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Q&A with Maria Simmons and Kitty Scott 

July 8, 2026
Stories

Fogo Island Arts’ international residency program provides opportunities for artists from a wide range of disciplines to live and work on Fogo Island. The residencies enable artists, curators, and writers to think, create, and connect, promoting discovery across perspectives and disciplines. The geographic specificity as an island off an island in the North Atlantic is a foundational platform for engagement around issues of sustainability, ecology, economy, and belonging.

Before the end of her residency with Fogo Island Arts (FIA), artist Maria Simmons met with Kitty Scott, Director of Fogo Island Arts, for a conversation on her work and time on Fogo Island.  

This was Simmons’ second residency with FIA; she first came to the island in the summer of 2025, as part of the Labrador Current Foodways residency, and returned in the spring of 2026. 

Kitty Scott: What made you want to come to Fogo Island? What was your motivation in applying for a residency here? 

Maria Simmons: I really wanted to come specifically to Fogo Island, because of the landscape. I was here briefly on a Canada Council–funded research trip with a collaborator of mine from Norway, Ingrid Bjornaali. We were doing a research trip across Newfoundland, and that was the first time I’d ever been in the province. One of our research stops was Fogo Island, partly because I’d been researching Newfoundland bogs. There was geological data pointing to Fogo Island specifically, so I knew it was going to be boggy, and that there was this intersection of art and landscape. We took a trip during torrential rainstorms in late October. We hiked out to the Red Weather Station and stopped along the way to gather some footage. It was a short two-day trip that planted a little seed of interest to come back and get more of a lay of the land. I knew it would be the perfect place for my research. 

Scott: What makes it the perfect place for your research?  

Simmons: My research is always ecological, and for the last several years it’s been specifically focused on peatlands and bogs, which are relatively difficult to access in Canada where most bogs near southern, metropolitan areas have been drained and turned into farmland, so you have to go quite far north. For me, as someone who’s often doing fieldwork solo, Fogo Island is a dream, because there are no large predators. Most of the time doing fieldwork in Northern Ontario or Quebec, I have to be so aware of my surroundings and it stops me from fully entering the environment. Fogo Island feels like about 50% bog, maybe more, whereas almost anywhere else, you might hike a good distance to find one bog to work with. Here, there’s a wealth of bog, so you can compare and contrast. It’s also unusual to have people coexist with bogs so closely — because the island consists of so much bog, almost everyone here interacts with it in some way, so bogs aren’t only ecological features, they’re cultural too.

Scott: How did the first residency come about — when did you apply, and how long were you here? 

Simmons: I applied roughly in late 2024 and came out for one month, in August 2025. It was berry season, and that’s really the culture of bogs here — berry season is why people go to the bogs. You experience the whole abundance the bog has to offer. Every time I’d go to the studio, I’d gather handfuls of berries on the way. That’s the part of the bog that lures you in without any other motivation. My own artistic practice lures me there too, but as a human, you get lured in by the berries. 

Scott: How did you enjoy working from the Bridge Studio? 

Simmons: Because of the nature of the work, my time was split between the kitchen, Fogo Island Inn where I met with Executive Chef Timothy Charles, and the bog. The studio functioned more as a contemplation space, somewhere to process what I learned in the field or in the kitchen. When you’re in the bog, as much as I try to absorb the sensory experience, it’s a very buggy place and Bridge Studio is a haven from that. You’re still on the bog, but not as intertwined with its metabolic cycle, which involves being constantly bitten by bugs 

Scott: How was working with Fogo Island Inn’s culinary team? 

Simmons: I was blown away by how open the Chef and his team were to anything I proposed. He’s an excellent collaborator. It’s easier to collaborate when people bring their own specialties and expertise, and his knowledge is complementary to mine. He has a huge imagination for the potential of things, which is exciting, and makes him very easy to work with. Executive Sous Chef Sophie Hall is wonderful too — she and Tim were the two main people I worked with. Tim is the big, dreamy imagination; Sophie is more boots-on-the-ground, “how are we actually going to get this done” operations. The two of them, paired with me as an artist, made a nice triangle of collaboration.  

Scott: What did you learn from that first residency? 

Simmons: It really felt like a first chapter, which is why it made so much sense to come back. Tim and I talked about bog butter, but it wasn’t something that could be completed in just one month, so I decided to stay open to whatever I found out from the island. That, for example, is how I ended up learning about “plant beer.” Nobody had a concrete answer for what it actually was, but there were stories floating around from maybe 50 years ago about a kombucha-like fermentation method using molasses and foraged ingredients. I tried to recreate a version of it, and my residency culminated in an event where we served it. Conceptually, it felt like tracing a ghost story — some people said it never existed — so the mythical, maybe-real, maybe-not quality of the plant beer became the theme: a night about ghosting and hosting. Sophie, Tim, and I worked out a menu inspired by recipes of people who’d passed on from the island, but whose recipes remained: foraged elements relating to death and rebirth, ephemeral cooking, and smoking methods.  

Scott: Your focus though is bog butter. What is this? 

Simmons: Bog butter is something humans have been doing/making for over 2,000 years. It is found primarily in Scotland and Ireland — caches of butter buried in a bog and preserved by the bog’s environment: very high acid, low oxygen, and high tannins that stop spoilage bacteria from forming. Bog butter buried 2,000 years ago is technically still edible today. We don’t actually know why it was done; there’s no written history and seemingly no surviving oral history about it, so it’s something of a mystery. The theory I like is that it was an offering to the gods and the underworld, since bogs were viewed as sacred spaces, portals between the overworld and underworld. 

Scott: Tell me about burying bog butter when on your first residency. Did you meet collaborators? 

Simmons: Chef Tim and I talked about it at the beginning, as he didn’t know anything about it. Through talking with him, I ended up adjusting some of the butters with different inclusions to change their flavour when they were unearthed. I gathered some ingredients from the kitchen beforehand, and I also worked with Marc-Olivier Brouillette at Fogo Island Workshops, who made five boxes for me. 

