ICOMOS Canada is immensely proud of the outcome that we were able to achieve through the Youth in Heritage program. The program aimed at increasing youth involvement in the heritage sector through the creation of Canada’s first-ever job portal dedicated to the cultural heritage sector. The program offered skill development and career opportunities to the next generation of practitioners by bridging the gap between heritage organizations and potential candidates.
We would like to highlight some of the incredible youth that was hired through our program.
Bailey Pelletier | Wanuskewin Heritage Park | Interpretive Archeological Guide
Bailey Pelletier is a 25-year-old Indigenous archeologist, in her third year of grad school under the supervision of Dr. Ernie Walker. Her thesis focus is looking at the cultural Material of the site at Wanuskewin. This site has been a gathering place for all Nations of the Northern Plains for over 6400 years. Bailey is a lab instructor at the University of Saskatchewan as well. For the past three years, Bailey has worked as a tour guide at the park specializing in archeology programming.
“I guess a cool part of it all is I dug at the park in 2018, started working there the summer of 2019, and now I still work at the park and doing my masters on the same site I did field school! All ties together in the end.”
Matthew English | Tuckaway Farm, Apiary & Apothecary | Farm and Studio hand
Having Matt work at our sides has been a huge benefit to our farm, Tuckaway Farm, Apiary & Apothecary; not to mention, we have fun working with him too! Matt is a highly skilled individual and we feel so very lucky that he chooses to work with us. Our farm has grown and developed in the way we dreamt it might in large part due to his dedication, knowledge, willingness to learn new skills as well as his enthusiasm to explore his own interests.
Matt eagerly puts his hands and mind to any project or task on the farm; from seeding, weeding, picking rocks, taking care of the greenhouse, animals, and bees to wildcrafting various herbs for our apothecary line, preparing yarn for dyeing and weaving, problem-solving and building. We owe a lot to Matt and we’re immensely grateful for the support from ICOMOS to compensate Matt well and create, what we hope is, meaningful work for an important youth in our community.
“During the time I’ve been with Tuckaway, I’ve learned a wide array of valuable and interesting skills, gained knowledge in a lot of different aspects ranging from general farmhand knowledge, beekeeping, construction methods, weaving/spinning, plants/gardening, and much more!! I’m thankful for these foundations as well the great hospitality provided by the owners. Working with them is something I continue to look forward to!!! It’s great to see a farm that not only benefits itself but also the community in various ways. Hats off to Tuckaway!!”
Erin Fradsham | Heritage NL | Social Media Intern
My role as Social Media Intern is to work with the Heritage NL team to showcase and promote our events and projects, including the Craft at Risk, Heritage NL Mentor-Apprentice and Provincial Historic Commemorations programs, along with any tidbits of NL history that may come my way on the web. Having the ability to share such information has put me in contact with many unique and talented individuals of our province. I hope that my experience here will allow me to continue to work in this field and become more knowledgeable about the Heritage that surrounds me.
“Since I’ve begun my position as Social Media Intern at Heritage NL I can’t get over how much I’ve learned about our province’s history in such a short period of time. The ability to do hands-on work such as the scanning of old documents and visiting heritage sites has been such a beneficial experience for me, both personally and professionally.”
Destiny Penney-Reid | Great Nothern Peninsula Community Place Corporation | Researcher
Destiny Penney-Reid works with the NL Heritage Program as a local researcher for crafts at risk in NL. Her job entails reaching out to locals in the Tri-Town area, via telephone or email and discussing with them about the crafts in the area that may be getting lost throughout the years. Her position is based around compiling a group of people with beneficial skills and crafts and helping them to pass along and share their knowledge to the younger generation to keep them engaged with the skills that were once crucial to the area.
Israt Jahan Lipa | Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation | Digital Archives Intern
Israt Jahan Lipa is a Bangladeshi international Ph.D. student studying in the Dept. of Folklore at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. In January, she started her work with ICOMOS Canada and Heritage NL as a digital archives intern where she digitizes folklore collections of Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation (BTHC).
“It’s an extensive experience for me to work in this project and I am finding it quite helpful to digitize the oral histories collections which will help the next generation to know more about their ancestors and the heritage of this region…folklore is an integral part of the heritage, and heritage is the pride of a community. I think folklore should be transmitted to the next generation so that heritage goes on…”
Taylor Quibell | Content Coordinator for the UNESCO Catalogue of Information Technology on Presentation and Monitoring | Research Assistant for CIMS
Taylor Quibell is in her first year of a Master of Applied Science: Civil Engineering in the NSERC CREATE Heritage Engineering Program. She is working as a Research Assistant for CIMS but more specifically as a “Content Coordinator for the UNESCO Catalogue of Information Technology on Presentation and Monitoring”, which was a summary of the 2021 Global Competition organized by OurWorldHeritage IT.
“This experience introduced me to the variety of sites and stakeholders around the world and gave me the opportunity to write and learn more about heritage. Truly a fantastic opportunity!”
Magdayln Knopp | MUN Botanical Garden | Project Coordinator
Magdayln Knopp works with the MUN Botanical Garden, in collaboration with Dr. Anne Burke at Memorial University. Her current involvement includes planning a series of three workshops for children ages 5-8 that foster their ecological imagination through cultural nature stories and augmented reality technology. These workshops are part of a bigger research project being implemented by Dr. Burke. Her work also includes being a research assistant, preparing literature reviews and ethics application documents, among other things.
“This work experience has been incredibly eye-opening! I never realized how many moving parts there are in professional research projects and educational workshops. The coordination alone is dizzying, and it’s given me a new appreciation for everyone who does this work”
Morgan Manuel | Heritage NL | ICOMOS Intern
With thousands of religious institutions in Canada slated for closure over the next ten years, there are many questions about what should happen with these buildings. These spaces were the lifeblood for many communities, often representing much more than just a building with emotional connections to the built environment running deep. This means that often demolition is out of the question, and communities look to heritage value as a way of advocating for the preservation of these historic spaces.
“My work through ICOMOS Canada and Heritage NL involves compiling and assessing an inventory of former religious properties with potential heritage value across the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. This work primarily focuses on establishing a database from which these building closures or abandonments will be mapped to increase our understanding of the typologies of closure and examples of successful adaptive reuse.”