of Labrador. We operate seven days a week, 365 days a year, and we’re on the go.” The HVGB SPCA is a non-profit animal care facility that employs five full-time employees and one parttime worker. For the dogs and cats that arrive lost, abandoned or given up for adoption, the shelter provides basic veterinary care such as spaying/neutering, deworming and vaccinations. And there’s never a shortage of sweet puppies, dogs, kittens, cats and other animals coming through
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the doors. “It’s constant, it never ends,” says Bonnie, noting that in the month of January 2022, the shelter took in a total of 57 animals. The cost of veterinary care and keeping the shelter operational is substantial. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the shelter kept itself afloat through adoption fees, donations, and fundraising events like Chase the Ace
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and cash ticket draws. But since 2020, tions, deworming, any unexpected funds have been tight. surgeries they might need,” explains “One of the biggest fundraisers Bonnie. we used to have was Chase the Ace,” “We can use it for any animal from Bonnie explains. “When the panLabrador, no matter where from. If an demic was declared in March 2020, animal needs help, by all means [we that effectively shut off one of our can] use the money.” biggest revenue sources. So we’ve been The majority of vulnerable animals struggling since then to fundraise.” In that arrive at the shelter are traditional 2021, they issued several public pleas types of breeds you’d expect to find in for donations, and finally had to reach the Big Land. “I’d say about 98 per cent out to organizations and the governof our animals are dogs and puppies. ment for help. A lot of huskies, husky crosses, a lot of “So we wrote to Nunatsiavut, the [German] shepherds, shepherd crossNunatuKavut Community Council, es,” says Bonnie. “And generally they’re the Innu Nation, the Mushuau all really good-tempered, loveable, First Nation in Natuashish and the affectionate animals – despite some of Sheshatshiu First Nation explaining the difficult circumstances some of our situation, and the Nunatsiavut them come to us in. They’re all really Government came back to us and good with people and other dogs, for wanted to help in some way,” says the most part.” Bonnie. They generously put Many of these dogs arrive from forward $15,000 towards the the animal control offices in creation of a new program: Nain and Hopedale, which have Labradorimi kulânget, Kima great working relationship melu (Dogs in Labrador), with the SPCA. “They’ll always which provides contact us to funds to be take whatever used towards they pick up, essential vetwhich is erinary care great,” says for any animal Bonnie. that comes to Along with the shelter. essential vetLogo designed by Monica Peach “That was a erinary care, huge help,” Bonnie says. “Fifteen the shelter also attempts to find suitthousand dollars is a lot of money. It’s able, loving homes for their animals fantastic. We really appreciated that.” to be adopted into. “The majority of Dogs in Labrador was modelled our adoptions go to applicants on the after the Pawsitive Helpers program, a island,” Bonnie says. “There’s tons of low-income spay/neuter program for Labrador dogs all over. We have a cats, which is funded through a grant great partnership with the St. John’s from the CanFel Foundation. SPCA and the Gander SPCA, and they “Both programs are for veterinary take a lot of animals for us.” costs for the animals that come into The following success story really illusour care. Spayed, neutered, vaccinatrates the importance of the funding. 62
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Georgia was the first dog in the Dogs in Labrador program. Suffering from a previous injury, Georgia needed to undergo surgery to remove a leg, the cost of which was covered under the program. She is adjusting well to her new life.
“The first pup we put under the Dogs in Labrador program was a dog named Georgia,” Bonnie says. “We got her spayed, vaccinated, all that good stuff, but she also needed her leg amputated. We had x-rays done and she had an old injury, and it was causing her a lot of pain in her leg and hip – an injury that had never healed correctly because it had never got seen to, you know. So we took her and got her leg amputated, and now she’s best kind and adjusting really well. I think it was about $1,000. That’s the kind of unexpected thing that this program
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will help towards.” There’s a quote on the HVGB SPCA’s website that says, “Saving one animal won’t change the world, but it will change the world for that one animal.” With the devoted work of shelter staff and volunteers, and the generosity of the Nunatsiavut Government, the Dogs in Labrador program can change the world for sweet dogs and puppies from all over the Big Land. Find more information about this shelter at: www.hvgbspca.com.
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photo finish
Out to Pasture
“This old boat sails the waves of long summer grass in Battle Harbour, Labrador,” writes the submitter. PETER BULL St. John’s, NL
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