Scott: You also wrap the butter in moss and material from the bog — is that something you already knew, or something you learned here? 

Simmons: It’s to do with preserving the butter. Sphagnum mosses create the bulk of the bog and the specific conditions that make it a bog; they transform the environment around them to be very acidic, through some combination of acid release and a more complex ion exchange. Wrapping the butter in the mosses and putting it in the boxes lets the bog water do that work — it’s structural to the whole preservation process, almost like a little bed. 

Scott: You buried five altogether — can you talk about where each one went? 

Simmons: Each butter was buried in a bog corresponding to one of the studio spaces. Fogo Island is so boggy that there’s usually a bog close to each studio. The exception is Squish Studio, on the cliffside, so that one was buried a bit farther out on Turpin’s Trail, at the closest bog I could find in Tilting. I originally planned to bury four, but was given five boxes in case something went wrong, so I buried two at Bridge Studio as a bit of extra “butter insurance.”  I try to disturb the bog as little as possible while doing it. Bogs only grow one to three millimetres of peat a year, so even an arm’s length is already about a thousand years of history in the bog. 

Scott: When you left last year, what was the feeling? 

Simmons: Very bittersweet. At the time I didn’t even know I’d be back. You leave your butters in the bog with no plan set, and it felt unfinished, though I was happy the burial was done. It was an ordeal, since I buried them in an absolute torrential rainstorm — it felt like I was in a fight with the gods of Fogo Island. But I think that’s sometimes the way it is, not that it’s ever really a battle between man and nature, but you do have to earn the environment’s respect. 

Scott: What was it like coming back — landing on the island again, this time in May and June, rather than August? 

Simmons: Everything was very different from what I’d left. Strangely, in an environment you’d think wouldn’t change much, since it’s mostly evergreens, grass, rock, and water. Coming from a background more used to forests in Ontario and Quebec that change so much with the seasons, I didn’t expect Fogo Island to look and feel this different, but it did — the rocks were the same, but everything else felt different when I went to find my butters again. 

Scott: Was looking for the bog butters something you wanted to do immediately? 

Simmons: One of the first things — I found one of them within the week. I’d been thinking about the bog butters constantly while they were buried, even doing coursework for my PhD in Montreal, a very different environment. I don’t mark the ground, and this time I wasn’t able to document the burial spots on video the way I normally do — usually I take a 360° video of where I’m standing with the butter underneath, so I can trace it back later. Because of the torrential rainstorm, all I had was my memory. 

Scott: What was the first one you dug up, and can you describe it? 

Simmons: The first was at Bridge Studio. The landscape looked completely different because of the recent snowmelt. There was still snow, and the area I’d previously identified by certain plants, grasses, and slightly raised mounds was now covered in ice water. I used a small dead tree, preserved and standing in the bog, to trace my approximate location, right in the middle of this ice pool. I’d been gone for nine months; it felt like I’d asked the bog to hold these things for me, and now, in the rain, I had to cope with the elements. I got down on my hands and knees since there was no way to stand in it — too watery — and slowly worked my way across, feeling for root systems to avoid disturbing them. Moving around that early in the season really activates everything metabolically under the surface; bubbles kept coming up, warming the water, so after about ten minutes the water wasn’t icy anymore. But I couldn’t find the butter. I probed the area for about half an hour, confused, since the boxes have sharp corners and flat sides that should be easy to feel. Then finally, after all that, the box just came up to just above the surface — it hadn’t been there a moment before. Somehow my body interacting with the bog, activating those bubbles, must have brought it up from the deep. I opened it and smelled the bog water. It smells delicious right when you first unearth it, never better than that first moment. 

Scott: You orchestrated with Tim and Sophie, the Bog Butter Solstice event. I was amazed by the care that went into the presentation of the food. Can you describe it? 

Simmons: It was held on a cold and cloudy solstice as a celebration and culmination of the durational bog research. Tim and Sophie put together a menu that highlighted the butter. Being able to taste it with such an open group of people is what makes bog butter meaningful to me — having people literally eat the bog, and take part in it. It feels a bit ritualistic; taste is part of it, and it’s quite funky, but for me it’s more about eating the bog itself, taking in a palate that isn’t necessarily human-centred — strange flavours, more methane- and moss-based, things we wouldn’t normally include in our diets. Opening yourself up to it decentres your experience as a human. Having it in a setting like the Shed at Fogo Island Inn, looking out to the ocean, made it all the more beautiful. 

Scott: Does an event like that feel like giving something back — to the experience, the community, or sharing knowledge? Is there a methodology at play? 

Simmons: These events make the project meaningful. There were a good number of local people attending, and it opened up a larger conversation about what bogs mean to people living here versus my own perspective. It’s giving back to the community, but also to the bog itself, by fostering that relationship between people and place. There’s a lot of talk here about the sea and the rock, but less about the bog, even though it’s central. Having an event that acknowledges the bog on Fogo Island felt important; it’s a give and take — I’m giving back, but I’m also receiving. Everyone at that event was giving and receiving. 

Scott: You collected stories from the community while you were here. Were there any conversations that surprised you? 

Simmons: Roland Wells, from the Shorefast Board, had so many interesting stories about bogs. It’s interesting how differently people learn to navigate these environments and what stories get told, whether scary or welcoming. There’s also a relationship between bogs and death: Roland’s grandfather, near the end of his life, said he could hear the call of the bog — that was his sign that he was going. It sounds almost calming compared to the more common stories of tragic deaths at sea; hearing the call of the bog feels more like an understanding between yourself and nature. 

Scott: Was there anything you learned that was transformational for your thinking? 

Simmons: One thing I learned this time about bogs is so particular to Fogo Island, I’ve never seen it anywhere else, and I’m still processing what it means. Most definitions of a bog say it’s fed only by rainwater, with no flow in or out, a singular thing. But on Fogo Island, the bogs feed other bogs. It’s more relational — bogs in the same complex flowing into each other, sometimes even into a lake, with fish that can pass through the bog to get somewhere else. It’s much more complicated than I thought. Bogs already defy binary classification — not quite land, not quite water — but what I knew a bog to be is even different from what a bog can actually exist as.  

