Now more than ever we need strong local economies. The choices we make – both as individuals and businesses – have a direct impact on the economic health of the places we live, work, and play.
At Shorefast, we have developed the practice of “Economic Nutrition” and pioneered a label to show where the money goes. Strengthening local economies goes beyond checking “Buy Canada” lists. Here are five ways we can act today.
1. Practice Place-Based Purchasing
Economic strength at the community level goes beyond the good feeling of shopping local, it’s about long-term thinking. Before ordering from a large online retailer, consider checking if the product is available closer to home.
The long-term impact of losing a vibrant network of local businesses should be factored into decision-making. In your personal purchasing and your purchases for your workplace, favour local suppliers and start with your community, your province, and your region.
2. Ownership Matters
Just because a store has a physical footprint in your neighbourhood does not always mean it’s locally owned. Before purchasing a product or visiting a store, take a few minutes to research who owns the business. Locally owned companies help ensure that money stays within the community and that business decisions reflect local needs.
3. Support Responsible Employment
Look for businesses that hire locally and practice ethical labour practices. If you own a business, find ways to invest in your employees. This ensures that a higher percentage of your dollar re-circulates in the local economy.
4. Pay attention to price
If a price seems shockingly low, ask yourself: How was this product made so cheaply? Often, low prices reflect hidden costs – such as environmental damage – that aren’t accounted for. On the other hand, excessively high prices may indicate price gouging.
At Shorefast, We provide pricing transparency through Economic Nutrition. For example, if staying at the Fogo Island Inn, over half of your money will remain on Fogo Island, 96% stays in Canada, the majority goes directly to labour, and there is no private gain as any operating surpluses are returned to Shorefast for community reinvestment. Being mindful of pricing helps ensure that our purchasing decisions support a fair and balanced economy.
5. Set Realistic Goals
Changing habits takes time, so start small. Set achievable goals within your household budget. Consider setting a specific target of your purchases from local businesses or identifying a few specific companies to intentionally support. Small steps add up to meaningful change over time.
At Shorefast, our community businesses use the Economic Nutrition Certification Mark. By making it clear where the money goes, it’s possible to make purchasing decisions that are economically healthy choices for our local communities. You can learn more about the Economic Nutrition Certification Mark here.
Support our Work
Shorefast’s work would not be possible without the generous support of friends and donors who believe in our mission and want to help amplify our work on Fogo Island and beyond. Shorefast is a registered Canadian charity (#85883 0904 RR0001) and contributions are eligible for official donation receipts. Established to deepen ties with our American friends, Shorefast US Fund is a 501(c)(3) organization, registered with the IRS.
To all of our friends, patrons, and supporters, thank you for your commitment to Shorefast and to building strong communities of place
At Shorefast, every year brings new opportunities to advance community economic development on Fogo Island and beyond. In 2024, we built strong momentum towards driving our vision of enabling economic dignity for more people and more places.
As a registered charity, Shorefast is powered by independent philanthropy, donations from past guests of Fogo Island Inn and supporters, as well as by the surplus generated from our social businesses. Our activities span hospitality, art, design, the environment, heritage, foodways, and building and sharing good and best practices in community economic development.
We’re grateful to all of our friends and supporters who believe in our work and amplify our impact on Fogo Island and beyond.
Here are some highlights from 2024, made possible thanks to you:
We laid the foundations for ShoreNet, a Network for place-based economies
After 20 years of building an engine of economic development on Fogo Island, Shorefast has embarked on an ambitious mission to broaden the reach of our community economies work.
Still in development, ShoreNet is the evolution of the Community Economies Pilot. It’s a network to help communities in Canada achieve the economic agency they need to shape their future. The network brings together entrepreneurs, policy makers, municipal leaders, non-profit organizers, philanthropists, academics, business leaders and institutions — from the very small to the very large. ShoreNet offers tools, resources, convenings, case studies, and mechanisms to affect change in the key pillars of society: community, government, business, and philanthropy.
We hosted changemakers to better build and learn together
Nawalakw
We welcomed leaders from Alert Bay, BC to the island. Members of Nawalakw joined the Shorefast team to share place-based economic development experiences and perspectives.
