I don’t have a travel bucket list so much as I have a magnetic triangulation: Haida Gwaii in British Columbia, the Canadian Arctic in general, and the province of Newfoundland. I am drawn to each for their natural and human histories, their isolation, and unique beauty. Mother Nature still rules these places, although the hand of man has tried hard to make it seem otherwise.
Not long after Newfoundland began to impress itself upon me through its stories – a chain reaction of one interconnection after another – the epic tale of Fogo Island and Zita Cobb emerged.
Cobb was born and raised on Fogo Island, but her family was forced off by the progressive economic collapse brought on by commercial overfishing. In 1975, her father, a fisherman like most other local men, locked up the house, nailed the front gate shut, and moved his family to the mainland to begin anew.
Her personal narrative reads like The Odyssey. For thirty years she was away, first studying business, then progressing up the high-tech hierarchy. She cashed out during the boom, sailed the world for four years, and made her way home to Fogo with an idea for “growing another leg on the [local] economy.” That idea became a vision: a smartly-designed, sustainable, 29-room luxury inn, which would tread lightly on the landscape, reflect local culture and values, and bring jobs and money to the local economy. In 2012, the Fogo Island Inn, designed by architect Todd Saunders, opened under the auspices of the Shorefast Foundation, a registered charity seeded by Cobb whose “model is based on social engagement, strategic investment in community capital, and inclusive local economies.” ((http://shorefast.org/about-us/overview/))
I was impressed.
In September, I drove to Montreal to hear her speak at The Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal. When we met after the talk I was verklempt. Why wouldn’t I be? The inn and related community/cultural/economic development directly correlate to the ideas I explore at Habicurious. I felt like a kid in a candy store.
Cobb is clearly no dabbler. She has made an heroic financial and personal commitment to her community. She has taken on a highly complex and very public venture (“The ancestors are watching us,” she says), with, I’m guessing, no option for anything but success. As expected, she was a smart, funny and engaging presenter, but she was done too soon. I have many, many questions.
While it’s easy to find people who will talk about design, sustainability and the predictable challenges of traditional development, it is trickier to find those with enough skin in the game and wisdom to discuss the human component and other intangibles of building (or rebuilding) community. I want to talk about the importance of place, our relationship to home, the necessity for growth and change, the unique challenges of rural places, the perils of our own foibles and humanity, the nature of risk, balancing the past with the present and future, the development and preservation of arts and culture, and the challenge of working in the place one calls home.
I was agog at the potential knowledge and wisdom available from the Fogo Island ventures and at Cobb’s remarkable courage in seeing them to fruition.
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Quite by chance, on my Air Canada flight home from Vancouver this week, I caught Strange and Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island, which has been making the film festival rounds in 2015. The film focuses on Todd Saunders and the design/build of the Fogo Island Inn as well as Cobb’s concerns, amongst other things, for the flattening of culture worldwide (“How would you know you’re in China? How would you know you’re in Fogo?“) and the importance of maintaining a unique place for local culture in the holistic view (“We’re knitting ourselves into the bigger world.“) Here’s the preview:
Additional info:
Fogo Island videos on YouTube (200+)
National Film Board of Canada (NFB) – The Fogo Process (28 short films on Fogo Island, 1967/1968
4 responses to “Fogo Island: Strange and Familiar”
I haven’t been to Haida Gwaii, though hope to travel there soon. No, haven’t done the Berton House residency, though we keep meaning to apply. Our friend Anik See did it for the summer portion in 2014 — mid-June, I think it was, until mid-September, and she also canoed from Whitehorse to Dawson with her husband and young son. We thought — and she agreed — that Dawson could be a pretty great place to be in winter. So we’ll see. I think you’d love what the Fishers have done in Port Rexton, near Trinity, in Newfoundland. An inn with its own gardens, wonderful traditional architecture, furniture build by a master carpenter, stunning views (and comforts), great hiking in the area — http://www.fishersloft.com (We just happened upon it and they had a special rate if you stayed more than one night. I could have happily stayed forever.)
Thanks for the Fishers’ link. I’ll check it out and add it my list.
A magnetic triangulation is a very good way to put it. I heard a piece on the CBC recently about a project involving the collection of Fogo Island folk wisdom. Did you hear it? Never been there but exploring other parts of Newfoundland the fall before last was marvellous. It felt like a place at ease with itself somehow, as did the parts of the north I’ve been to — Yellowknife, Whitehorse, Carcross, Dawson, etc.
Hi T –
Didn’t hear the CBC piece but just looked it up and had a peek at the artist’s website. Very interesting. So you’ve ‘done’ the whole triangulation?! I hope to follow in your footsteps before long. Thing is, more than ever I’m less interested in going anywhere as a tourist and so am working on arranging projects that will be, at least in part, the raison d’être for my trips. Did you, by chance, do the Pierre Berton artist’s retreat in the Yukon?