Scott: And what did you learn about Fogo Island?  

Simmons: There’s so much to say about this place, but one thing that stands out is the resourcefulness of people. There’s a pragmatism to living on Fogo Island, dealing with the elements constantly, but also a real respect for nature and the bog. I expected more misunderstanding of the bog than I found — people here genuinely understand it’s important, even though it’s inconvenient in obvious ways: hard to build on, hard to walk through, all the flies. I thought I’d meet more resistance than I did. People learn to work with the rock; things are up on stilts. The same carries through with the bogs: there are spots where people go ATVing and tear through a section for fun, and part of me winces, but they choose specific spots rather than tearing up the whole island. There’s a respect for the bog; people tread lightly.  

Find out more about Maria Simmons here: Maria Simmons, and Fogo Island Arts’ residency program: Residencies – Fogo Island Arts 

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Ocean Week Canada 2026

June 29, 2026
Stories

Fogo Island and Change Islands designated as Regional Hubs for Ocean Week

Every June, Ocean Week Canada encourages community members to celebrate their connection to the sea. At Shorefast, it provides an opportunity to share our environmental and foodways initiatives through themed events and activities.  

This year, these initiatives gained a national platform when Fogo Island and Change Islands were designated an Ocean Week Canada Regional Hub by the Centre for Ocean Literacy Canada (COLC). 

Becoming a Regional Hub 

As a living lab with a mission to build an ocean-engaged society, COLC relies on collaborative partners across Canada for their research, engagement, and leadership projects. One of these projects is Ocean Week Canada, an annual celebration that raises awareness and inspires action to ensure a healthy ocean. Regional Hubs are designated to strengthen community engagement in a specific area through a team of partner organizations. 

Shorefast was proud to be chosen as Hub Coordinator, which meant our team, led by Manager, Project and Initiative Development, Gabbie Ledesma and Program Operations Administrator, Kaitlin Penney, were responsible for mobilizing the community around Ocean Week events, with important contribution from our anchor partners, the Town of Fogo Island and the Town of Change Islands. 

On why both islands were chosen as Regional Hub this year, COLC’s Communications & Design Manager, Meghan Callon, says: 

“Fogo Island and Change Islands have a remarkable ability to bring together their community around something that matters. That cross-sector engagement is exactly what we look for in a regional hub. They bring their own roots, relationships, and ways of knowing to the week, and that local grounding is what keeps Ocean Week Canada growing in a meaningful way. A community that lives alongside the ocean every day doesn’t need to be convinced of its importance, but Ocean Week gives an opportunity to celebrate that connection, deepen it, and share it with others. That local resonance is what makes the week meaningful, and what makes it last.” 

Photo courtesy of Alex Fradkin.

Engaging the Community 

According to Gabbie, this was the first time COLC designated such a rural Regional Hub. With smaller audiences than other urban hubs like Halifax or Toronto, this meant the team had to embrace different ways of organizing beyond events. They engaged community businesses and asked them to participate how they wished. Many restaurants created Ocean Week specials: cod cakes from Uncle Benny’s Snack Bar, Butterfly Pea Flower Italian soda from Punch Buggy café, seashell- and fish-shaped treats from Loaf Land bakery, kelp-inspired ice cream from Growlers ice cream parlour, and a mussels special at The Storehouse restaurant. 

Community members were encouraged to track their participation through an Ocean Week Passport, a new addition to our annual celebration on Fogo Island. The passport listed every participating spot where you could collect a sticker. Beyond the specials offered at businesses, it included events like Trap Berth Day at Punt Premises, ocean-themed craft sessions at the Fogo Island Public Library, and an Ocean Week Photo Scavenger Hunt, which encouraged taking photos of fishing stages, nets on a wharf, anchors, and more. Kaitlin, who spearheaded the project, says: 

“The passport gave people a fun reason to get out and explore during Ocean Week. Seeing people excited to collect stickers while visiting different communities and taking part in local events and features made all the work worthwhile. It was great to hear so much positive feedback and that people are already looking forward to doing it again next year.” 

Shorefast’s Ocean Week Passport.

Cleaning & Celebrating Together 

One of the long-standing traditions of Ocean Week Canada is the Community Clean-Up Day. While caring for our coast happens year-round, this day provides an opportunity to showcase the collective effort. On Change Islands, residents collected more than 1,000 pounds of debris from their beaches, trails, and roadsides, while Fogo Islanders cleaned up a total of 663.5 pounds. Among the debris collected were rope, fishing lines, plastic, clothing, and shotgun shells. On both islands, litter was weighed together to demonstrate the bulk and impact of the clean-up, which was followed by community BBQs, hosted by the Fire Department on Change Islands and the RCMP on Fogo Island.  

Another tradition is the World Ocean Day celebration at Fogo Island’s Iceberg Arena, organized by the Town of Fogo Island. Shorefast contributed many interactive activities and booths to the family-friendly event, from face painting offered by the Fogo Island Arts team and cookie decorating organized by Fogo Island Inn’s culinary team to an environmental station with a touch tank led by Kiley Best, Fisheries Biologist from the Marine Institute of Memorial University. In the tank were invasive green crab to stir conversations around prevention and monitoring.  

Reflecting on the week, Gabbie concludes that being designated a Regional Hub elevated our region and amplified our work by connecting it to other hubs across Canada. Ocean Week Canada inspires collaboration between the pillars of our community, between municipalities, businesses and organizations, and Shorefast, brought together by a mutual care for the future of the ocean on which our future depends.  

Green crab in a touch tank and an ocean-themed photo booth at Fogo Island’s Iceberg Arena.
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The 2026 Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference

June 22, 2026
Stories

Shorefast’s Senior Operations Manager, Colleen Penton, shares her time at the GGCLC

Shorefast’s Senior Operations Manager, Colleen Penton, and the Alberta Study Group. Courtesy of the Rideau Hall Foundation.