Nawalakw is a social venture located in the Kwakwaka̱’wa̱kw Territory of the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia. Their vision is to build a future that respects their connection to the land, air, and sea, firmly rooted in their responsibility of stewardship, while building a robust and prosperous economy.
Last fall, the seventh PLACE Dialogues returned to Fogo Island, its place of origin. Co-hosted by Shorefast and Memorial University’s Centre for Social Enterprise, this edition was centred around the theme of Building Economic Momentum for Resilient Communities. It brought together social entrepreneurs with community economic development peers working in the government and non-profit sectors.
The ground-breaking methodology explored during the convening accumulates into the action and influence needed to generate economic momentum that builds resilient communities.
In the winter of 2024, Toni Kearney spent time on Fogo Island to immerse herself in our community business model and replicate our regenerative practices in her community of Conche, NL.
Kearney is the Founder of Moratorium Tours & Retreats, which was inspired by Shorefast and Fogo Island Inn. She shares our vision of inspiring business development in outport Newfoundland and Labrador.
We welcomed artists and other thought-leaders to help us see the world ‘as whole’
Shore Time
Fogo Island Arts hosted the inaugural Shore Time, a biannual gathering celebrating the intersections of art, design, economy, ecology, and foodways. During the last weekend of September, Fogo Island teemed with creative and collaborative energy as artists, community members, and guests came together for insightful talks, walks, and studio tours.
Speakers included Indy Johar, Laura Owens, Sharon Lockhart, and Danh Vo, while Fogo Island artists opened their studios and shared their ideas and work with visitors and residents.
Artists-in-residence
Fogo Island Arts welcomed an array of artists-in-residence, who connected with the community through conversations or workshops. These included Zak Leazer and Zoë Hitzig’s well-attended flower-arranging workshop, a curator talk with Leo Cocar, and Syrus Marcus Ware and Susan Irons-Ware’s participation in World Oceans’ Day. We also hosted Ghazaleh Avarzamani, Jordan Bennett, Wong Winsome Dumalagan, L. Sasha Gora, Amy Malbeuf, Ethan Murphy, and Mooni Perry as artists-in-residence throughout the year.
Nelson White’s vibrant exhibition, Wutanminu – Our Community was showcased at the Gallery at Fogo Island Inn. Visitors and residents were also invited to an insightful panel discussion featuring Nelson, as well as fellow artists-in-residence Jordan Bennett and Amy Malbeuf, who are also featured in Nelson’s paintings.
Reaching Out into the World
Kitty Scott, Shorefast fellow and Strategic Director of Fogo Island Arts, was appointed Chief Curator of the 15th Shanghai Biennale which will open in November 2025. We are grateful for Kitty’s ongoing contribution to Fogo Island Arts which reinforces our leadership in the contemporary art space, and expands our reach globally.
Celebrating and Preserving Culture
Music and storytelling play an important role on Fogo Island; they bring community members together, while preserving culture and traditions.
This year, we hosted: Polaris Prize-winner Jeremy Dutcher for an intimate performance, musician-in-residence Chris Murphy for lively, weekly jam sessions and a community concert, and Carol Shields Prize-winning author V. V. Ganeshananthan for a chat about her book Brotherless Night during her residency at Fogo Island Inn.
We helped broaden horizons for our youth
With the shared objective to help Fogo Island youth imagine the future and the potential of the island, Shorefast and Fogo Island Central Academy hosted guest speakers in classrooms to showcase careers, environmental initiatives, and science projects related to their island and Atlantic Canada. Coinciding with the total lunar eclipse, Bethany Downer, a native of Newfoundland who is now the Chief Science Communications Officer for the ESA/Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, came to give a talk and interpret the event, along with NASA aerospace research engineer Dr. Tom Edwards.
Jarrod Oglan from Living Water Hydroponic Farms, Fogo Island beekeeper Don Paul, and Fisheries officers also visited to share their knowledge of the nature that surrounds us.
Community science events for students were also organized throughout the year, such as a shoreline clean-up and activities aimed at raising awareness on plastic pollution threatening our shores.
