The Basque Stories of Canada’s North: Storytelling at Red Bay National Historic Site, Labrador.
By Dale Jarvis
On a bright Tuesday in June, 2006, I flew out of St. John’s, Newfoundland in a small plane, bound for Blanc Sablon, a community on Quebec’s Lower North Shore. From there, I rented a car and drove northeast for an hour or so to the end of the paved road, arriving at my destination of Red Bay, Labrador. It felt just about as far from my little yellow row-house in St. John’s as one could get, while still being in the same province.
Over the next few days, I worked with the interpretive staff at Red Bay National Historic Site, coaching them in storytelling, teaching them a few traditional Basque folktales, and working with them one-on-one as they shared with me the stories they wanted to tell.
I was impressed, impressed with the beauty of the landscape, with the depth of history in that rocky place, and with the passion the locals had for telling the tales of their home. And then I had to drive back to Blanc Sablon, and after being grounded for a day and a half by fog as thick as the stuff in legends, I flew back home.
The summer flew by, and I wondered how Labrador’s newest storytellers were making out. Finally, on Friday, November 24, 2006, I was able to sit down with Cindy Gibbons during one of her visits to St. John’s, and I asked her about the progress of the Red Bay storytelling program.
Cindy was born and raised in Red Bay. She is involved with heritage work along the Labrador Straits, sits on the provincial board of directors for the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, and currently works for Parks Canada as the Site Superintendent for Red Bay National Historic Site.
Dale Jarvis: Cindy, can you give an introduction to Red Bay, for those who may not be familiar with it?
Cindy Gibbons: It is a National Historic Site, and it is representative of 16th century Basque whaling in Eastern Canada, focussed on the north shore of the Strait of Belle Isle and the Lower North Shore of Quebec. It is one of about 16 ports that were used during the period for whale hunting and processing the oil for markets in Europe.
Dale Jarvis: What are the challenges for that site in terms of audience and interaction?
Cindy Gibbons: The biggest challenge is probably location, although we are not particularly hampered by that. Our visitation is fairly low compared to other National Historic Sites in our system. The people we do have coming there are extremely interested in the site. It is not a chance visit; it is something that is planned. So our challenge is entertaining them while at the same time telling them the story and the main messages of our site.
Dale Jarvis: Are the majority of the interpretive staff at Red Bay locals?
Cindy Gibbons: They all have a connection to the Labrador Straits and most of them live in Red Bay. Like myself, they’ve grown up with the site and the archaeology as it was being discovered. Everyone has a sense of ownership of the place, and I think that makes developing these types of programs easier. They really want the visitors to understand the site and see it as they see it.
Dale Jarvis: How did you identify storytelling as one of the things you wanted to do on that site?
Cindy Gibbons: It came from discussions with our front-line interpretive staff. Red Bay is a new site. It has been in operation for less than ten years. We’ve spent the last five years that I’ve been working with the site trying to find our way, get our feet on the ground, and look at ways that we could tell this story in an entertaining, innovative way. The idea for storytelling came from the interpreters themselves. There are two or three of them that have some natural storytelling ability, which I recognized, and we have stories, stories that come from archival documents from the most part.
There are thousands of documents related to Basque whaling in Labrador in archives in the Basque country, and they all contain some sort of stories related to what was happening over here: shipwrecks, last wills and testaments of people who died on the Labrador coast, stories of lawsuits, and disputes. We found we were able to take those and put them in some manner that could entertain. So it’s not just a document from the 16th century, which is sometimes hard to understand, but something that we could interpret for the visitor. That helps them better understand the site and what was going on, on the coast of Labrador.
Dale Jarvis: Can you describe the program that you have developed which incorporates storytelling?
Cindy Gibbons: It builds on an existing program on Saddle Island, which is a key part of our site. It is where most of the land-based archaeology took place. It is basically a tour through the sites. We have a guide that leads a group and explains in some detail what these sites are and how they were used. We’ve been doing that for a number of years, but the new program interjects stories by storytellers who are wearing costumes depicting the 16th century. They step in at key moments and take over the tour, as it were. Instead of having a tour guide talking about the site, we are actually having a storyteller tell a story about something that happened either at that particular place on the site, or related to it.