From May 22 to June 5, the 2026 Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference welcomed participants from across Canada to reflect on this year’s theme: Leading Canada’s Sustainable Prosperity. Among them was Shorefast’s Senior Operations Manager, Colleen Penton, who travelled from Fogo Island, Newfoundland to Quebec, Alberta, and Ontario, sharing perspectives with Canadians from various communities and industries during two weeks of intensive conversations, visits, and activities.  

A Well-Earned Opportunity 

For over 40 years, the GGCLC has explored new ways of building up Canada through a unique process of debate and discovery designed to enhance the leadership qualities of its members. This year, 250 members, often emerging leaders, were chosen from each province and territory and from sectors that range from business, labour, government, academia, community, and culture.  

Colleen was one of seven participants accepted from Newfoundland and Labrador, and one of the few selected from a rural community. In her current role as Senior Operations Manager, she oversees Construction and Maintenance, as well as the Property team, working to support the community businesses and buildings owned by Shorefast on Fogo Island. Hailing from the community of Fogo, Colleen inherited a strong, community-minded entrepreneurial streak from her family. Her natural leadership qualities extend beyond her full-time role with Shorefast; she also juggles being Secretary of the Fogo Island Ferry Committee and President of the Fogo Island Central Women’s Darts League. This made her ideally placed to share insights garnered not only from Shorefast’s work, but from her life on Fogo Island. 

Colleen and Madison Zuppa, Deputy City Clerk for the City of Sault Ste. Marie. Courtesy of the Rideau Hall Foundation.

Zita Cobb Joins the Opening Plenary 

Participants were divided into study groups made up of individuals from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds, each assigned to tour a different area of Canada. Before setting off, they all gathered in Québec City for a two-day opening plenary. 

There, Colleen met the other members of the Alberta Study Group she was assigned to, visited the city, and heard from high-profile speakers. One of these was our Founder and CEO, Zita Cobb, who shared the history of Shorefast, its work on Fogo Island, and how it led to the creation of the Shorefast Institute for Place-based Economies. Colleen noticed how impressed the audience was by Zita’s speech. “I felt like a bit of a celebrity for a second,” she says, adding that fellow participants were able to relate what Zita said back to her. “People were especially interested in Fogo Island Inn and the Shorefast Institute. They wanted to know if we had partners in their home province or territory, and how many people, like me, returned to Fogo Island after their studies to work and live.” 

Zita Cobb at the GGCLC Opening Plenary in Québec City. Courtesy of the Rideau Hall Foundation.

On An Albertan Adventure 

After the plenary, it was off to Edmonton for the beginning of an Albertan adventure. In total, the Alberta Study group visited 62 places, with activities starting early in the morning and ending with debates around the day’s learnings that continued late into each evening.  

In Edmonton, the group endured military training, witnessed the reclamation of space at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church of the First Peoples, and learned about the need for trades at a local carpentry school. Colleen described these first two busy days as feeling like a “social experiment,” where the group’s different personalities sometimes clashed, but a need for mutual understanding often won over. For Colleen, this understanding happened in unexpected places. While meeting with Salma Lakhani, the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Colleen connected to Her Honour’s story about having to flee her home country of Uganda. Lakhani quoted Canadian poet Rupi Kaur: “It isn’t what we left behind that breaks me. It’s whatever we could’ve built had we stayed.” The poem reminded Colleen of her home, once threatened by resettlement. “It was inspiring for me to hear that,” she says, “because I come from an island where we refused to resettle, and look what we did because we did stay.” 

The Alberta Study Group becoming honourary Albertans.Courtesy of the Rideau Hall Foundation.

The trip continued to Fort McMurray, Calgary, and surrounding regions, where contrasting experiences highlighted the current realities of Alberta. They toured the Oil Sands Discovery Centre, visited a buffalo reserve established by a First Nations community, and heard from scientists about the impact of oil extraction on the local wildlife — all while seeing the landscape still scarred by 2016 wildfires. Throughout the many stops in her travels, Colleen was surprised at the connections to Fogo Island she discovered. “I realized that farming is a lot like fishing,” she says, “and automated grain feeders on a cattle farm reminded me of parts of a longliner!” 

Colleen visiting a cattle farm.
Courtesy of Colleen Penton.

Reflections On a Big Small Place 

This recognition in places she’d never been reminded Colleen how small a big country like Canada really is. At a mental health and addiction centre in Calgary, she found herself eating next to a client from Newfoundland. “Canada is just made up of small communities,” she says, “It’s much smaller than I thought.” The kinship she created with participants from places far removed from Fogo Island reinforced this feeling. “I connected with folks from the north quite a bit, from Iqaluit in Nunavut and Kuujuaq in Northern Quebec, because of the way we identified from where we’re from. The communities are quite small, we eat a lot of the same things, like caribou, seal, and berries. Many things are dependent on the seasons, and the extracurricular activities are similar, like snowmobiling and going to the cabin.” 

This reflection inspired one of the Alberta Study Group’s projects. At the cattle farm near Calgary, the group learned about branding cattle, and how a brand must be created with family, history, and values in mind. The group created their own brand on a piece of wood: two Cs linked together under one roof to show that “communities in Canada must be connected to prosper together.” The brand was gifted to outgoing Governor General Mary Simon during the conference’s closing plenary in Ottawa, where every study group presented their learnings from their tours. 

Cattle brand created by the Alberta Study Group. Courtesy of the Rideau Hall Foundation and Colleen Penton.

From Shore to Shore 

While Colleen was travelling with her study group in Alberta, the Newfoundland and Labrador Study Group spent a day on Fogo Island, visiting a Fogo Island Co-Op processing plant, Growlers, and Fogo Island Inn, examples of the place-based economic development model advanced by Shorefast through the work of the Shorefast Institute. The group’s visit was evidence that what was built here, because the community chose to stay, is worth studying and sharing across Canada, just as Colleen observed during her tour. 