We created new ways to care for our ocean and coast
Green Crab Monitoring
The Environmental Stewardship Team set up a volunteer monitoring initiative to identify and trap green crabs, an invasive species that is not native to Fogo Island waters and can harm our environment by feeding on small finfish, being aggressive and territorial, and damaging the eelgrass habitat. All logged information is sent to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Track their progress here.
Successful Seaweed Harvest
We continued our work around seaweed farming, one of the most sustainable forms of aquaculture. This year, we enjoyed our first successful harvest, the culmination of a three-year Seaweed Pilot Project in collaboration with the Fogo Island Co-operative Society and the Marine Institute at Memorial University of Newfoundland. The Environmental Stewardship Team planted seaweed seeds to begin a second year of growing – this time, in partnership with KalUp, a new seaweed enterprise based on Change Islands
This project wouldn’t be possible without the funding partnership of the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation, the research partnership of Dr. Christina Smeaton at Memorial University, and the expertise of Fogo Island fishers and community members.
Awareness Activities
The Environmental Stewardship team led a variety of activities at this year’s World Oceans’ Day at the Iceberg Arena, including a showcase on community science.
The team also organized workshops at Punt Premises spotlighting sustainable hobbies, from kitchen gardening to seaweed cyanotypes.
Finally, geologist Jane Wynne returned to Fogo Island to share her knowledge of the island’s unique geology through several guided hikes.
Fogo Island Inn received Three MICHELIN Keys in 2024. This top international achievement recognizes our team’s commitment to extraordinary, place-based hospitality. Conde Nast Traveler’s Gold List also included Fogo Island Inn among the Top Hotels and Resorts in the world.
Air Canada has selected our North Atlantic Cod as a highlight of their menu in their Signature Suite at Pearson International Airport in Toronto. And more and more restaurants in Ontario and Calgary are offering ethically harvested cod and seafood from our small boat, community-based fishery.
We collaborated with Christopher Farr Cloth of London to distribute wallpaper and textile designs inspired by the beloved wallpaper adorning the walls of Fogo Islanding Inn. Our unique outport aesthetic is now accessible to designers worldwide.
As always, our restaurant and ice cream parlour delighted the community and visitors alike in their celebration of our foodways, offering traditional dishes and handcrafted ice cream made with local berries and ingredients.
Support our Work
Shorefast’s work would not be possible without the generous support of friends and donors who believe in our mission and want to help amplify our work on Fogo Island and beyond. Shorefast is a registered Canadian charity (#85883 0904 RR0001) and contributions are eligible for official donation receipts. Established to deepen ties with our American friends, Shorefast US Fund is a 501(c)(3) organization, registered with the IRS.
To all of our friends, patrons, and supporters, thank you for your commitment to Shorefast and to building strong communities of place
PLACE DIALOGUES 2024: Building Economic Momentum for Resilient Communities
A flourishing society is built upon prosperous communities, and prosperous communities are only possible when they are supported by strong and resilient community economies. So, how do we strengthen community economies? How do we build economic momentum for resilient communities?
This was the focus of the 2024 PLACE Dialogues, co-hosted by Shorefast and Memorial University’s Centre for Social Enterprise on Fogo Island, October 24-26, 2024. Taking place at the Orange Lodge, Shorefast’s Commmunity + Business Hub, the program for the seventh PLACE Dialogues was inspired by Shorefast’s 18-month Community Economies Pilot that brought together five Canadian communities to explore opportunities to better align the pillars of government, business, and community around local economic development.
The PDF program for the 2024 PLACE Dialogues, including participant list and bios, can be found here.
The PLACE Framework: co-created by Shorefast and academic researchers
PLACE stands for: Promoting community leaders; Linking divergent perspectives; Amplifying local capacities; Conveying compelling stories, and Engaging ‘both/and’ thinking. These signify five key principles important to conducting community development work. The framework emerged from a SSHRC-funded research project led by Dr. Natalie Slawinski on Shorefast’s place-based approach to social enterprise on Fogo Island.
The first PLACE Dialogues was held on Fogo Island in November 2018. Conceived as a knowledge-sharing component of the SSHRC-funded research project, the Dialogues convening model sought to gather community champions and leaders from across Newfoundland and Labrador.
