I WAS KNIT IN NEWFOUNDLAND
How writers at Woody Point Festival lured me ‘home’
Among the many unique Newfoundland and Labrador sayings, perhaps the most heartwarming one is, “Who Knit You?”
Mark Critch, of CBC’s 22 Minutes fame and author of Son of A Critch, used it during his performance at the 16th Annual Writers at Woody Point Festival in Gros Morne National Park in August. Those words stood out in the midst of a thousand memorable things I experienced over five days on the shores of Bonne Bay in western Newfoundland.
My travels to Newfoundland in the past have been to visit my relatives and to celebrate all of the stunning and wonderful places the province has to offer.
Somewhere in the knitted version of me, there are prominent and significant strands of Atlantic wool, so much so that I think of myself as half-Newfoundlander, even though I’ve never lived there. I am drawn to “come home” as they say, which is clear across the country from my residence in B.C.
I was knit in Newfoundland. My mother was born in Botwood in 1922. She was a fourth-generation product of a family who called this strikingly beautiful, rugged and mysterious part of the world, Home.
Her great-great grandfather, as it turns out, was not so great. He was the infamous John Peyton Sr., whose dark story was told so well by Michael Crummey in his 2002 novel, The River Thieves. Crummey was also a featured writer at last year’s festival, and I wanted to approach him to say, “Um … that nefarious colonist was my …” but that felt like a tricky opening line.
The Writers in the Wild hike began at the head of a Gros Morne trail near Lomond with a Qalipu First Nation circle. We were encouraged to sing along with the Qalipu member in his native language to honour the sacred lands we stood on.
I knew this festival event was going to be something special from the first beat of his ceremonial drum.
Anyone fortunate enough to hike through Gros Morne National Park on a beautiful summer day would be moved to tears at its astonishing beauty, even if they had no genetic Newfoundland threads in them. Its landscape is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We walked through boreal forest and came upon a natural gully. Everyone took a seat on a log or leaned against a moss-covered tree and we listened as bestselling New York author Meg Wolitzer read a piece about camping as a young girl. Juno Award-winning musician Rose Cousins and Jodee Richardson accompanied her with their acoustic guitars.
And then we all sang Amazing Grace. Quietly in the forest. 100 voices. Cousins’ voice rising above them all like an angel. If you put Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, k.d. lang and Sarah McLachlan’s voices into one singular voice, it would be Rose Cousins.
We walked again, this time to a clearing in the forest, and I watched a young mom rock her sleeping baby as Cousins sang and played her guitar again. We sang along with her in the wilderness of Newfoundland; we were a throng of strangers that felt like a sea of friends.
I couldn’t hold back my tears at the sheer beauty of this scene in that stunning place. The complicated world we live in simply melted away.
We walked again to another clearing. A bog of sorts with tall reeds and so much luscious green flora, it felt like a dream.
And then I saw perhaps the most honest and real example of a Canadian one could ever encounter: Jeremy Charles, head chef and co-owner of Raymonds, the renowned restaurant in St. John’s. He was cooking rabbit ravioli with partridge berries and morel mushrooms on a camp stove.
He prepared a single ravioli for each of us presented atop a simple maple leaf. Earlier, Charles had told us of his youth and his grandfather who taught him to forage in the wilderness, fish in the rivers and oceans, grow the things you can in your own garden and share everything you have with those you love and those you’ve only just met.
He spoke of his journey as a chef from Montreal to Chicago and back home to Newfoundland, as his sweet little children fidgeted playfully beside him.
In addition to being touched so deeply by Critch and his “being knit in Newfoundland” folklore, I was swept off my feet by Charles’ heartfelt homage to his grandfather; he named his iconic restaurant Raymonds after him. Such exquisite examples of family tapestry knit with love.
The Writers at Woody Point Festival is the literary, comedic and musical equivalent of an amazing race. Attendees and featured performers must pace themselves to keep up to the schedule of author readings, musical performances, and interviews with Canadian broadcasters such as Stephen Brunt (founding organizer/artistic director of the festival), Shelagh Rogers of CBC’s The Next Chapter, and Tom Power of Q on CBC mornings.
Daytime author readings and musical interludes with iconic Canadian musicians like Cousins, Barney Bentall, and The Once, coincide with book sales, art auctions, pub activities, live music and readings on seaside patios, and it all leads into a late-night multi-talented jam session/kitchen party. It’s overwhelming.
The standout performance and interview with Jeremy Dutcher, Polaris Prize and Juno Award winning poet, opera singer, author and category defying human being, will stay with all who were privileged to have witnessed his astonishing talent and powerful message.
Besides the literary, musical and fine artist stars in the little town of Woody Point, there were also the shooting stars of the Perseid Meteor Shower crowding out the full moon in the celestial sky over Bonne Bay each night.
I was star-struck on so many levels. And in true Newfoundland fashion, I was brought down to earth by the incredible hospitality of new friends I found in a lovely couple from Humber Valley, attending their seventh Writers at Woody Point Festival.
Bob and Charlene took me under their wing and chauffeured me back and forth to my accommodations in Trout River like I was a lifelong friend. They were the living proof that the kindness of Newfoundlanders depicted in the Broadway hit musical Come From Away is as true as it gets.
The 2020 WAWP Festival will be a virtual event this August.