Audioscript

My name is Marguerite Haché and I’m an interpreter at the Acadian Village in Caraquet. Wool is a material that we obtain from the sheep in spring and we work it all through the year to make a piece of material for the next spring on the …. So shearing the sheep, washing it first in cold water to get rid most of the dirt, but to keep the oil, after that we’ll need to separate the fibres by teasing the wool with the hands. This would have been done mostly by young children with their mom sitting at the table doing that, making the time go by you know. It’s a lot of work, takes a lot of time and after that, after the teasing is done we need to take the carts for carding. So these are the carts so it’s stretching the fibres, put them on the same direction and after that, we can spin it on the spinning wheel. After it’s done we’ll make a yarn of wool, we’ll wash the wool again with hot water and soap to get rid of the oil that we don’t need anymore. After that when we have enough thread gathered, we’ll set up the room to make a piece to weave. So after that a long piece of material that we can make any clothes that we want, a lot of blankets of course because it’s very cold so we need a lot of blankets for a lot of children to cover them up. That was something that the mother was doing and showing her girls because they will do the same, but that’s just one of the things that they have to learn. It was transmitted for a long time but not much not anymore, there’s so many other trades that young children can learn now and that is of interest to them, so you know, it’s like just the village is giving the trade I guess. Some people like some women are still weaving things and knitting, but most of the trade are changing. Well blacksmith was one of the most important and the carpenter also. So the blacksmith is in the center of the village and the blacksmith is like the mechanic of today. The blacksmith is a good trade for the farmers, most of the tools that the farmers needed he could do or could repair and for the horses also yeah. And the carpenter well for building the windows, for some of the furniture; if the man of the house was not handy enough to make it he would go to the carpenter.
 

Additional Resources:

Cards

Weaved blanket

Fulling demonstration in Mont-Carmel, P.E.I.

Suggested Web Sites

Suggested Readings