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Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada
The 2009 Story Save Quilt
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After thinking about it for awhile I decided to go with the cabin in the woods because it best depicts the stories I grew up with here in Labrador.

While I love fairy tales and they were a big part of my childhood; stories such as Jack and the Beanstalk and stories about Paul Bunyan, there were other stories that stick out most in my mind. Stories I heard from my grandfather who was a tmpper and from my father who still traps. The history of the region where I live is one of living off the land and many generations of hunters and trappers have survived here.

I though it appropriate to depict a scene of how the men would spend weeks in a tilt or cabin as we would call them nowadays as they tended their trap line. One such story is the story of Uncle Ambrose Powell, a well known and respected trapper back in the early 1900s. Uncle Ambrose had a reputation of being afraid of nothing, and this was a big deal in his time. Stories of headless ghosts, mysteries noises, strange lights and other unusual goings ons were the norm in those days of no electricity and shadows loomed in dark comers.

Anyway, Uncle Ambrose went to set his trap line in the spring of this particular year
and had plans to stay for many days. He took supplies with him and would use his skills as a hunter to supplement his diet of salt pork and hard bread. Shortly after arriving at his tilt strange things started to occur for Uncle Ambrose. While fixing his supper one evening just as it was getting dark, the wind was whistling through the holes in the walls and the wolves were howling at the moon in the distance, Uncle Ambrose felt a whisper next to his ear. It sounded like a voice was saying, "Go home tomorrow Ambrose". Knowing that it was only folly, Uncle Ambrose went on about his business and finished fIxing his supper. After supper, he settled in for a quiet evening with his pipe and his thoughts, thinking of what he would do in the morning. Suddenly he felt the wind brush against his ear once again and a voice that sounded slightly familiar saying, "Go home tomorrow Ambrose. Now about this time Uncle Ambrose was getting a little bit uneasy because he though he recognized the voice and so he said out loud in the gloomy tilt, "If I hear that voice once more and can really tell who it is that's speaking to me, then maybe I'll listen". There was silence, nothing and so thinking it was all in his mind Uncle Ambrose got ready to settle in for the night. In the stillness of the cabin, in total darkness, because Uncle Ambrose had put out the lamp, there came again that sound close to his ear, "Go home tomorrow Ambrose". Uncle Ambrose arose from his bunk, lit the lamp and looking around him in the empty tilt, he said, "Yes Mother, tomorrow I shall".