The Newfoundland and Labrador Study Group at the Fogo Island Co-Op processing plant in Fogo. Courtesy of Gabbie Ledesma.
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CBC Radio’s The Broadcast on Fogo Island 

June 11, 2026
Stories

Since 1951, CBC Radio’s The Broadcast has been sharing stories from across Newfoundland, showcasing people whose livelihoods are tied to the sea. Originally known as The Fisherman’s Broadcast, this beloved radio program celebrated its 75th anniversary this year and what better place to spend it than Fogo Island? 

Across five episodes recorded during Ocean Week Canada, the show’s host Paula Gale speaks to Fogo Island’s community members, fishers, visitors, business owners, and tour guides, as well as Shorefast team members. 

Episode 1 

Travellers on their way to Fogo Island Inn explain what drew them to the island; photographer Paddy Barry talks about his personal history and connection to Fogo Island; the community celebrates Trap Berth Day in Joe Batt’s Arm. 

Listen:

Episode 2 

Boatbuilder Hardy Penney talks about the historical importance of the punt; Shorefast’s Chief Operating Officer, Susan Cull, shares our work on Fogo Island, and across Canada through the Shorefast Institute for Place-Based Economies. 

Listen:

Episode 3 

Managers of the Fogo Island Co-Operative Society, Paul Torraville, Barry Payne, and Paul Dennis, discuss the opportunities and challenges of the fish plant; Shorefast team members, Gabbie Ledesma, Olivia Best, and Liz Newton, contribute to a community clean-up for Ocean Week Canada. 

Listen:

Episode 4 

Seldom fisher Sheldon Dawe speaks about the increase in lobster in the area; Town of Fogo Island mayor Andrew Shea on life on the island; Colleen Higgins leads a visit to the former Fishermen’s Union Trading Co. premises. 

Listen:

Episode 5 

Paula Gale takes a drive around the island with Edward Heath of Fogo Island Bus Tours and explores the history of the Fogo Island Co-Op; she plays an excerpt of Zita Cobb speaking about prosperity on CBC’s Ideas podcast to conclude her broadcast from Fogo Island. 

Listen:
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Preserving Foodways on Fogo Island

May 1, 2026
Stories

Food can tell the story of a place. Fogo Island’s foodways demonstrate how the island’s ancestors survived here, how they have adapted, and how they continue to shift traditional ways in the face of a changing environment.  

At Shorefast, our Foodways program reinforces the role of a healthy food system in a healthy economy. This year, we expanded the program through a series of workshops on Fogo Island that went beyond cooking lessons. They carried forward the knowledge essential to preserving our foodways, while encouraging a shared stewardship of our community’s health and nutrition at a personal, economic, and social level. 

Cooking on the Curriculum 

On Fogo Island, recipes are often passed down from generation to generation. Building practical food and cooking literacy for youth reinforces these local food traditions, while also introducing potential professional pathways in the culinary industry.  

This early winter, Shorefast’s Foodways team partnered with Fogo Island Central Academy to develop and deliver a six-class curriculum for Home Economic and Healthy Living classes. The curriculum was designed and led by Fogo Island Inn’s culinary team, notably Executive Sous Chef Sophie Hall. It focused on healthy eating, incorporating new ingredients into popular dishes, and making a meal on a budget. The emphasis on eating healthy while on a budget is especially helpful for older students who will soon be going to university.  

Throughout the six weeks, “students were very engaged,” said Gabbie Ledesma, Shorefast’s Manager, Project and Initiative Development, “They really liked the hands-on cooking lessons. They also had a lot of questions about budgeting, not realizing how much food costs. Teachers were also enthusiastic.” 

Each class built on the previous one, from learning kitchen basics one week to budgeting and meal planning to creating a recipe. The series culminated with a cooking session where students put their new-found kitchen skills to the test by making a dish of their choosing. They worked in groups to prepare, cook, and troubleshoot their way through their recipes, which included chicken parmesan, pretzels, garlic butter chicken with asparagus, and even sushi. Their hard work was rewarded by sharing and savouring the dishes they had prepared. 

In the Kitchen with the Community 

Through three of our community businesses — Fogo Island Inn, Growlers, and The Storehouse — our culinary teams have honed their expertise, merging contemporary techniques to traditional cooking methods and ingredients. With the launch of our Foodways classes, we wanted to share these skills and knowledge with community members to affirm foodways as a vital cultural expression and promote social connection through food during the long winter months.  

Starting in January, these Foodways workshops were led by Fogo Island Inn’s culinary team and split into three-class series taking place at different locations crucial to the team: The Storehouse restaurant, the Inn’s kitchen warehouse, and the Inn’s pastry kitchen.  

The first of these workshops was titled Foundational Kitchen Skills and explored essential cooking techniques, while promoting health and nutrition. The series, taught by Sophie Hall at The Storehouse, focused on upgrading existing skills to build confidence in the kitchen.  

The Inn’s Sous Chef, Ben Wood, led the second series on Food Preservation at the warehouse in Joe Batt’s Arm. Participants learned basic preservation techniques, from starting a vinegar to pickling. These skills are especially helpful on Fogo Island, where preservation helps extend the use of fresh produce grown throughout the previous summer. Ingredients are often stored in root cellars over winter to then be cooked or pickled.  

The final workshop was Home Bakes, during which the Inn’s Pastry Chef, Liz Stevenson, shared how to bake muffins, scones, and soda breads. Liz demonstrated delicious ways to incorporate healthy elements and grain alternatives to everyday baking.  

Totalling nine individual classes, these workshops proved successful with community members, connecting different generations, as well as newer residents with people born and raised on Fogo Island.  

