Photo of the Month
Mi’kmaq Oral History Picture Project
Submitted by Miranda Gould, Mi’kmaq Oral History Project Field Worker
One early Friday morning, me and my colleague Brenda Googoo dropped by to visit my Uncle, Noel Joe Gould in We’koqoma’q. Uncle greeted us with his friendly smile and welcomed us into his home. We did our informal greetings and I pursued to introduce my college’s family, so that he could make a connection to her, by relating our extended families. Uncle this is the late Gabriel and Pearl Googoo’s Grand Daughter, Brenda. Oh yes, Uncle replied, I know the family. Now that we were more acquainted, Uncle invited us to gather at his kitchen table, while I prepared a fresh pot of tea for us. As he prepared himself for our unexpected visit, we patiently waited. I was glad he was home, as I was eager to ask him about the photo before me, which was a picture of my Great Grandfather, who was one of the first Mi’kmaq Guides in the early 1920’s.
I did not realize that the story that I was about to hear was a very unique story of what life was like in the 1920’s for many Mi’kmaq families. Uncle said, "Your Great Grandfather Joe Gould was one of the first guides in the area." Our people looked forward to the summer months, as they knew many tourist and sportsmen would be travelling to the area, hoping to catch the big one. He informed me that all sportsmen that came to the area required a guide, especially the ones that came from the United States. So, as you can imagine this was good news to our Mi’kmaq Guides, as he states, "jobs were pretty scarce then", so you welcomed the opportunity. The Guiding business was something that got us by. I went on to ask him, "What was the going rate for a Guide back then?" He said, "oh probably about .50 cents a day." But that was a lot of money back then. I remember the pennies were even bigger back then. You could buy 10 peppermint candies with just one penny in those days.
As I listened to Uncle’s story, I couldn’t help but to feel that I was blessed to have had the opportunity to share my family’s oral history directly from my Great Uncle. Uncle went on to discuss the photo of his Dad, Joe Gould and he informed us that the rod that he was using is a homemade rod. He said, ‘we didn’t have fancy fishing rods, but the ones we made sure did the trick." He also noted, that it was very rare to have a camera back then, and the only reason he has this photo, is that when the Gentlemen travelled back home to New York, he sent the photo back to his Dad, which became a wonderful collection to all his family photos. I enjoyed my time with Uncle, and would like to thank him again for taking part in the Mi’kmaq Oral History Project.
If you are interested in doing an interview, please contact Tina Bernard at tina@tarrns.ca .