The initial 2018 workshop successfully generated new connections between community development professionals working in business, government, and philanthropy. Before the 2018 gathering ended, one of the participants offered to host a second workshop the following year in a different rural community. Since then, the Dialogues have been hosted in Petty Harbour, online during the pandemic, in Norris Point, and in St. Anthony.
This year, the Dialogues returned to their place of origin for the first time under the theme Building Economic Momentum for Resilient Communities. Entrepreneurs co-mingled with community development peers working in the government and non-profit sectors as invited participants joined the workshop from diverse regions and backgrounds. The majority of participants live and work in Newfoundland and Labrador, and three participants with complimentary experience and skillsets joined from Vancouver Island in British Columbia. The PLACE Dialogues intentionally gather diversity and interdisciplinarity, because the challenges local places face in strengthening local economies take a multi-pronged, multi-sectoral approach.
When coordinated action across each critical pillar of community, government, and business work together to build businesses, spark innovation, and solve for social change, this accumulates into the action and influence needed to generate economic momentum that builds resilient communities. In coming together to discuss common challenges from the perspective of their fellow actors, community practitioners are able to uncover gaps in understanding and resources and work towards more effective solutions.
The 2024 Dialogues program was organized around three main topical areas that were identified in Shorefast’s Community Economies Pilot as key leverage points for strengthening community economies.
Key Idea 1: Attracting and Retaining Financial Capital
The first panel of the 2024 Dialogues focused on Attracting and Retaining Financial Capital. The panel explored challenges such as the availability of funding resources, how to connect with and understand local needs to encourage uptake and engagement, and how to sustain a healthy system of local purchasing and re-investment. The panel also discussed the importance of local ownership and succession planning to ensure capital is retained in the community for future generations.
One panellist spoke at length about the challenge they faced in attracting initial start-up capital for their social enterprise. For this entrepreneur, choosing direction meant both opening and closing doors – including initial launch decisions like the choice of operating structure. They sought advice from those in the room, asking, “how can entrepreneurs put themselves in a position to succeed in our province?”
The question period revealed many robust suggestions and expressions of support. With regards to financial capital, participants in the room advised ensuring entrepreneurs leverage multiple types of funding that can work for their project, and patchworking opportunities (loans, financing, partnerships, and/or government funding) to get started.
Key Idea 2: Building Local Entrepreneurial Capacity
The second panel explored entrepreneurial energy in Newfoundland and Labrador. All panellists were current or former entrepreneurs who have built businesses and social enterprises based on place-specific assets and industries. All the ventures represented demonstrate a knack for identifying emerging trends and building businesses or projects that tap into key markets and opportunities while retaining community-centred values.
The stories shared by the panellists were heartening and inspirational; the energizing effect of sharing successes is a key outcome of the Dialogues. But equally important is the identification of challenges and gaps in resources. One panellist shared that their business had benefitted from mentorship opportunities that arose due to serendipitous referrals, but there was agreement in the room that resources and mentorship opportunities must be strategically marketed/communicated to reach the entrepreneurs they intend to serve. Several panellists noted that their businesses could benefit from their communities developing assets or policies that are outside of their entrepreneurial scope but relevant (even essential) to their businesses. Again, the benefits of cross-sectoral collaboration were reinforced.
The supportive exchange, knowledge transfer, and peer-to-peer conversation and problem-solving demonstrated on both panels are key to the Dialogues convening model. With few similar convening opportunities for community development practitioners in the province, and fewer still focused on rural regions, PLACE Dialogues participants often note that the networking and conversational platform provided by the Dialogues are invaluable.
Key idea 3: Architectures for Collaboration
Wrapping up the discussion and exchange portion of the Dialogues, panellists and participants moved into practice mode for breakout sessions that offered the opportunity to learn more about Shorefast and the Fogo Island Co-operative Society. Formed in 1967, the Fogo Island Co-operative Society is the Island’s largest employer and operates three processing plants. Participants were able to get an insiders’ tour of the Co-op’s Fogo plant and meet some of the team. Other groups visited Shorefast’s Punt Premises to learn more about the charity’s programming and community businesses, including Fogo Island Inn. Dialogues practitioners could also choose their own adventure and visit a variety of local shops and businesses, including artisan makers and Living Water Hydroponic Farm.
