Fogo island is a small floret with big stories. Here, we share these stories to present varying views on life, work, and art on this island of the North Atlantic. But first, why a cauliflower?
Why a cauliflower? Shorefast Founder Zita Cobb first encountered a cauliflower after moving away from Fogo Island and it was just about the most exotic food she’d ever seen. Its structure fascinated her and it eventually became a symbol for Shorefast’s community economies theory.
The noble cauliflower is a fractal and its differently-sized florets make up a repeating pattern of beautiful clusters: some big, some small. The stem of the cauliflower directs nutrients to the individual florets.
At Shorefast, we think about the planet and its individual places as a cauliflower. Communities are the florets, with small places like Fogo Island comprising the little florets, and big places like New York City comprising the larger ones. The stem of the cauliflower is representative of our economic systems, which, when they work as they should, hold us all together and channel nourishment to the florets to keep them thriving. When that stem becomes too self-serving, or prioritizes bigger florets over the little ones, the florets begin to suffer.
Small places have been disappearing – in other words, small florets have been withering. When we practice business in a way that serves community and place, we ensure that the stem services the whole of the cauliflower.
The stories told here remind us to think and act holistically and to consider the diverse lifestyles, viewpoints and experiences as making up the whole of our human experience.
Zita Cobb joins thought leaders to discuss paradigm shifts in how we think about capital and the economy
March 21, 2023
In late February, Zita Cobb, Shorefast’s CEO & Founder, delivered the keynote address at the 2023 Sorenson Impact Summit.
A platform for transformative change, the Summit encouraged speakers to consider how the impact investing community can supercharge innovative solutions for the world’s most pressing problems. Over the course of 4 days, top changemakers discussed how we can transform our economy to create a more just, equitable, sustainable, and prosperous future for all.
Zita was able to share her unique point of view, and elaborate on Shorefast’s proof of concept developed on Fogo Island, as a way to prompt people to rethink how our economic systems can be rebuilt to be in service of place.
“Asset-based community development is essential to every place. Humans often have a very shallow understanding of what economic development is and what our assets are. That has given rise to a world where people make investments, but they are not development. Development is about uplifting the inherent assets of a place.”
-Zita Cobb
Prior to speaking at the Summit, Zita answered questions on why “Place” is our most important economic gift.
Over the summer, Shorefast held a community and information consultation at the Lion’s Club in the community of Fogo to present on the progress of our Seaweed Pilot. The meeting, one of several held over the course of the Pilot, marked a year of exploration into the commercial viability of seaweed farming on Fogo Island.
The Pilot, led by Shorefast and in partnership with Fogo Island Cooperative Society Ltd and local fishers, along with the support of our funding partners Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation and the Marine Institute at Memorial University, involves understanding whether seaweed can grow reliably in different areas around Fogo Island with the ability to produce enough harvest to make it practical to pursue as a new market diversification product. Nascent business exploration has indicated that small-scale production of seaweed products would fit well with the high-value and niche market that seaweed draws. If seaweed cultivation is successful, the Pilot has the potential to be a scalable diversification opportunity for many parts of Atlantic Canada.
Shorefast’s environmental stewardship coordinator is featured on CBC’s The Broadcast talking about the potential for seaweed cultivation on Fogo Island
An important part of Shorefast’s work under the banner of Environmental Stewardship is to find new ways to create economic opportunity for our community while relying on the inherent knowledge and geographic assets already in place. Crucially, seaweed is a sustainable, plant-based nutritional food that has economic and environmental benefits: growing seaweed is environmentally regenerative and adds to the health of the marine ecosystem, while also capturing carbon. Most published literature suggests that aquaculture – including seaweed – enhances lobster stocks in the vicinity, a relationship that dovetails well with our community’s strong fishing economy.
