A Week On The Goose

Hi everyone and welcome to my newly established blog. I'm Terra Barrett and I am a folklorist who is living and working in Newfoundland and Labrador. I am currently completing my Master of Arts in Public Folklore and I am finishing my last semester. This semester I am completing the second work term for the folklore masters program with Them Days. Them Days is a non-profit oral history magazine and archives based in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. This is my first time in Labrador and I am looking forward to sharing the experience though this blog.

I'm excited to be here in Goose Bay! I've been here for a little over a week and I'm slowly getting to know my way around. I arrived last Saturday evening and I was greeted by my boss Aimee and her boyfriend John. They were kind enough to let me stay with them and on my first evening here we went to a dinner party at one of their friend's houses. There was a lot of great food and it was nice to meet people on my first evening here. I was surprised to learn that with the exception of Aimee everyone at the party was from outside of Labrador. From what I've heard so far it seems like a fair number of people come to Goose Bay to find work and start their careers.

On Sunday afternoon Aimee and John took around to some of the stores in Goose Bay and explained some of the basic history of the community. We also took a trip to the top of a mountain from which you could see the Hamilton River (also called Churchill River) and Churchill Falls. In the evening they dropped me to the College of the North Atlantic Residence where I am staying for the next four months. I'm lucky to have a roommate Martina, a MUN Engineering student, who is also here for a work term and is also quite excited to be in Labrador and eager to take part in winter activities.

I don't have a vehicle in Goose Bay so I walk to the Them Days office. This has given me a chance to do a little bit of exploring and I have stopped into a couple of shops during my walks home. One of my favourite shops so far is called Northern Lights - although it is also known as Bullets to Bras (because it seriously sells everything from bullets to bras). They have camping, fishing, and hunting gear, wedding and prom dresses, local artwork, toys, a military museum, and a large display of Labrador taxidermy animals.

Another favourite local shop is Slippers n' Things which is a craft store with locally made snowshoes, jewelry, moccasins, sealskin slippers, knitwear, Innu tea dolls, and also stocks fabric and fur so you can make your own crafts. As I am a big fan of local craft I feel like I could easily spend my entire paycheque here. In addition to the crafts they also sell frozen seafood such as smoked char and frozen shrimp. On Saturday mornings the store offers free toutons to the customers with your choice of jam or molasses. Something I took advantage of this weekend. 

I started work on Monday morning and I've had a rather busy week. My first few days were simply understanding a bit more about the organization and included watching some old Land and Sea episodes and trying to familiarize myself with the archives. My official job title is Project Researcher and I have been hired to research, sort, and identify over 12 000 photos and negatives in the archives which have little or no information about them. I'm going to meet with community members in Goose Bay and surrounding areas (Sheshatshiu, North West River, and Mud Lake) in order to find out the names of local people, places and activities. I will also get the opportunity to travel to three communities along the coast - Nain, Cartwright and Natuashish to identify photos and talk to people in the communities.

In order to kick off the project we hosted an event on Friday afternoon called Tea with Terra. This was simply an informal public event in order to introduce the project, my position, and hopefully identify some photographs. I was invited to talk about the project on Labrador Morning so I went to the CBC studio first thing Friday morning before heading to the office. We had eight community members drop in to Tea with Terra to name photos, chat and have a cup of tea. The group was extremely enthusiastic and helped name over a hundred of our printed photographs which gives me lots of work this work. Looking forward to delving deeper into the project and meeting with more people during the coming months as well as participating in some outdoor fun.

~Terra