We developed three stories this year for the first year of the program. One is a bit of a light-hearted story. I’m sure at the time it wasn’t, as it resulted in a major lawsuit, but it is the story of a stolen whale. At the time, the law of the sea said that if a whale was found floating, already dead, it belonged to whoever found it, kind of a “finders-keepers” deal. Whether this whale was floating free or had been cut free by the folks who found it, we really don’t know, but the dispute over who actually owned it, and who was entitled to the revenue that it generated, resulted in a 40 year lawsuit! We’ve told that story relating to one of the processing stations, and in addition to telling the story, it also includes some elements of the whale hunt and some of the work that was involved. One of our key messages is how these whales were processed, so that takes care of that little goal.
We also developed a story of the wreck of the San Juan, which happened at Red Bay in 1565. There are a lot of documents relating to insurance claims and lawsuits around that wreck. We were able to piece together a fairly detailed story of what happened there: the north wind, the mooring lines breaking, running aground on the shores of Saddle Island. Local knowledge helped in that story, as to how the wind behaves when it is coming from the north in Red Bay, in that harbour, and what would happen to a boat that was moored if those moorings were broken. So that is a combination of the archival material and local knowledge in the community.
The third story for that program, the tear-jerker as it were, is called “Juan’s Story.” It is the story of a whaler who died at Red Bay in the spring of 1577 after being trapped by the ice for that winter. He actually dictated his last will and testament in June 1577. We are not quite 100% certain he was there over the winter but there is a very good chance. We do know that a lot of ships were trapped in Labrador that winter, and I think it is a little more than a coincidence that this man died in June, in the spring. That whole story around surviving the actual winter and the hardships there, only to die after the rescue ships had arrived in June is very poignant. It is very emotional, and I think that a big part of this program is helping visitors form some sort of emotional connection. It is something they can identify with, maybe in their own lives. It gives them a better understanding of the site, and a bit of a connection to it, something they will take away with them and remember. That is what we set out to do.
Dale Jarvis: What has the visitor’s response been to this type of on-site storytelling program?
Cindy Gibbons: They like it. It is not exactly what they’ve come to expect from some of our sites, and it is a bit of a surprise when they have an opportunity to participate in this. We’ve done this program on Saddle Island, but our weather is not that great sometimes in the summer, and we’ve also staged it at the two visitor centre facilities that we have. I got one written comment where the woman was absolutely blown away, I guess is the only way I can describe it. The first time that we did the program in June was for a group of local people mostly. It was early in the season. We had a lot of school-aged kids there and it was an incredibly foggy day. I think that added to the atmosphere of the program and the kids loved it. They really had a great time Even on the occasion when we staged the program inside, a lot of local people came out, which is the part that I was really pleased with. We don’t have a lot of local people coming to visit the site, and this actually drew them in. We had a very mixed audience that time, and even though they were stuck inside and it was miserable outside, they really enjoyed the program and the feedback was extremely positive. It is a little different from what people expect at our sites.
Dale Jarvis: Do you think that this type of storytelling approach would work at other National Historic Sites?
Cindy Gibbons: Oh, I think so! All the National Historic Sites we have are telling a story of some sort, of some significance to Canadian history. What I find is that everyone loves a good story! Some of our sites have very good interpretive displays but they are just that, static displays. My observation, and this is coming from our national office as well, is that the visitors’ expectations are changing. They are expecting to do more interactive things that connect them with the site. This is a good way of doing that. I could certainly see it working at the other sites in the system that I am familiar with. I can really see it working there, particularly at Port-au-Choix with the aboriginal connection and the aboriginal storytellers that we have in Labrador and down on the south coast in the Mi’kmaq communities. I think it would really enhance that particular site.
Dale Jarvis: What comes next for storytelling at Red Bay National Historic Site?
Cindy Gibbons: This is the start! There is another program in development right now, it is based on storytelling, and we are trying to work in the story of the women who were left behind. One of the strategic directions we have in Parks Canada is women’s history, and the role that women played at our sites. They didn’t bring women from the Basque country but most of these men left behind wives, children, sisters, mothers. We are using Juan’s story again, but we are also telling the same story from the point of view of his wife. We know from his will that he had a wife and a daughter, so we’ve developed that character and her story. That is what we plan to launch next summer as a follow-up to this one. Hopefully both of them will be going at some point during the season.
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For more information on Red Bay National Historic Site, visit:
http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/nl/redbay/
and
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/basque.html
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Dale Jarvis is a storyteller, folklorist, writer and heritage conservationist living and working in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He is the founder of the St. John’s Storytelling Circle and one of the coordinators of the St. John’s Storytelling Festival. He teaches workshops on storytelling for museums, parks and historic sites, and is available for hire. Email Dale for availability.