At the meeting in August our environmental stewardship coordinator and other community engagement facilitators fielded questions and feedback about the next steps of the project with many community members showing interest in getting involved with the initiative. The group, as well as Shorefast and its partners, is enthused by the notion of Fogo Island becoming a pioneer in seaweed cultivation along the North Atlantic coast.
In the current phase of the project, seaweed test plots have been mapped around the island and we are preparing to deploy test lines that will be regularly monitored. Recent results look promising and if all goes well, we anticipate being able to harvest the seaweed in the summer of 2023; at this point we will have a greater understanding of the opportunity going forward.
As part of our efforts to build a market, Fogo Island Inn’s kitchen has been experimenting with potential food products that could result from a seaweed harvest. Two recent small-batch products, which can be found on display at the Orange Lodge on Fogo Island, include Black Kelp Mustard and Sea Buckthorn Sauce. Tim Charles, Executive Chef of the Fogo Island Inn, says the condiments can be paired with anything, but, of course, he highly recommends them with cod!
Initiated in 2004 as one of Shorefast’s inaugural programs, the Fogo Island Annual Scholarship provides financial support for all eligible Fogo Island Central Academy graduates who are pursuing any form of post-secondary education or training (a portion of funds raised are sent to A.R Scammell school on Change Islands proportional to student population). The Scholarship program is funded through the generosity of local community members, local businesses, and donors who span Canada more broadly. All funds raised are divided evenly among applicants.
There is no formal application process for the scholarship. Instead, to receive their scholarship grant funds, we simply ask the students to provide us their thoughts on issues relevant to our community by composing a short, opinion-based essay, recording a video response, or creating an art piece. It’s a key way we receive feedback from our youth, and it’s a yearly highlight for us to read and experience their thoughts and ideas.
This year graduates were asked to respond to any one of these four questions:
What can we learn from the resiliency Fogo Islanders have shown in the past (such as facing the cod moratorium and resisting resettlement) and how can that help us during times of uncertainty in the present (such as the pandemic and climate change)?
What actions can Fogo Islanders take to create an inclusive community where everyone can be their authentic selves?
Reflect on what it means to be a Fogo Islander. How can we preserve who we are as we continue to open up to the world?
Envision the main street of your community on Fogo Island in the year 2050. What does it look like? How is it different than it is in 2022, and why are those changes important?
With input from the graduates, we mounted an exhibition of their essays and art pieces at the Punt Premises, and we invited the students, their families, and their friends to an opening celebration. It was a great way to share the students’ ideas with the wider community and applaud their accomplishments.
Quotations from essays are displayed alongside art pieces throughout the outbuildings of the Premises, and the community was invited to come down and read what our young people have to say.
Congratulations to all our graduates. We can’t wait to see where your studies and life experiences take you!
We’re very grateful to the many other businesses and individuals that contribute funds and prizes to the scholarship which allow us to grow the pool of grant money available to our students. The scholarship is a true community effort. To learn more about how you can contribute to the Fogo Island Annual Scholarship program please contactdonations@shorefast.org
Titled, A Variability Quantifier, 2022, and known colloquially as The Fogo Island Red Weather Station, Gillick’s artwork forms part of a larger collaborative project that unites 28 art organizations around the world through the World Weather Network (WWN). The constellation of geographically-diverse ‘weather stations’ are responding to the climate crisis through the eyes of artists, writers, and communities by sharing observations, stories, reflections and images about their local weather, creating an archipelago of voices and viewpoints. Spanning Nigeria to Iceland to New York, the coalition is bringing increased attention to the importance of artists and writers to the dialogue around climate change.
Listen to Liam Gillick on CBC’s the Q talking about art, Fogo Island, and a weather station to the global climate crisis
Designed with advice from the Fogo Island community, Gillick’s weather station takes its structural cues from traditional outport fishing stages found throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. The structure is a framework for scientists and local community members to add meteorological instruments to measure and track local weather and monitor changes connected to an increasing experience of the climate crisis, including changes to the annual passage of icebergs in ‘Iceberg Alley.’ The station will serve as a location for community gathering, creative place-making, education and discussion, as well as a functional weather station.