Angie Shea, a teacher at Fogo Island Central Academy, signed up for all three of the workshop series. As a lifelong learner, she wanted to “take the opportunity to learn new cooking skills and techniques. Besides, the chance to learn from the chefs of Fogo Island Inn was something I couldn’t pass up.” When asked to name a highlight of the classes, she said that “the most interesting thing was learning about all the science involved in preserving and baking!” She adds: “The Foodways program is important in the community and school, because it teaches us that good planning can reduce food waste and allow families to eat healthy, even with busy schedules.” 

The Work Ahead 

After a successful start to this new chapter for our Foodways programming, the team is hoping to continue and expand on our workshop offering, at both the school and in the community. We’re working on a series of summer workshops, in partnership with local organizations, and preparing for new classes throughout the fall and winter. Fogo Island Inn’s culinary team are also preparing their next collaboration with the students at Fogo Island Central Academy. 

Check our current calendar for upcoming Foodways events or workshops and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. 

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Carrying On Tradition at the Punt Premises

August 22, 2025
Stories

PJ Decker and the Art of Boatbuilding 

Through our Heritage Preservation initiatives, Shorefast is devoted to conserving the traditions that tie people to place. Beyond restoring historic homes and churches, these initiatives carry forward our heritage by sharing the knowledge that once inhabited these buildings.  

Located in the community of Joe Batt’s Arm, the Punt Premises sets a perfect example. There, the legacy of the inshore fishery lives through a collection of historical and cultural assets shared by experienced Community Hosts and our Punt Master PJ Decker.  

Courtesy of Tom Cochrane

Preserving boatbuilding on Fogo Island

At the heart of the Punt Premises drifts the mighty punt, the former workhorse of the fishery. Building these small wooden boats was once essential to surviving on Fogo Island. Today, with most wooden boats gone from our waters, so are the skills and expertise required for boatbuilding, a craft that helped build our community. Only a handful of wooden boatbuilders remain on Fogo Island and Change Islands.  

To ensure this knowledge is preserved on Fogo Island, PJ recently completed a week-long boatbuilding workshop at the Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador in Winterton. Led by the museum’s master builder, Jerome Canning, the course focused on the construction of a Winterton Rodney, a wooden punt typical of the area.  

Gushing about the experience, PJ explained: “It’s not about survival or making a living anymore. It’s about the beauty of the tradition.”  

Courtesy of Tom Cochrane

All hands on deck

During the five-day workshop, PJ learned many traditional techniques through hands-on lessons with Jerome. These included connecting the stem (the most forward part of a boat) to the keel (the structural “spine” of a boat), recording the shape for the timbers (the “ribs” of the boat), ensuring the keel was straight from stem to stern, cutting and bevelling timbers to secure in the boat, and many more building methods.  

One of the most important elements of boatbuilding learned by PJ was the three-piece mould, which was crucial for designing and building the punts. The mould helped determine the size and shape of the hull. As Jerome told PJ, these “three sticks” were all our ancestor needed to make a living in Newfoundland:  

“He leaves the boat from Liverpool or somewhere, with a big knife, a nickel from his mother, and a bit of this, and a bit of that, never to see England again, but what he’s got in his hands are those three sticks – boats for his family.”  

These tools and techniques come together to build punts Jerome referred to as “suant,” a traditional term in Newfoundland that means symmetrical, harmonious, balanced, and beautiful. PJ adds that the punts of Fogo Island and Change Islands were always suant; he hopes what he learned will help keep them that way.  

“Fogo Island punts are different than any other punts in Newfoundland. If we lose tradition, then there will never be Fogo Island punts again,” he explains.  

Jerome Canning and PJ Decker in Winterton; Courtesy of PJ Decker

Building a legacy

Back at the Punt Premises, PJ is wielding the lessons learned in Winterton to enrich the heritage of the building, home to historic boatbuilding tools and models, such as the famous three-piece mould. With this acquired knowledge, our Punt Master can share the boatbuilding techniques of our ancestors with visitors and residents and keep this tradition at the heart of the stories we tell of this place. The course will also help PJ repair Shorefast’s own fleet of punts and ensure Fogo Island’s mighty wooden boats stay afloat for the next generations.  

Learn more about the Punt Premises and PJ’s work as Punt Master.  

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Rocks have Stories to Tell – A Conversation with Geologist-in-Residence Peter Croal

Stories
September 26, 2023

Throughout the year, Shorefast welcomes a variety of practitioners ranging from geologists to artists to chefs to Fogo Island as a part of our Residencies Program. An intended outcome is the exchange of ideas and perspectives that can lay the groundwork for reflection, pause, and new ways of seeing the world in front of us.  

Fogo Island shoreline. Photo by Alex Fradkin

A fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Peter Croal has been working in the field of environmental assessment and international development for over 35 years; his career has taken him to over 40 countries and he sits on the boards of several not-for-profit development organizations. This summer was Peter’s fourth year as a Geologist-in-residence with Shorefast.

The following is a condensed version of a conversation with Peter Croal.

What can we learn from studying the rock beneath us? How does it deepen our sense of connection to the world?    

When I take people on hikes around Fogo Island and Change Islands, I always start by saying, we come from the rocks and planetary processes.  We wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for the minerals and elements that make up rocks and enter our food chain.  

Life started three and a half billion years ago and the landforms we see today are all the result of plate tectonics, glacier movements and other earth systems. Moraines, lakes and rivers, ocean currents, fjords, sand deposits – these things form the basis of many of our cities and harbours and many of our industries. How the landscape is shaped and formed determines how our human civilization came to be; that’s all related to the rock cycle and planetary processes.  And it is not a static system. The earth is constantly changing and re-inventing itself.  

If we understand that we are part of a larger system called life – if we understand how it works – perhaps we can show more respect to those systems and protect and nourish them. The Grand Banks, which is home to historically one of the greatest fisheries, well, that was created by glacial and oceanic  process.   

What is the role of a residency program that brings geologists to Fogo Island right now?   

Well, it is education but also inspiration and stimulation. What the visiting geologists try to do is not just talk about rocks (eg – this is granite; this is sandstone). Rather: what is our relationship to these rocks? What does it mean when you see a volcanic rock? We see them as clues to an evolving and exciting  story.    

