A modern tourist strategy in Newfoundland

 A modern tourist strategy in Newfoundland

I was taken aback when Jerome Canning, the museum's boat builder, invited me into his workstation as I stood outside the boatshed at The Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland & Labrador on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula. He was finishing up a Grand Banks Dory, a little fishing boat that was previously present in every harbor and protected cove along this rough North Atlantic coast.

Canning recounted how dories were an essential component of the cod fishing business that formed Newfoundland's economy and culture for 500 years, saying that "everyone would have had a boat back then."

A little while later, I was participating in the caulking of seams. I would discover that participation is a crucial component of tourism in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, where culture and customs are shared rather than kept to oneself behind bars in a museum. In his explanation, Canning said: "I had to learn how to build a boat from someone else. However, that has been stopped. We needed to do more than just put a few antique boats on display if we were to save historical boat making. We must continue to impart knowledge and develop our building skills."