Five years ago, I opened up the novel The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, and I discovered Newfoundland. “The idea of the North was taking him,” she writes of her main character Quoyle. “He needed something to brace against.” Before I had even finished the book, I was also taken by “the idea of the North.” I went to visit Newfoundland the following June, when massive icebergs dominated the horizon. And last October I spent two weeks in St. John’s, falling asleep to the sound of foghorns and taking walks through the mist. 

Newfoundland is an island on the east coast of Canada, and it’s approximately the size of Iceland. For four hundred years it was a British colony, populated by fishermen and their families who had moved from the British isles. In 1949, Britain was ready to give up ownership of Newfoundland, and 51% of the population voted to join Canada. The other 49% voted to be an independent nation.

A rapid period of modernization began in Newfoundland, and coastal fishing villages resettled in more populated areas. (Check out the footage at the end of this video of people towing their houses over the ocean.) The waters off the coast of Newfoundland, once rich with cod, became massively overfished. In 1992 the government placed a moratorium on cod fishing, and a way of life in Newfoundland ended forever.

This month, I want to highlight three pieces about Newfoundland, made by independent producers who felt called to the craggy rock landscapes, the watery culture, and the weather that tests you. 

—Bianca Giaever

The Latecomers by Glenn Gould

Few people know that the famous Canadian piano player Glenn Gould was also a radio producer! In the 1960’s he produced three hour long radio documentaries called “The Solitude Trilogy,” and part two is about Newfoundland. Here’s his introduction to these pieces:

I’ve long been intrigued by that incredible tapestry of tundra and taiga which constitutes the Arctic and sub-Arctic of our country. I’ve read about it, written about it, and even pulled up my parka once and gone there.” Yet like all but a very few Canadians I’ve had no real experience of the North. I’ve remained, of necessity, an outsider. And the North has remained for me, a convenient place to dream about, spin tall tales about, and, in the end, avoid. This programme, however, brings together some remarkable people who have had a direct confrontation with that northern third of Canada, who’ve lived and worked there and in whose lives the North has played a very vital role.”

Here I Am And Here Be Danger by...