M. Stopp's 2010-2011 Summer Column “Field Notes”
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PAGE B6 NORTHERN PEN, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2011 In Memoriam VTA helps out SPCA SCANLON In loving memory of Geraldine Scanlon April 24, 1947 – June 27, 2010 We thought of you with love today But that’s nothing new We thought of you yesterday And the day before that too. We think of you in silence We often speak your name Now all we have are memories The grade seven social studies class at Viking Trail Academy in Plum Point has studied topics on empowerment and ways of helping others. With this in mind, the And your picture in a frame. students decided to make a financial donation to the West Coast SPCA to help with its project of constructing a new animal shelter. A cheque in the amount of $200 Your memory is our keepsake will be presented to the organization. Members of the class include (front, left to right) Courtney Cull, Ryan Coombs, Ashton Tatchell, Sabrina Beaudoin, Janaya With which we’ll never part Toope, Jagger Taylor and (back) Reiley Mitchelmore, Isaac Gibbons, Dillon Gibbons, Austin Tatchell, Oriana Pittman-Caines, Breanna Tatchell and Zachary Doyle. God has you in His keeping READER SUBMITTED PHOTO GARFIELD WAY/VTA We have you in our hearts. Forever loved and sadly missed by hus- band Patrick, children Frazer (Clarise), Morris (Dale), Harrison (Kim), Clayton ”I, old Lydia Campbell”: (Linda), Glenn (Terri), and a large circle of grandchildren and families. a Labrador Woman In Memoriam GOULD In loving memory of our sister of National Historic Significance Elizabeth Gould This is the second season of Field Notes, the course of his 21 years in Labrador. They April 6, 1954 – June 24, 2007 written weekly while the author is conducting had six children, two of whom, Margaret and archaeological research in St. Michael’s Bay as John, continued the Campbell family line. In There is a tiny space between life and death part of the multi-disciplinary research project addition to her biological children and in the This space can be filled with just one breath “Understanding the Past to Build the Future” tradition of many Labrador families, Lydia We watched you as you lay there (www.mun.ca/labmetis/index.html) which and Daniel also raised two informally adopt- Waiting for your final breath unveiling. examines early Inuit presence in southern ed children. The first was an Inuk named Labrador. Lemuel George, who died tragically when he You asked questions that we had no Dr. Marianne Stopp is an historian at Parks was ten. The second, Hugh Palliser, was tak- Canada and holds an adjunct position with the en in when Lydia and Daniel were in their 70s. answer to Department of Archaeology at Memorial Uni- Hugh took the Campbell name and has a Holding your hand was all that we could do versity. number of descendants. Lydia Campbell’s You kept saying “talk to me, keep me She has worked as an archaeologist in many descendants live throughout Labrador awake southern Labrador for more than 20 years. In and her extensive family tree has been com- So that final breath I will not take”. 2008, she published The New Labrador Papers piled by Patty Way of Cartwright, Labrador. of Captain George Cartwright, presenting new Over the course of her long life, Campbell We watched you laying there in so much historical material that stands alongside became somewhat of a legend among the pain Cartwright’s famous journal as a source of people of Groswater Bay for her endurance Selfishly wanting you to remain information on the early colonial period. and her many skills. Along with her sister Praying for your healing, wiping your tears Hannah, she was part of a small group of first “I, old Lydia Campbell, 75 years old, I puts generation Labradorians of mixed descent Trying not to think about our own fears. on my outdoor clothes, takes my game bag who passed on their education to their chil- and axe and matches, in case it is needed, dren. This led to a phenomenon noted by vis- Listing to your breath, praying “just one and off I goes over across the bay, over ice and iting clergy and other officials in the late more” snow for about two miles and more, gets 1800s and early 1900s whereby Hamilton Fearing soon you would pass through three rabbits some days out of twenty or Inlet was one of the few places in the British death’s door more rabbit snares all my own chopping colonies where residents were not only You opened your tear-filled eyes and Lydia and Daniel Campbell at their home in Cul de Sac, near down. It looks pretty to see them hung up in versed in the Christian liturgy without ever looked at us Rigolet, ca. 1875 (Flora Baikie collection, Them Days). what we calls Hoists. And you say, well done having had a resident clergy, but were also We had to let her go, this