Song and Story Traditions of the Loggers of Newfoundland and Labrador

Abstract

Despite the significance of forest resources and the occupations associated with them to the economy and culture of Newfoundland and Labrador, the cultural preoccupation – in study, story, and song – has been largely fishing and sea-related. There exists a dearth of historical accounts of logging and logging–related culture in Newfoundland and Labrador. In his social history of pulpwood logging during the GreatDepression, John Sutherland (1988) commented on the inattention to logging in key cultural texts. This inattention is also evident in the work of folklorists who collected songs from Newfoundland and Labrador. John Ashton (1986) that, despite being overlooked, “the repertoire of songs circulating in the Newfoundland lumber woods was an extensive one” (Ashton, 1986, p.222). He further noted, “as yet, however, there has been no systematic attempt to investigate lumber camp songs and lumber camp singing as distinct traditional phenomena” (Ashton 1986, p. 218).