Dry Stone Canada and the Amherst Island community invite our active members to spend a weekend at McMullen House. This is an opportunity for our members to reconnect in reality, not virtually, and to rebuild a heritage wall in need of repair.
And while we have come through 2 years of pandemic misery, it has also been 10 years since Dry Stone Canada came to be. We were formed in June of 2012. So, this get-together is also a celebration of our 10th anniversary. We want to use this milestone as an opportunity to contemplate what we are all about.
Speakers
Dr. Audra McMullen
Professor of Communications at Towson University in Maryland
Dr. Audra McMullen (our host), will lead a discussion on her research on dry stone wallers “Creating Civic Communication Through Dry Stone Festivals” (you may remember she interviewed some of you at the 2019 festival).
About Audra: Audra McMullen, Ph.D. is a professor of Communication Studies at Towson University, Baltimore, MD, US where she engages in research on community building. Audra’s first exposure to dry stone festivals was the Irish-Canadian Dry Stone Festival in 2015. The McMullen family joined Amherst Islanders in billeting wallers who participated in the build of the Irish Sampler Wall and Oculus. The community literally opened their doors to strangers, dignitaries and guests came from around the world to watch volunteers lay stones! What made this event so unique?
In the last 20 years there has been a resurgence in dry stone construction as a way to connect to the land and link people back to their heritage. People gather at festivals to learn and share in this intangible wealth of knowledge and skill. Dry stone construction is celebrated and sanctified at festivals throughout the world creating a segmented moment in the life of a community called “civic communion”. It is that moment in time when a community reflects upon, celebrates, and ultimately sanctifies important local images and truths through communication. For many rural areas, such as Amherst Island, the festivals lead to stronger bonds of civic pride. Through the festivalizing of building and repairing stone walls these performances become an opportunity rich for exploration in community building and expanding citizen participation in the local public agenda.
John Scott
Waller, Instructor, Heritage Masonry Specialist
The wall at McMullen House is heritage designated. John Scott, member, instructor, Heritage Masonry Specialist, will lead a discussion on heritage restoration. He will focus on aspects of restoration such as understanding the character of a structure, recording as-found prior to restoration, general aspects related to heritage, and working with agencies (like Parks Canada). While this may be of particular interest to professional wallers, it will also be of interest to wallers in general.
Partnership:
Our community also includes Dry Stone Walling Association of Ireland (DSWAI). This year we are working with them to initiate the Waldemar Wower Bursary Award. This is an opportunity for one of our members to visit and gain experience from Irish wallers and for an Irish waller to visit and gain experience with Canadian wallers. Both the Canadian and Irish recipients are invited to attend the symposium. More detail about the bursary can be found on the Home page.
Public Welcome:
This is a member build, but the public is always welcome to come by and see what it is we do. There will be an area for anyone of any age to try their hand at building with stone, and we will have representatives of our association on hand to answer any questions.
Thank You:
Dry Stone Canada can build with stone, but we cannot do it alone. Many thanks to the community of Amherst Island for their continued support and hospitality.
Special thanks to:
The Lodge on Amherst Island
The Women’s Institute
The Back Kitchen
Neilson Museum
Also to:
Loyalist Township
And to our corporate sponsors:
Lafarge Canada
Liberty Power