we began to see. old woman.” remarkably literate despite the absence of Card of These words were written by Lydia Camp- teachers. bell in 1894 and they form part of her remark- In 1894, Aunt Lydia became relatively We love you very much, sisters Hepsey ELLIOTT able account of early Labrador life, “Sketches famous beyond her Groswater Bay homeland Sheppard, Mary Lidstone, brothers Grant, of Labrador Life by a Labrador Woman.” In when visiting clergyman Arthur Charles Wallace, Eli, Eric, Terry and families. We, the family of the late Jessie Elliott, would like to express our sincere thank you and appreciation to those 2009, the Historic Sites and Monuments Waghorne asked her to write an account of who helped during the passing of our mother. Everyone’s Board of Canada designated Lydia Campbell her life, which he published in 13 short visits, telephone calls, cards, flowers, food, and monies (1818-1905) as a person of national historic installments in The Evening Herald, St. In Memoriam which was donated to the Anglican Church were a great significance. As one of Labrador’s best known John’s. Campbell had previously written an comfort at such a difficult time. Special thanks to the staff and most cherished historical figures, “Aunt account of her life for a Reverend A.A. Adams, at John M. Gray Centre, Kerry M. Fillatre Funeral Home, Lydia” was honoured for her chronicles as “but he lost it.” “Sketches of Labrador Life by Rev. Ralph Moore and Jean Boyd. God bless you all. well as for her role as a cultural mediator in a Labrador Woman” reflects the distinctive The Elliott family the changing social landscape of the early style of her home-grown education and early 19th century. In the words of her biographer Labrador English. It is the first published Dr. Anne Hart in the Dictionary of Canadian writing by someone born and raised in Biography, “this ‘quaint old lady’ was held in Labrador and remains an important source high regard as a notable matriarch and trans- of historical information on family life, settle- mitter of Labrador memories.” Through her ment, culture change, with brief vignettes of writing and through the oral traditions that Inuit and Innu life. “Sketches” is also the have been passed down through hundreds of beginning of a now lengthy Labrador tradi- her descendants, Campbell has long been an tion of home-style narrative put to paper. It iconic figure and a touchstone to Labrador’s was followed by daughter Margaret Baikie’s ALL POLISHING Inuit and English-Scottish past. Labrador Memories: Reflections of Mulligan, Born Lydia Brooks on 1 November 1818 written about 1918 and covering the years as AT NO EXTRA COST along the shore of Double Mer inlet in far back as 1846. “Sketches” was published by GENGE Groswater Bay, she represents the first gener- Them Days in 1980. In loving memory of ation of Labradorians of British and Inuit Lydia Campbell is representative of other Elijah Genge parentage. Her mother was an Inuk whom we Inuit and part-Inuit women throughout who passed away July 3, 2010 know only as Susan. Her father was an Eng- Canada’s North who were the key to the suc- Age 70 years. lishman named Ambrose Brooks who came cess of colonial efforts. They gave European to Groswater Bay in 1800 to escape British newcomers a foothold in a new and relative- Lonely are the days without you Life to us is not the same press gangs. The youngest of three daughters, ly harsh country through their knowledge All the world would be like heaven Lydia grew up speaking English and Inukti- and skills. It was women such as Campbell If we could have you back again. tut. Susan passed vital Inuit skills to her who taught their European partners how to daughters that included trapping, shooting, build appropriate homes, and how to trap, Your life was full of special deeds and fishing as well as medical knowledge and fish, and travel. Daniel Campbell, for Forever thoughtful of all our needs the preparation of skin-clothing and country instance, “did not know much about trap- Today, tomorrow, our whole life foods. Ambrose Brooks, the son of a minister, ping,” wrote their daughter Margaret Baikie, through GLADYS HANCOCK taught his daughters to read English using “my mother used to go with him to set the We will always love and cherish you. the few texts in his possession, which were traps.” Forteau the Bible and the Church of England Com- Campbell was sought out by several A bouquet of beautiful memories mon Book of Prayer. Brooks was one of the church representatives at a time when the Sprayed with a million tears It is with great sadness that the family of the late Gladys earliest Europeans south of the Moravian sta- Moravian, Wesleyan Methodist, Anglican, Wishing God could have spared you Hancock announce her passing on June 21, 2011 at the If just for a few more years.