Ending the day with more inspiration, participants visited two exhibitions at Fogo Island Inn and JK Contemporary and considered the role contemporary art can play in community economic development. Through art, artists and communities can tie into global networks and carve out new and exciting opportunities for belonging.
Inspiring More Places: The Shorefast Network for Place-Based Economies
To learn more about the PLACE Dialogues and the PLACE Framework, visit the Memorial University Centre for Social Enterprise website here. In 2023, a new book titled Revitalizing PLACE through Social Enterprise was released, co-written by academics and community practitioners. It is available via Memorial University Press as a hard copy and as an open-source PDF.
The PLACE Dialogues and Framework are part of the emerging curriculum for the Shorefast Network for Place-Based Economies: a national initiative to catalyse the holistic development of local economies, big and small.
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Shorefast’s CEO joined thought leaders, community members, private and public sector innovators, and city builders from across the country to talk about place as key to a resilient and connected future.
“Place holds all the answers.”
– Zita Cobb, Shorefast CEO & Founder
In mid-October Zita Cobb, Shorefast’s CEO & Founder, delivered the keynote address at the annual Evergreen Conference. Held at the Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto, the conference brings together thought leaders, community members, private and public sector innovators, and city builders from across the country who value place as key to a resilient and connected future.
At Shorefast, we believe that place holds all our relationships. When we practice economic development that takes into consideration the context of where we live – the geographic and human assets in each place – we set ourselves up for a stronger economic foundation that can successfully modulate the ecological, economic, and social needs of a community.
During her keynote, Zita reminded the crowd that “the opportunity for Canada is to figure out how we work at many scales.” Taking the local as our starting point, Shorefast’s work is to demonstrate how the proper tools and resources can enable other entrepreneurial communities to drive economic momentum and build toward the future they want.
Our national economy is strongest when it works toward the whole. Finding ways to stitch local economies into the national framework is central to what we do.
Design and architecture can be used to stimulate innovation and give centuries-old knowledge, traditions, and culture an economic foundation.
In early June, Todd Saunders, the Newfoundland-born, Norway-based architect behind Fogo Island Inn and the four artist studios on Fogo Island, hosted a talk for community members and visitors at Shorefast’s historic Orange Lodge building.
Tracing the trajectory of his career, Todd provided context and advice for people at the beginning of their careers and offered his thoughts on the future of architecture – citing his belief in a hybrid approach that mixes different elements together, with the caveat that “You make great architecture when you know a place.”
Originally tasked with a mandate to build Fogo Island Inn as demonstrative of “what has been learned from 400 years of clinging to this rock,” Todd shared insights alongside Shorefast CEO & Founder and Fogo Island Inn Innkeeper, Zita Cobb, about how leaning into the specificity of a place can be the very way that we connect the local economy to the global market.
“Culture is a living thing. If it doesn’t innovate it dies,” Zita remarked. Through cultural innovation we can find ways to illuminate the specificity of our place and carry it forward in ways that support dignified and meaningful employment, and a greater sense of belonging.
The following is an excerpt from a conversation between Zita Cobb and Todd Saunders on the 10th anniversary of Fogo Island Inn, shortly after the on-island community event.
— Wendell Berry, American Farmer, Writer, Philosopher.
Photo credit: Paddy Barry
Food is so much more than sustenance. What we eat, grow, forage, and fish tells us about the culture, environment, and history of a place. Understanding and celebrating our local foodways is another avenue to build stronger relationships between people and place and reinforce the importance of local growing and sourcing to our economy.
Our newly launched Foodways Program on Fogo Island is designed to unite and build on the many food-related initiatives that have animated our work over the years with the goal of creating a more sustainable food system on Fogo Island that can be a contagious example for other rural and remote communities.
The following is a sampling of some of the past, current, and ongoing initiatives that Shorefast has pursued to support a deeper connection to place through food:
Shorefast and Foodways
Fogo Island Inn
Ten years ago, Shorefast opened Fogo Island Inn with the intention to activate the cultural heritage and natural assets of the place, including our local foodways. From the Inn’s kitchen, we brought forward contemporary ways of using local ingredients, broadened what can be grown on the island, and increased the focus on local sourcing to support the creation of a widening food entrepreneur landscape on Fogo Island.