For Gillick, The Fogo Island Red Weather Station is a continuation of his interest in understanding the origins of climate science and his long-standing appreciation of Fogo Island as a compelling geographic location. For Fogo Islanders, who have a distinct and embodied relationship with weather, this artwork is a reminder of the significant imprint weather has made on the cultural and physical landscape of Fogo Island and the influence it will continue to exert on our evolving modern outport.
The artwork is being acquired by the National Gallery of Canada as part of its National Outreach Initiative in which artworks from the collection are sited and maintained at localities across the country. It will be displayed on the island through to October 2026.
Continue scrolling to read more about weather’s influence on Fogo Island and art’s role in a healthy economy.
Understanding Life in the Pathway of the Labrador Current
By selecting Fogo Island as one of the 28 locations that will host a weather station, the World Weather Network is considering the variety of climates and topographies that dynamically make up our world and each region’s insights into how weather changes will play a determining role in our shared futures. In many of these singular locations, weather is understood acutely by the communities that live there. This contrasts with more densely populated regions where people generally live in more stable climates and interact with the weather in a much more static sense: by checking the internet for updates.
On Fogo Island our relationship to our distinct environment can be viewed as both a challenge and a joy—the Labrador current is the bearer of moody weather shifts and a prolonged winter, and also the provider of the single greatest asset that continues to define our lives: the sea and its prolific marine life.
In contrast to the traditional four seasons, we count Seven Seasons that tie into the foundational basis of our fishing economy (it should be noted many Fogo Islanders make the case for even more seasons). A close understanding of the natural environment is necessary when your livelihood is dependent on it. Before the advances of larger fishing boats and weather data, fishers had to learn to read the weather like the back of their hand (and still do) as any trip out into the ocean posed significant risk.
Spring is when Icebergs arrive on the horizon
One of the most poignant examples of our first-hand knowledge as it relates to the human-caused changes we are seeing on Fogo Island is illustrated in ‘Iceberg Alley.’ Watching the glacial ice flow that passes by Fogo Island, carried by the swift Labrador Current, is a local pastime and an unofficial marker of the transition to summer. In recent years however, those majestic Icebergs have substantially increased in concentration and flow—a change that Fogo Islanders have experienced in real-time simply by bearing witness to the same stretch of ocean year over year. This kind of qualitative, knowledge-based data is crucial for understanding what is changing in our oceans. It is knowledge that reflects a lived experience of the weather.
Berry season on Fogo Island
What does art have to do with the weather?
Fogo Island Arts (FIA), Shorefast’s foundational program on Fogo Island, is underpinned by the conviction that individuals are shaped by place—that our knowledge, culture, and capacity to relate to one another depends on the specificity of our surroundings. Creating a healthy, vibrant community economy relies on integrating art and artists into dialogue and partnerships with diverse sectors of the community to broaden our understanding of what is possible.
The Fogo Island Red Weather Station is a reminder of our shared and embodied experience of weather that ties directly to our culture. This open-air exhibit will be a public space to facilitate community gathering and connection through conversations about the weather. For Gillick, this artwork is built around the relevance of intuitive knowledge to our conversations—big and small—that are necessary to address climate change in a meaningful way. A central theme throughout many of his climate-related projects is an interest in understanding “the history of the maths behind climate research, how and why things are measured as they are, and how different cultural traditions of tracking weather can add to our understanding of it.”
In the local context, the Weather Station represents a new era of weather data collection on Fogo Island. Owing to our remote location, Fogo Island currently relies on triangulated data from nearby weather stations to provide a ‘best guess’ on the day’s weather events. Quantitative data collection on Fogo Island will increase our capacity to participate in scientific research as commissioned by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Marine Institute at Memorial University, as well as complementing our community science initiatives, such as ice-tracking, lobster-monitoring, and capelin spawning that are being rolled out under Shorefast’s Environmental Stewardship program.
