Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

The Winterton museum curates and transmits knowledge of wooden boats in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), a place where the historic fishery has all but vanished as a result of an ecological disaster; the collapse of cod stocks. The museum set out to provide a population experiencing displacement and cultural rupture with something other than a pointing-at-objects repository. Throughout the season it invites the public to construct a traditional boat in the company of an accomplished builder. Leaving its out-of-town premises in winter, it recruits a workshop on the university campus. The poster, reflecting on my participation in the winter 2018 course, encourages a critical dialogue about embodying specific historical and local concerns in museum activities. I mobilize a professional critique of the reconfiguration of curatorial agency in the museum, but I do so as a maritime historian and educationalist, and not as a museum professional. The composition of the group was material, particularly its multi-generational demography. The museum structured informed conversations; first by arranging for the master boat-builder’s apprentice to join us, and second by scheduling visits from the museum’s folklorists. But, above all it was our method of working that allowed for genuine interpersonal connection. Ready to launch in Spring, our vessel will join other small boats and their family “crews” in the brief, non-commercial, fishery. Standing out amongst the fibre-glass and inflatable craft, this punt (or wherry) is the vessel to take NL’s past into the future.