One such example of a new-to-the-island vegetable is fennel. Having asked local growers to cultivate fennel, initially for use in dishes at the Inn, we see its use within our new restaurant–The Storehouse—as an important gateway to sharing ways to cook with this vegetable, as well as other nutrient-rich ingredients that can be found on Fogo Island.
Photo credit: Andrea O’Brian
Fogo Island Fish
After opening the Inn, we also turned our thinking to our primary industry, the fishery, and partnered with the Fogo Island Co-operative Society, which operates three seafood processing plants on the island, to start a micro-enterprise called Fogo Island Fish, designed to develop markets for high quality hand-lined Cod. The practice of handlining involves no by-catch, and while it is labour intensive, we pay fishers double the market rate for cod caught by gill-nets. Fogo Island Fish currently sells wholesale to several fine-dining restaurants across Canada.
Seaweed Cultivation
In 2021, Shorefast launched an R&D pilot in collaboration with the Fogo Island Co-Operative Society to explore the commercial viability of seaweed farming. As a sustainable, plant based nutritional food that has significant environmental benefits and economic potential, seaweed cultivation could help diversify our island’s economy, with implications for replicability throughout Atlantic Canada.
Foraging
Historically, foraging for wild berries allowed Fogo Islanders to survive in this sub-arctic landscape. People foraged and ate partridgeberries, blueberries, marshberries, and bakeapples. The two dozen or so other berries were, not so long ago, collectively called ‘poison berries’ as a precaution from parents to children. Of course, we now understand a lot more about the berry species we share our landscape with, and that knowledge is often enriched by visiting experts invited by Shorefast who share even more. One such expert was able to expand our understanding not only of the other (not poison but very edible!) berries but also some of the mushrooms and herbs that were never previously understood as food.
Photo credit: Joe Ip
Medicinal Benefits
The arrival of Dr. John Weber, a Shorefast academic in-residence and a professor at Memorial University, fondly known as the “Berry Man,” helped us understand that blueberry leaves contain even more antioxidants than the noble berry itself. As we spend more time understanding the rich bounty in front of us, we are re-discovering valuable knowledge.
Wildflowers
In 2010, Shorefast commissioned Todd Boland of the Botanical Gardens in St. Johns, NL, to produce a Fogo Island wildflower guide book. The goal was to highlight the wide range of plant life on the island with a particular focus on edibles and traditional uses. This important work laid the foundation to better understand the land under our feet – land that Captain Wadham famously said Newfoundlanders, with their over-focus on the sea, had for too long regarded as a “conveniently-anchored ship.”
Food Circles
Adapted from the notion of sharing built into our traditional song circles, Shorefast has been bringing people together to share place-specific growing and cooking learnings and stories. Past panelists include Mitchell Davis, James Beard Foundation, and Lori McCarthy, a long-time Shorefast partner and Newfoundland & Labrador foodways expert.
Food Circle at Big Space Mitchell Davis, James Beard Foundation, hosts a food circle on Fogo Island
An initiative of Shorefast, the Punt Premises is part of the charity’s work to safeguard Fogo Island’s boatbuilding heritage and associated knowledge for renewed and repurposed use in building a modern outport community. The restoration of the Punt Premises was made possible by the generous support of past Inn guests. Read more about the history of the Punt Premises.
PJ Decker grew up on Fogo Island and has worked at Shorefast in various capacities over the years
“Every day is an opportunity to learn something new,” PJ Decker observes as we sit down to our first cup of tea at the kitchen table of the restored Punt Premises. Of the four traditional outport structures that comprise the Premises, the kitchen is the only room with some modern appliances—an appreciated touch when hosting youth and adult programming on site. Outside the sun is obscured by cloud cover and it’s what would be considered a “mauzy” day in Newfoundland parlance. For the past few weeks Decker has been preparing every detail of the Premises from the mounting of cultural artifacts on the wall to re-corking the fleet of punts that will soon bob within the harbour of Joe Batt’s Arm anchored by a technique affectionately referred to as ‘Punts on a collar.’ The 2022 Punt Premises season kicked off on June 1st and PJ is our new Punt Master. (While the role is new, PJ is no stranger to Shorefast; he has worked in various capacities over the years including maintenance and as an outdoor adventure guide.)