We take the story that the landscape is telling us and translate it for other people to enjoy. If you don’t study geology, you are basically walking on top of a book that you can’t read. We want you to read that story. We want you to see the connections to everyday life through the rocks and landforms that are under our feet. 

What role can geology play in community economic development? 

Fogo Island is one of the few places where you can walk across a magma chamber and at the same time see volcanic and sedimentary rocks in such proximity. Because the rocks are so well exposed, you can experience geological features that are hard to find in other places of the world. That brings people to a place. With Shorefast’s growing community science program, there are more opportunities to position Fogo Island as a hotbed for scientific research and expand career paths and opportunity in this place.   

On a more informal level, a lot of people come to meet the geologists-in-residence during hosted office hours who don’t know anything about geology but say “I just love rocks.” This is a place that sparks fascination and has a story to tell. 

How do you integrate other disciplines into your hikes and talks? And what value do you see in that?  

Just by nature of being outside and engaging with the world you touch all kinds of different disciplines. Two of the collaborative events that I co-hosted with art-based practitioners (one of whom was Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, an artist and contributor to Fogo Island Arts’ “Meltwater” exhibition) were focused on marine health, rising water levels, and climate change. Ocean health is changing because of climate change and industrialization. Oceans are becoming more acidic and certain currents are starting to change. All of this affects the fishery, which is of course relevant to Fogo Island and Change Islands.   

When two people with different backgrounds lead an event there’s an opportunity to speak about your discipline in a new way. Climate change is real, and shorelines are going to change. Having Alexa and me working together brings an arts-based audience and a science-based audience together and it forces us to think about things differently, exchange new ideas  and ultimately understand what is at stake from a new perspective.  

How do you get people to care about their natural environment and see themselves as a part of it?   

You have to tell a story. Facts, science, and fear don’t necessarily work that well. You have to find where people are at and build a story around their understanding of how the world works. And you need to explore what interests people through their own experiences. Instead of throwing science at people, start with: here you are standing on a rock. What does it mean to you as a person and what is your relationship to this planet?  What is the story that this rock or landform is telling you that can affect your life? 

In a 5-minute conversation I try to get across that you are here because of a 3.5-billion-year experiment. Ninety-five percent of all life that has existed on the planet has come and is now extinct. You are seeing the remaining 5% that has made it through. To survive you must be adaptable and resilient. And right now, we are not very adaptable or resilient as a species. We still want to party as if there is an infinite supply of oxygen, soil, and fresh water. And there isn’t. Earth’s life supporting systems are sending us messages every day through increased fires, floods, storms, biodiversity loss and disease.  

Shorefast’s sustainability efforts, the amazing rocks of Fogo and Change Islands, and the Fogo Island Inn are natural drawing points for people. Many of the people who come to the Inn and to Fogo Island are interested in having these conversations especially after the experience of being exposed to an economic  development model that is trying to live more harmoniously with people and place. I meet a lot of people who are taking what’s happening here in the arts, environment, and the economy back home to their communities. Shorefast and Fogo Island are catalysts and crucibles for generating and exchanging dynamic ideas around sustainability. The hope is that those ideas continue to spread elsewhere.  

Rocky shoreline. Photo by Paddy Barry.
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Crafting for Connection

Stories
September 21, 2023

Shorefast programming provides people with a place to connect with their neighbours and learn more about the culture and nature of Fogo Island. 

Joyce Coffin (fourth from right) with the beginner rug-hooking group.

When Joyce Coffin led her first rug hooking workshop at the Punt Premises in the Summer of 2022, she wasn’t sure how many people would actually show up. “Shorefast first approached me to host the event after seeing some of the pieces I was selling at local stores around the island.” At the time, Joyce was one of only a few rug hooking practitioners on Fogo Island, with very few actively teaching.  

At the first class, over 20 people filled up the main room eager to learn— their ages ranging from 20 to 80. “We had to split the group into two batches, and I returned after dinner that same day to teach the rest of them,” Joyce recalls. Since then, the group has continued to meet weekly, gradually advancing their skills. While newcomers continue to join the group, the standing date has settled into a comforting routine: “We come together, work alongside each other, and chat.”  

Opened to the public in 2019 after a major restoration that was generously funded by past Fogo Island Inn guests, Don & Sheila Bayne, as well as grants from Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and Newfoundland & Labrador’s Tourism, Culture, Arts and Recreation department, the Punt Premises exists to preserve and promote our island’s fishing heritage. Over the past few years, it has evolved into a much needed hub for social convening and Shorefast programming—especially critical after the prolonged isolation of the pandemic.

“Having a place to connect and learn alongside your neighbour is an important part of community economic development,” Amy Rowsell, Shorefast’s Director of Community Engagement and Programming, notes. “It builds social capital and a sense of optimism for the future.”  

For Joyce, the Punt Premises has become a second home. “There’s a lot of stuff going on that wasn’t before. It’s a busy spot.”

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Art & Climate Change 

Stories
September 1, 2023

Fogo Island Arts’ partnership with the National Gallery of Canada, the World Weather Network, and contemporary artist Liam Gillick, is shaping a global conversation around art, climate, and the importance of place. 

People gathered at the Weather Station during Arts Weekend on Fogo Island. Photo by Joshua Jensen.

When Fogo Island Arts first approached artist Liam Gillick to create a ‘weather station’ on Fogo Island in response to the global climate crisis, it was immediately clear to Gillick that this would be a tremendous opportunity to ground important global conversations within the context of a local community.  

“Art and science have always been linked historically,” Gillick explains. “Through this artwork I want to create a site for new thinking and a space designated to climate consciousness rooted in the basic requirements to gather and share data, while also being a place for education, reflection, discussion, and just getting together.” 

