A Lower North Shore Story: containers for feminist place-making in Québec, Canada

Abstract

This article examines current efforts by the woman-led Lower North Shore Bioproducts Solidarity Coop on the northeastern coast of Québec, Canada to re-brand their region for sustainable economic growth. This cooperative is using the narrative tools of social media to counteract stories of decimation following the collapse of the fishing industry in the region in the 1990s. The goal of the Coop is to create jobs in the community through the production and export of local products made from wild berries and other plants. Through their creative use of Facebook and YouTube, narratives about the Lower North Shore are changing. The use of online platforms for sharing videos and stories allows the community to re-create itself through the lens of environmental stewardship rather than exploitation. These efforts can be seen as a form of feminist place-making. This photo-essay argues that using the discourse of terroir to re-brand the region for outside consumption has the dual possibilities of valuing non-invasive, seasonal fruit harvesting performed on a small scale by locals, and also opening the door to detrimental transformation of the land. Analyzing the deployment of the term terroir in this case will point to its ambiguous potential for sustainable development. This original artistic research, based on interviews and fieldwork conducted from 2013 to 2015, will be of interest to readers of Gender, Place & Culture for its focus on the efforts of women, many of whom are seniors, to re-present nature-cultures in a geographically remote coastal region.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Feminist place-making
• regional food stories
• social media
• symbiogenesis
• taste and place
• terroir

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to my interlocutors for their generous time, to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments, and to the GPC team for bringing this article to print. I am ever grateful to Erik De Leon and to Beanie, whose participation in my fieldwork was so precious to me. Thank you to my parents for their unfailing support, and to my dear sister and best friend, Christina. Any shortcomings in this work are my own error.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figure 1. Hand-picked St-Augustin bakeapples frozen for the long winter months. Photo by the author, 2013.

Figure 2. Harry Jones and Jocelyne Roy with bakeapples for Dad. 7 August 2014. Photo by the author.

Figure 3. Grounded vessel from the Anthropocene showing ancient logo, La Tabatière. Photo by the author, 2014.

Figure 4. View from a distance, Relais Nordik ferry. Video still by the author, 2014.

Figure 5. Bakeapple Folk Festival, opening dinner at the Lion’s Club. Photo by the author, 2013.

Figure 6. Bakeapple harvest, July 2013, washed and preserved for the winter. Photo by the author, 2013.

Figure 7. First encounter with bakeapples, picked unintentionally underripe. Photo by the author, 2013.

Figure 8. Home cooked bakeapple jam, a breakfast staple on the LNS. Photo by the author, 2013.

Figure 9. Wreck of the Bernier, grounded in 1966 on Saddle Island, Labrador. Photo by the author, 2013.

Additional information

Funding

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Notes on contributors

Natalie Doonan

Dr. Natalie Doonan is a multimedia and performance artist, writer and educator. She works at the intersection of visual art, sensory studies, performance studies and cultural geography. Her research focuses on food and the vitality of places. Natalie’s work has been shown in exhibitions and festivals across Canada and internationally. Her writing has appeared in professional and peer reviewed art and food culture publications such as: Canadian Theatre Review, Theatre Research in Canada, Public Art Dialogue, Canadian Food Studies and the Senses and Society. She serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at l’Université de Montréal.