Craft Development and Development through Crafts: Adaptive Strategies of Labrador Women in a Changing Fishery

Authors

  • Karen Szala-Meneok Wilfrid Laurier University
  • Kara McIntosh University of Guelph

Abstract

Like women in other coastal regions of the North Atlantic, Labrador women have a long history of adapting to the exigencies of life in a fishing, hunting and trapping society. For over 60 years crafts production has provided these women the means to contribute cash to house hold incomes, especially during times of economic hardship. In this article we explore the creation of early rural development initiatives by the International Grenfell Association and other philanthropic organizations that provided craft skills, instruction, materials and access to markets for these craft products. We explore further how these early development schemes have undergone change since their inception and how contemporary Labrador women view and organize themselves in craft-production activities within the broader context of community development issues.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Karen Szala-Meneok, Wilfrid Laurier University

Karen Szala-Meneok teaches anthropology at Wilfrid Laurier University and is an editor of Anthropologica. Dr. Szala-Meneok's research addresses the impact of the collapse of the fishery along the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland. Such adaptive responses as outmigration and return migration and a re-intensification of interest in craft production as rural development strategy are Dr. Szala-Meneok's current research projects in the Northwest Atlantic region. Her other areas of interest include the transformation of national symbols in the Canadian context and the social discourse surrounding that process.

Kara McIntosh, University of Guelph

Kara Mcintosh holds a M.Sc. in Rural Planning and Development from the University
of Guelph. Her recent research in coastal Labrador has focussed on issues of gender
and rural development in fishing settlements undergoing rapid and intense change due
to the collapse of the fishery. Currently Kara Mcintosh is exploring the relationship
between skills offered by rural development workers and those of social workers, espe
cially as they relate to the psycho-social impacts of the collapse of a key resource base
such as fishing.

Downloads

Published

2022-06-03

How to Cite

Szala-Meneok, K., & McIntosh, K. (2022). Craft Development and Development through Crafts: Adaptive Strategies of Labrador Women in a Changing Fishery. Anthropologica, 38(2), 249–270. Retrieved from https://cas-sca.journals.uvic.ca/index.php/anthropologica/article/view/2044

Issue

Vol. 38 No. 2 (1996): Women in the Fisheries

Section

Thematic Section:

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Authors contributing to Anthropologica agree to release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported license. This licence allows anyone to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear.

Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the journal right of first publication.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.