Launched in October 2022, along Waterman Brook’s trail near the community of Fogo, “A Variability Quantifier, 2022,” (more commonly known as the Fogo Island Red Weather Station), is a fully functioning weather station tracking weather data and a place for community gathering. Through the World Weather Network platform, it joins a constellation of art-inspired weather stations around the globe that are shaping conversations about the climate crisis through the perspective of artists, with many calling attention to the more dire situation in remote, ecologically sensitive areas of the world. 

The Fogo Island Red Weather Station construction team. Photograph by Joshua Jensen

“Artists help us see things and Fogo Island Arts has always been interested in approaching issues of economic, cultural, historical, and environmental concern through a different lens,” says Iris Stunzi, Fogo Island Arts’ Program Manager.  

“Fogo Islanders’ have a front row seat to changes in ‘Iceberg Alley,’ Gillick adds. “There is a lot of collective awareness and wisdom on this island. The artwork is about recognizing the daily consciousness of an island life; it is for and about the people of Fogo Island.”  

As a nod to the traditional and primary industry on Fogo Island, the weather station was designed with Fogo Island’s historic fishing stages in mind, a reminder of our powerful connections to the sea. For visitors to Fogo Island, witnessing the strong relationship between geography and people can often be a catalyst for involvement. This was the case with Steven and Lynda Latner, Inn guests who were inspired by their time on the island and wanted to lend support to our work. Their donation is helping to animate the Weather Station through programming.

Long reliant on triangulated weather updates from Twillingate, Fogo Islanders now have access to accurate, realtime weather data through an easily accessible website linked to the Weather Station that also acts as a repository for global weather-tracking.

Track the Weather: Fogo Island Weather Station

An acquisition of the National Gallery of Canada, The Fogo Island Red Weather Station is part of its National Outreach Initiative in which artworks from the collection are sited and maintained at localities across the country. 

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Understanding our Geographic Context: The Importance of the Labrador Current 

Stories
July 12, 2023

As an organization grounded in a place-based approach to economic development, we always start with what is in front of us.   

View of Greene’s Point. Photo by Paddy Barry.

On Fogo Island our geographic context is strongly informed by the Labrador Current.  

Positioned in the pathway of this current, our island has developed a culture and way of life (from the foods we eat to the livelihoods we’ve sustained to the traditions we love) that is deeply rooted in our relationship to the waters around us.

As with any relationship there are both challenges and benefits. The strong winds and colder temperatures that move across our landscape result in a shorter outdoor growing season; this can be contrasted with the abundance of marine life that the current supports – the primary reason people have settled here for centuries.   

The Influence of the Current  

Whether you live in the direct pathway of the Labrador Current or not, its influence is significant to our global health.  

Considered a distinct ecosystem, the Labrador Current helps keep the world’s oceans alive. Cold winter temperatures in the Labrador Sea are responsible for pushing oxygen-rich surface waters to depths far below the ocean’s top layer where they are dispersed by deep boundary currents. These oxygenated waters work in similar ways to our bloodstream – feeding oxygen-rich waters to the Arctic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans – giving context to the Labrador Current’s moniker as “a lung of the ocean.”  

Crucially, this oxygen stream supports marine life around the world, that in turn supports human life. On Fogo Island, it enables our traditional and primary livelihood: the fishery.   

Collecting Data for Academic Research  

As more revelations are made about the importance of this cold current and its influence on other oceans globally, our waters have become a significant area of research. Scientists are especially keen to understand how climate change is altering the current both through an increase in temperature and wind change. At the local level – community members and fishers are keen to know what warming waters will mean for the fishery as more species begin to migrate.  

One pillar of our Environmental Stewardship work on Fogo Island has us partnering with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Marine Institute at Memorial University to support academic research geared around tracking changes in our local waters. A key initiative to support this goal is Community Science – a collaborative community-based approach to building up scientific knowledge by employing trained community members who can bring their background lived experience (cultural, industrial, environmental) to each project. In rural and remote locations, where it is not always easy to bring in scientists for study, community members are bridging the gap.   

Recent projects on Fogo Island in partnership with community members and academic partners include ice tracking and species monitoring; both of which contribute to our understanding of changes in our local waters year-over-year.  

View of Brimstone Head. Photo by Alex Fradkin.

“We thought we were one of the four corners of the world; turns out we are at the centre.” 

Each year, during the onset of summer, Fogo Islanders bear witness to a changing climate through an experience of “Iceberg Alley.” The parade of icebergs that make their way down from glaciers situated along the coast of Greenland – via the Labrador Current – are a seasonal event; in recent years, however, it is clear to residents that there are significant fluctuations afoot. These fluctuations include increased glacial melt and a prolonged or sometimes negligible iceberg season.

This year for example, the season stretched from February (very early) to July (starting to get late). An increase in glacial flow has an impact on everything from the duration of our fishing season to rising water levels along our coast.  

While Fogo Island’s location at the edge of the North Atlantic Ocean has often earned it a reputation as remote, faraway – and a tongue in cheek title as ‘one of the four corners of the world’ – it is increasingly clear that coastal communities like Fogo Island are at the centre of the climate crisis, rather than off to the side.  

It will be coastal communities like Fogo Island that continue to experience an outsized impact and be extremely vulnerable to the changes in climate that we are all observing globally. To raise awareness both locally and internationally, Shorefast launched an artwork by artist Liam Gillick in October 2022, known colloquially as The Fogo Island Red Weather Station. The station is both a scientific tool to collect data and an artwork that seeks to communicate the value of life and knowledge in this place.

Growing our Environmental Stewardship Work 

The climate crisis can’t be confronted or resolved by any one community; it will take all of us working at different scales to begin to develop a unified way forward.  

On Fogo Island we have been building the case for an Environmental Stewardship program that is multi-pronged in approach, reaches across disciplines, supports the culture of people whose lives and livelihoods are linked to the sea, and can be scaled to create connection and collaboration across many sectors, with a focus on replicability across Newfoundland and Atlantic Canada.  

The Labrador Current is part of our life on Fogo Island; it’s significant to yours as well. 

Read more about our Environmental Stewardship work. 

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