Knowing that coastal cities and communities are at the forefront of the climate crisis, we are a bellwether for changes being felt globally. Our local knowledge and intimate relationship with the natural environment is a key asset in our adaptive and responsive future.
By looking at the changes to our global weather through the lens of art we are invited to consider what is at stake for all of us.
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 roads of Fogo Island are empty this morning. The weather forecast is calling for high winds and 50 millimeters of rain: a daunting amount of precipitation even for seasoned coastal dwellers. The drive to Fogo Island Inn is accompanied by the kind of wind that cuts across, under, and around a vehicle, rocking it in a way that unnerves the uninitiated but goes nearly unnoticed to those who frequent these routes. The staff at Fogo Island Inn are talking about getting a guy named Noah on the phone… “we might need an ark,” they joke.
“There’s a sense of home throughout the entire journey of getting here.”
Ernst Hupel is staying in room 23. He belongs to a group of people the Inn has affectionately named “permanent visitors:” those who live away but find some sense of home on Fogo Island, whether they own property or not.
“Even the security agents at the airport know me now.”
“There’s a sense of home throughout the entire journey of getting here,” he notes, “from the time I pick up the rental car in Gander to the time I drive off the ferry… even the security agents at the airport know me now.” Ernst first came to Fogo Island to consult on the interior design of Fogo Island Inn: “I was invited to the Island to take a look at what was happening here at the Inn and see if I could help out… that’s where it began.” Citing deeply considered sourcing decisions and the responsibility felt by all to do right by the place and community, Ernst notes that “this project challenged everything I knew about design… everything in the Fogo Island Inn is here for a reason.”
After several years of travelling back and forth between Ottawa and Fogo Island for both work and pleasure, Ernst couldn’t ignore the pull any longer. He purchased a home in Joe Batt’s Arm; this weekend, it’s occupied by a group of 8 women he knows from Ottawa.
“Purchasing a home was a personal investment, and it’s really changed my life,” he says. Still known as Hewitt House after its original inhabitants, the house had been owned by Shorefast and needed significant time, money, and energy to restore. With resources financial and otherwise needing to be directed elsewhere, Shorefast made the rare decision to sell. But the sale came with conditions. “I needed to do the work to the home in the first year so that the house was actually being restored and not just sitting there,” Ernst recalls, “because having a house sitting empty does nothing.” And if he ever sells the home? “Half of its increased value would be donated back to the people of the Island.”
“Purchasing a home was a personal investment, and it’s really changed my life.”
Ernst sets out from the Inn to visit Hewitt House. Undeterred by the inclement weather, he decides to walk. “The wind today feels like a warm hug,” he insists amidst bright red, late fall blueberry bushes swaying violently in the multi-directional breeze.
Arriving at the house soaked through but still smiling, Ernst greets the rambunctious group as he tosses his muddy pants in the dryer and dons a borrowed pair of pyjama bottoms. Settling into the living room to laugh and joke with his houseguests, it’s clear that Ernst finds great joy in sharing the home. Indeed, he remarks, “I don’t feel like I own this house… I’m just taking care of it.”
“I don’t feel like I own this house… I’m just taking care of it.”
“I want this house to really represent the love and the responsibility I have and feel for the Island and the community. I want this house to be a tool for others from away to come with family and friends and to hopefully see even just a glimpse of what this place has done to me.”
“The hospitality that is so natural here is so foreign for so many that don’t live in a place like this.”
What the place has done, in part, is created a second home for Ernst, his family, and his friends. “Every time I’m here, someone will say, ‘when are you coming home again?’ The hospitality that is so natural here is so foreign for so many that don’t live in a place like this.”
It’s precisely this genuine sense of belonging and welcome that attaches people to the Island. Ernst recalls a family vacation to the French Riviera that followed a Fogo Island visit several years ago. His eldest daughter, a young teen at the time, had remarked, “I wish we could go back to Fogo Island because it was more real.”