“Spudgel, for example,” PJ continues, “is a term I learned just yesterday from my dad.” His dad, Pete Decker, is a former fisher and trusted advisor to Shorefast’s work around the punts; he stops by the Premises regularly. Born in 1949—the year Newfoundland joined Canada—Pete is of the last generation that grew up when many of the traditional fishing tools and boatbuilding techniques of the inshore fishery were still in practice. With memory to draw on, Pete is quick to provide illuminating anecdotes to this former way of life and it is clear that his first-hand knowledge and the contextual history of the fishery has been an integral part of PJ’s own upbringing.
“My dad loved to be in the company of his father and uncles, all of whom were fishers, and to learn everything he could about fish, stories, and the sea. And I’m the same way. For me, the Punt Premises is where I belong. Punts and stages and coves—that’s what I’ve done all my life. Walking, wading, and exploring the shoreline.”
Punts on a collar in Joe Batt’s Arm harbour
PJ’s new role as Punt Master is both an extension of the informal education that weaves its way from generation to generation, and a concerted effort to bridge relevant aspects of Fogo Island’s history into the future.
The spudgel, as it turns out, is a wooden dipper connected to a long handle. It was a tool used to scoop cod liver oil from the barrel it was housed in (the two main by-products of harvested cod at the time were salt-cod and cold liver oil). In each of the structures that comprise the Premises—a traditional fishing stage, two fishing stores, and a saltbox-style house—various curiosities related to outport culture are mounted with labels identifying their purpose.
Walking through each interior reveals the particulars of every-day-life where some of the most impressive tools are simple design hacks: on a rack meant to carry dried cod the handles have been deliberately carved to arc upwards so that your knuckles don’t get crushed when you place the rack on the ground. At every juncture there is a thoughtful and deliberate attempt to make processes smoother, more efficient. It calls to mind a quote attributed to the author John Durham Peters, “Gathered in a single clock, knife, or shoe are many lifetimes of practical knowledge.” Continuing through the Premises serves as a fascinating reminder that beyond all the inventive tools and process to aid life and work, fishers also had to employ numerous intangible skills including the capacity to navigate by landmark, to read ocean currents, to predict the weather and understand the proclivities of fish. Both hand-crafted instruments and experience born of repetition and intuition were essential for surviving and thriving.
Equally fascinating is the fact that none of this would exist were it not for the proliferation of cod and marine life in this distinct region of the Atlantic Ocean (Fogo Island is in the pathway of the Labrador current colloquially known as “the lungs of the planet”). It was the mighty cod alone that begot an entire industry that encouraged people to settle in a place that required incredible perseverance. Today, whether you continue to make your livelihood on the water or not, the sea is inextricably linked to the experience of living on Fogo Island.
“The sound of my childhood,” PJ notes, “was the constant thudding of my dad corking the seams of his boat.” It’s a happy memory of course—this constant background music, a comforting thrum that belies a childhood near water and the rhythms of methodical, predictable days. Working with the punts at the premises, PJ reflects on the effort it takes to prepare them for the ocean: He’s been patiently filling each punt with water for a few days, allowing the wood to swell and naturally eliminate any open seams. The traditional process of corking a punt boat – creating a seal between the wood planks—could involve any number of tools but most often came down to the caulking iron (viewable at the Premises) and a hemp-like material called oakem that was malleable enough to fit in between the wood and effectively repel water.
“It’s quite likely that the sound my dad would associate with his own childhood would be entirely similar to the constant thudding I associate with mine.” It is hard to imagine this not being true; Pete’s father and uncles would have spent considerable time repairing their wooden punts. The sheer force of the Atlantic Ocean hasn’t altered with time, and boats, no matter if they are wood or fibreglass, will always require maintenance.
