Intangible cultural heritage is a huge aspect of our fisheries past and present and more needs to be done to preserve and promote awareness of that heritage. Since its inception in September 2007, the CURRA has worked closely with our community partner, the RED Ochre Regional Board, and with local communities and heritage committees on a number of initiatives to help strengthen heritage capacity in the region.

In February of 2010 we helped organize and run a Heritage Network Workshop. This workshop was the first opportunity for many of the local heritage groups to learn about the concept of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Participants at the workshop decided to form the Great Northern Peninsula (GNP) Heritage Network.

In the short term, the GNP Heritage Network's focus will be to strengthen the heritage capacity within museum staff and supporters in the region. In the longer term, if they decide this is appropriate, the Network will work with the Red Ochre and Nordic Economic Development Boards and with the CURRA to develop a proposal to Canadian Heritage for funding for a Virtual Museum. Such a museum would help to meet our goal to improve access to information on fisheries heritage, incorporate it into the school curriculum, and more tightly integrate that information into outreach and tourism initiatives on the West coast of NL.

In August of 2010, the Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation (TCR) announced a three-year pilot project that Red Ochre staff and the CURRA thought was a good fit for the Network. The RED Ochre Board and the CURRA developed a successful application for this pilot project. The overall purpose of this project was to assist community heritage organizations improve their operations and services to the public and build their capacity overall. Details are available at the website below.

Researchers and Partners

Materials

Links

Project Funders

Major CURRA Funders