“I wish we could go back to Fogo Island because it was more real.”
As a “permanent visitor,” Ernst plans to do his part to hold on to that authenticity. His wish for the Island is simple: that it remains a place conducive to living, working, and belonging. “I hope that people will be able to live here and make a decision to live here and be able to work here and raise families and really carry on what has been here for hundreds of years.” AR
The Floret—Mackenzie Hewitt
August 27, 2019
“This is home no matter what.”
For Mackenzie Hewitt, Joe Batt’s Arm has always been home. She’s grown up walking ocean-bounded trails, picking berries, riding four-wheelers, and living a relatively safe and somewhat wild existence on the outport island her family has inhabited for generations. The house that she shares with two siblings and her parents is a popular gathering place. “This is the house everyone comes to,” Mackenzie says, explaining the presence of her two teenaged girlfriends sitting at the kitchen table. “I’ve been here for four days,” one of them quips.
Mackenzie’s bedroom is in the basement. It is mostly taken up by her large bed, the duvet on which she straightens and fusses with upon entering. A few scattered objects, obviously mementos of memories shared with friends, line her dresser. She loves the privacy of being downstairs from the rest of the family, but wishes the lighting could be improved. Of the filming lights being set up around her, she remarks, “I wish I could have one of these to do my makeup.”
She is a typical teen in so many ways: a bright and keen student who loves spending time with friends and drives with a “novice driver” sign on her back windshield. “Do you want to see my grad dress?” she asks, despite the fact that her graduation date is still nearly a year away.
“The meaning behind nursing is getting to help everybody – no matter who they are.”
But Mackenzie is also fairly unique amongst her peers, both those that share her island home, and those coming of age across Canada. She is focused and driven, having established her ambition to become a nurse long ago. “I’ve always wanted to do nursing ever since I was smaller,” she says, “It’s something I feel like I’d be really good at.” For Mackenzie, “the meaning behind nursing is getting to help everybody- no matter who they are.” With the shy smile of someone well aware of both the limitations and power of their youth, Mackenzie altruistically defines “helping people” as “loving and caring”.
“I have to manage my time very wisely.”
She works up the road at the Fogo Island Inn in the food and beverage department. During her summer, evening, and weekend shifts, she waits on the Inn’s discerning international guests. It’s an often challenging role that Mackenzie approaches with an understated confidence that is rare to observe in someone so young. Of her busy days juggling school, work, homework, and friends, she says, “I have to manage my time very wisely.”
“We get to help them understand what our Island is like.”
“Hospitality at the Inn has a lot to do with the people,” she says, describing how she and her colleagues approach the meaning of their roles as constituting “the loving of a stranger.” And the most rewarding part of working with the guests at the Inn? “We get to help them understand what our Island is like.”
Mackenzie’s lifestyle would likely seem foreign to fellow teens in, say, Ontario. Most teenagers’ first jobs are in small retail stores or fast food restaurants, not one of the top hotels in the world. Another case in point: over the course of her time spent being interviewed, Mackenzie fields no less than three calls on the landline for her father. “He’s gone moose hunting,” she politely informs each caller before spending a few moments exchanging pleasantries.
“I was very happy and thankful to be home.”
In less than a year, Mackenzie won’t be home to answer the phone. She’ll likely be on the main island of Newfoundland, beginning her nursing studies. She’s nervous about moving away, and seems to understand her upcoming university years as a necessary but nevertheless daunting step towards her career aspirations. While she doesn’t plan to study in a particularly enormous urban centre, she knows that anywhere she goes will be markedly different, and bigger, than Fogo Island.
While many young people growing up in rural places dream of big city lights and the accoutrements of urban living, Mackenzie doesn’t seem to feel their allure. She describes a recent school trip to New York City with understandably hesitant awe: “There’s so much movement. So much going on. There’s so many people… just people everywhere.” She found it somewhat unsettling to see so many people keeping to themselves. “I was very happy and thankful to be home.”
