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Partnership Profile: Amina Anthropological Resources Association

Learn more about how Adventure Canada and the Amina Anthropological Resources Association have worked in partnership for over ten years. In this 2020 update, hear from archaeologist Dr. Latonia Hartery about AARA’s mandates and programs, and the announcement of the lucky recipient of the Pioneers Scholarship.

By Latonia Hartery | September 24, 2020

Aara area of research southern labrador in background flowers island in foreground

Adventure Canada and AARA Celebrate over a Decade of Collaboration

Promoting archaeology, cultural heritage, and artistic resources in Newfoundland, Labrador, and the Arctic has been the purpose of the longstanding partnership between Adventure Canada and Amina Anthropological Resources Association (AARA). As a not-for-profit organization, AARA’s mandate is to inform the public about these topics through educational and public programs. Of course, education is also a core goal of Adventure Canada’s.

Bird cove great northern peninsula home base of aara

The home base of AARA: Bird Cove, on the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland

Our two organizations also overlap in our enthusiasm for youth and research. Since 2010, we have worked together to support the Pioneers Scholarship. This AARA initiative acknowledges trailblazing graduate student research in Newfoundland, Labrador, and the Arctic. Examples of projects supported in the past by this scholarship include a Basque-language opera composed about Red Bay, Labrador; a thesis on kayak styles and building in Greenland; and a thesis on the archaeology of Double Mer Point in Rigolet, Labrador.

Greenland kayaker sisimiut photo by 2008 scholarship recipient matthew walls

2008 Pioneers Scholarship recipient Matthew Walls studied Greenlandic kayaking.

We are excited to announce that the 2020 recipient of this $5000 fund is Marissa Farahbod, a PhD candidate in Folklore at Memorial University. Her study examines the Filipino community in Newfoundland and Labrador in order to shed light on how members of one of the province's biggest minority groups define their identities as Filipino-Newfoundlanders. As no folkloristic research has ever been done about Filipinos in Canada, documenting the lives and activities of this underrepresented community in a culturally unique area of of the country through a folkloristic lens will demonstrate the importance of this perspective, and how it can contribute to broader studies of diversity, diaspora, and migration. Adventure Canada guests who won auction items or made donations on our 2018 Out of the Northwest Passage and 2019 Newfoundland Circumnavigation expeditions were instrumental in providing for this award.

Marissa farahbod and Filipino Newfoundlander community

Marissa Farahbod at work (left) and with Filipino-Newfoundlander community members (right)

AARA’s FINESS Program is another banner feature that encourages young women to explore careers and leadership in science and the arts. This program includes workshops on plant and sea mammal identifications, archaeology, Indigenous history, northern photography, filmmaking, and traditional music composition. Anyone who travels with Adventure Canada knows that this style of learning is similar to their onboard programs. We are proud to partner together to foster these common mandates.

Dr latonia hatery and finess program participants northern newfoundland

Dr. Latonia Hartery and AARA FINESS Program participants in Northern Newfoundland

About the Author

Latonia Hartery

Archaeologist

Latonia Hartery has a PhD in Newfoundland, Labrador, and Arctic archaeology. Her exploration of this topic has taken her to the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Scandinavia.

For the last twenty years she has conducted excavations at her research project on Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula, in Bird Cove-Plum Point, where she and her team have reconstructed five thousand years of Indigenous history. She is the President of AARA Inc., a not-for-profit organization dedicated to Arctic and NL studies.