A tally board from 1939
Premises stage and shed
PJ near the splitting table in the fishing stage
Apparatus merchants used to weigh salt cod
While the fishing industry continues to be the most important business on the Island (centered around the Fogo Island Co-operative Society Ltd.)—notably as Fogo Island’s first locally-owned asset and the driver behind the Island’s resurgence after industrial trawlers depleted the cod stocks—creating a bright future depends on developing complimentary economic engines alongside that crucial pillar. Shorefast’s work is about enabling that diversity, so that people, especially young people who are often the first to migrate, have the option to stay and build the life they want. “At the time of my graduation in 2001 there was very little you could do on the island unless you were involved in the fishing industry. Now, all my siblings and I have been able to return home to jobs that previously didn’t exist.”
Before Shorefast commissioned boat-builders to craft new Punts, there were very few of the vessels left and knowledge of the traditional way of life—the harvesting techniques, the boats, the various tools and ways in which merchants and fishers would interact—was little known for community members PJ’s age and younger.
“When speaking with my friends I’m often surprised that they don’t know all of these details,” PJ offers as a way to explain the relevance of the Premises to the Fogo Island community today. This information is new to a lot of people and it’s an opportunity to re-evaluate the ingenuity of Fogo Islanders as they eked out a life in a remote location that by all measures resists easy living. Anyone that lives on Fogo Island or spends time on Fogo Island will instantly recognize the immense impact weather plays on daily life; precarity and adaption have been essential tools for survival on the edge of the northeastern Atlantic.
“How we continue to be shaped by that experience even as we evolve to be a modern outport is valuable and worth holding onto.”
The Punt Premises celebrates all facets of life that surrounded the inshore fishery, including the artisan craft traditions that supplied household textiles and cooking practices, much of which can be explored through interactive programming hosted on site. In this way the Premises has never been a static space purely for reflection; it is also a facility for community engagement and the 2022 season marks a dedicated expansion of its programming.
“With few community hubs on the island, we see the Premises as an opportunity to provide the kind of hands-on programming that kids and their parents are hungry for.” The Punt Premises will gear activation events around environmental stewardship and conservation efforts for kids and adults, as well as cultural programming focused on knowledge preservation.
With easy access to the shoreline there is lots of potential for learning, especially for kids. Simply observing the shallow waters below the fishing stage alone is an exercise in seaweed and fish species identification (hint: look for the eel grass). Tying simple and informative training modules into interactive kid-friendly programming will be an important part of Fogo Island’s adaptive future as coastal communities continue to face the brunt of the climate crisis. Building a modern outport community depends on nurturing leadership and knowledge that is based on the specificity of this place.
PJ attributes a large part of this understanding to the exchange between visitors from away and those who live on Fogo Island. Fogo Island Inn’s emphasis on regenerative tourism means that decisions about how the hospitality sector grows on Fogo Island are rooted in sustainable approaches to the environment and set to a scale that allows people to engage meaningfully with one another. “To see how many people are interested in what we have to offer is a big shift in the way we think of our past, especially as we imagine the future we want to create.”
Thinking back to his own childhood in the 80s, PJ recalls what is likely universal for any kid growing up near an ocean that continues to be both temperamental and life-giving: “When our fathers would return to the harbour after a day at sea, all us kids would run over to the rocks and watch in awe as they unloaded their fish onto the stage.”
The prolific marine life that encouraged people to settle on Fogo Island and develop an inshore fishery that sustained generations is an integral part of what informs culture to this day, and crucially will inform approaches to ocean sustainability well into the future. The continuum of an outport life that is modern, adaptable, and diverse relies on it.
“For things to remain the same, things will have to change,” the adage dictates.
PJ’s work at the Punt Premises embodies this notion. What we carry with us is important.
The Shorefast Institute for Place-Based Economies is a new national initiative dedicated to place-based economic development. The Institute will catalyse communities, governments, and markets to connect and build national economic strength. By creating new models and networks to share insights and best practices, to activate entrepreneurship, and develop coordinated financial strategies and tools, we can build a more prosperous and resilient Canada.
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The Shorefast Institute offers three areas of programming for organizations interested in new models of place-based economic development.
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“Prevailing economic models are no longer sufficient. We need a bold approach that builds upon the unique strengths within the places we live to help transform local potential into national prosperity.”
-Zita Cobb, Founder & CEO, Shorefast
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