“I really hope to come back to the Island one day and give back what it has given to me.”
Her connection to her roots is unmistakable, undeniable. “You can go anywhere, but this will always be home,” she states. She speaks of someday spinning her nursing skills into a healthcare business to serve the community; she is unwaveringly adamant that she wants to come back and work on Fogo Island once she receives her certification. “I really hope to come back to the Island one day and give back what it has given to me.”
After all, she says, “this is home no matter what.” AR
Jonathan Gushue expertly picks his way down a rock-strewn pathway. Gazing straight ahead, he steps quickly and precisely over any obstacles he encounters. Seemingly immune to the cold and wind, it’s as if he’s been navigating this trail for years.
“You’re doing something for more than yourself.”
In reality, he is still becoming acquainted with the landscape surrounding the Fogo Island Inn after taking up the post of Executive Chef in early 2018. “I wanted to work with a group like Shorefast, where at the end of the day, there is a motivation and you are giving back. If it didn’t go your way that day, at least the initiative on a whole is going in the right direction. You’re doing something for more than yourself.”
“Not many places have character like this.”
When recounting his own personal food story, he starts in the same place many people would: with his father. “Food was always a big deal for my father,” he says, “it was the one thing we had in common.” Recalling his Newfoundland upbringing, Jonathan is quick to remember the trout fishing expeditions, moose hunts, and cabin stays that introduced him to the natural assets of rural Newfoundland and the outdoor lifestyle he so rarely encountered within the city limits of St. John’s. “The outdoors in Newfoundland is the only outdoors that really means anything to me… not many places have character like this.” He thinks back to an occasion when his father joined a moose hunt despite having no intention of actually “hunting”. “I just like the walk,” his father had reasoned.
“I would just roam.”
This tendency towards quiet, individual exploration characterized Jonathan’s experience of another prominent venue throughout his childhood and adolescence: hotels. Tagging along on his lawyer father’s business trips, Jonathan stayed in many of Canada’s stalwart hospitality establishments. He fell in love with the long corridors and hidden kitchens of these regal buildings; “I would just roam… I would be in the back in the kitchens and stuff. That’s where I fell in love with hotels.” Collectively, “the energy of the people in them” fueled his fascination. “I used to think, ‘I better work in these hotels…’ because I knew I’d never be able to afford to stay in them. It was almost romantic.”
“It’s incredibly real, and that’s the most important thing for food.”
Working in those hotels is part of what took Jonathan away from his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador for more than two decades. “I think I just had to come back,” he states, “I was yearning for more knowledge about where I’m from… and I’d been gone for 25 years.” Fleeing urban cynicism and the endless stream of mind-numbing imitation plaguing the world, Jonathan was drawn to Fogo Island. “It’s incredibly real, and that’s the most important thing for food. It has to be real; it has to speak to people.”
“Here it’s just so much easier to get a little bit closer to the people who are catching the fish, growing the vegetables.”
“You start with an ingredient you enjoy… what would go with that? What shares the same water, what shares the same land, what shares the same air?” Pulling ingredients from different communities, fishers, and growers is part of the day-to-day: “On the Island, we’ll look at everything we can get from Tilting, everything we can get from Joe Batt’s… where’s the squid coming from? Where’s the mackerel coming from? Where’s the cod coming from? Here it’s just so much easier to get a little bit closer to the people who are catching the fish, growing the vegetables.” He appreciates the integrity inherent in the local Fogo Island food supply: “If I want to find out how that lobster was caught, I can go down and ask the fisherman. Or, I can ask his wife. She works on the Front Desk at the Inn.”
“To be able to create sense of place is not easy.”
