My second object from Newfoundland and Labrador is a contemporary piece by silversmith Michael Massie.  It is a teapot, mimicking the shape of an ulu knife, with etched designs on the silver body of the pot.  The handle is made of bloodwood. Massie is a contemporary Canadian artist who was born in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador, in 1962. He currently lives on the island portion of the province with his family.

I’m starting my Canada 150 blogging project in Newfoundland and Labrador. Why? To start, it is the province that lies geographically furthest east, and moving east to west is an easy organizational structure. More deeply, Newfoundland and Labrador was one of the last provinces to join Confederation with Canada in 1949. The vote was contentious and the margin of victory was slim. It’s less likely now, but it once would have been possible to find older residents of the island who considered themselves Newfoundlanders first, Canadians second (if Canadian at all).

In September, 1971, the ROM opened the landmark exhibition Keep Me Warm One Night, a kaleidoscopic display of over 500 pieces of Canadian handweaving. It was the culmination of decades of pioneering research and collecting by the ROM curatorial powerhouse duo ‘Burnham and Burnham’, aka Dorothy K. Burnham and Harold B. Burnham.