He continues, “In this quest for a sense of place, there is a lot more to learn. It’s not just about learning the product, it’s about learning the people who are growing it… and the people in general.” The translation of ingredients to plate is an iterative process. According to Jonathan, “to be able to create sense of place is not easy. It’s certainly possible, but it’s very fleeting. You have to keep trying and trying.”
Jonathan notes that “there’s no disconnect here” between the food on plates and the fish in the ocean. But he also knows there is work to be done to keep it that way. Of the many initiatives he is spearheading, Jonathan helped bring together Fogo Island’s first-ever Food Circle: a community conversation about local foodways and the Island’s place in global supply chains. “The Fogo Island Food Circle is a beautiful gathering of the people of Fogo Island, primarily… trying to bring the history of the Island together with what’s happening now. I see the food circle as a huge opportunity to tell a story- an ongoing story. People have concerns about food. Food affects everyone, and the food circle is a great opportunity to find out, ‘what does food mean to you?’ The food circle is an opportunity to bring your thoughts, concerns, feelings, and experiences with food to light.”
“I don’t think anything grows fast well.”
There are no shortage of projects to take on, mouths to feed, and community members to collaborate with; all in due time. Jonathan isn’t one to rush: “I don’t think anything grows fast well.” He’s committed to holding on to the values the Inn was built on: “it goes with the mission of Shorefast to be honest: an honest presentation, an honest concept, or even an honest plate.”
And when asked what he might do when he finally gets a moment of spare time in the midst of all this creation and collaboration? He echoes the sentiments of his father on that moose hunt when he says, “I’ll be happy to just walk around.” AR
A Living, Breathing Ode to the Mighty Punt: The New Punt Premises Opens
June 22, 2019
On Sunday, June 9th, 2019, a historic property took on new life with the opening of the new Punt Premises on Fogo Island. The Premises is an interactive cultural interpretation centre devoted to knowledge preservation as well as encouraging visitor interaction with the historical and cultural assets of the inshore fishery and its mighty workhorse: the punt. The Premises consists of a lovingly restored saltbox-style house, a traditional fishing stage, and two fishing stores that date back to the mid-1800s. These buildings collectively make up a typical outport fishing premises and were occupied by generations of several families in the community of Joe Batt’s Arm on Fogo Island.
On view at the Punt Premises are a wealth of cultural artifacts including cod traps and items associated with their making and mending, knots, boatbuilding tools and models, fishing gear, photos, sound recordings, and household items. Importantly, the spaces of the Premises demonstrate how a fishing family lived and made a living in the vibrant inshore fishing era on which our outport culture was founded; it is both a tribute to our proud past and a promise for a hopeful and successful future off our province’s Northeast Coast.
The Punt Premises represents the next phase of our charity’s long-term work to safeguard Fogo Island’s boatbuilding heritage and all its associated knowledge for renewed and repurposed use in building a modern, outport economy; it is representative of “finding new ways with old things”.
Punts outside the Punt Premises
The Great Punt Race to There and Back, 2014, photo by Alex Fradkin.
In 2007, Shorefast began the award-winning Great Fogo Island Punt Race to There and Back, and also spearheaded a school program that placed students in apprenticeship with boatbuilders to reinvigorate excitement and learning around the punts. After the Great Fogo Island Punt Race celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2017, attentions and energies were refocused on creating the Punt Premises as a permanent, dynamic, and publicly accessible place for residents and visitors alike to learn about the importance of the punt and the inshore fishery to our shared cultural history.
“Much of Shorefast’s work is about the making, preserving, and sharing of knowledge,” said Zita Cobb, CEO of Shorefast and Innkeeper of Fogo Island Inn. “The punts contain irreplaceable cultural knowledge that we intend to carry forward and make relevant for new generations through the Punt Premises. This project would not have been possible without the support and partnership of private donors and both levels of government.” Fogo Island Mayor Wayne Collins added: “The public programming for visitors and locals at the Punt Premises is a welcome addition to Fogo Island as we continue to grow our economy and ensure our heritage is preserved.”
