June 23-27 and June 30-July 4, 2004 on the National Mall

WATER WAYS: The Past, Present and Future of Maritime Communities in the Mid-Atlantic

CSWM Folklife Festival scrapbook

CSWM Folklife Festival Boatbuilding!

CSWM Festival preparations

Water Ways grew out of the efforts of maritime community members to gather and interpret cultural history and folklife in the Mid-Atlantic region at such local venues as the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum in North Carolina, the Bayshore Discovery Center in New Jersey and the Reedville Fishermen’s Museum in Virginia. Projects in each state have created museums, cultural centers, publications and web sites for the public education. This is the first project that brings community members in all six states together to meet one another and tell visitors their strikingly similar and highly compelling stories.

From demonstrations of boat building and restoration skills of planking, caulking and rigging, to netting, tonging, dredging and raising of crab pots, to artistry of waterfowl decoy carving and duck and goose call making, to the fish processing traditions of crab picking and oyster shucking, Water Ways will be a feast of the senses as visitors learn about maritime culture from people whose lives revolved around the waters that surround their communities and sustain their heritage.

2004 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Participants Representing Down East These Core Sound ~ Down East “delegates” will join with carvers, boat builders, fishermen, storytellers, historians and writers from six other states to share these traditions with 1.3 million expected visitors to the Folklife Festival on the National Mall June 23-July 4.
Kelley Nelson, Decorative Decoy Carver ~ Morehead City Kelley is an accomplished decorative decoy carver and artist, whose love of hunting led him to pursue the art of carving. Sharing the long-standing tradition of Core Sound carvers, he teaches decoy carving at Carteret Community College and volunteers at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum as a demonstrator. He also enters, has won and placed in numerous carving competitions across the US.	Anthony Brooks, Traditional Decoy Carver ~ Harkers Island Anthony is a carver of traditional working duck decoys. Raised on Cedar Island and Harkers Island, Anthony studies the work of well known Core Sound carvers of the early twentieth century; men such as Mitchell Fulcher, Eldon Willis and Elmer Salter. He creates his decoys using only hand tools: hatchet, penknife and rasp, tools of the old masters.
Bradley Styron, Shrimper and Fish Dealer ~ Cedar Island Bradley comes from a long line of North Carolina watermen. Descended from generations of Cedar Island fishermen, he was reared on the water, worked as a shrimp, fish, crab, oyster and clam fisherman, then started his seafood wholesale business, Quality Seafood. Bradley joined the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission in 2000 and continues to serve as a voice for commercial fishermen on that rule making body.	Debbie Styron, Commercial Fisherman’s Wife ~ Cedar Island Debbie is a native of Cedar Island and wife of commercial fishermen Bradley Styron. She grew up in the fishing business, from opening clams and culling fish to heading shrimp. Today, with daughter Beverly and sons Samuel & Brad, she helps manage the family seafood business, Quality Seafood. Debbie also works at the Cedar Island ferry terminal.
Nadine & Joey Benevides, Menhaden Industry ~ Gloucester Nadine is known as a “jack of all trades” in the fishing industry. She works at Beaufort Fisheries, Beaufort, North Carolina, one of two menhaden factory plants left on the eastern seaboard. She can do it all, from making and repairing the nets, working on deck, cooking the meals for the crew on fishing trips to making and repairing other types of fishing gear. In addition, she uses her skills to craft items such as lobster pot tables. Her son, Joey is exemplary of the strong tradition of families working together in a family business. Joey crabs with his father, Joey, Sr., continuing the family tradition of commercial fishing.	Pam Davis Morris, Fisheries Management Issues & Community History ~ Davis Pam has spent the last 20 years in the family commercial fishing business. During this time she has become active in the North Carolina fisheries management process, representing local fishermen on several state and regional committees. Growing up with family roots grounded in the area for generations has instilled a deep love for the people living along Core Sound that strengthens her work at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum where she works with community members to document the stories of the region.
Heber Guthrie, Representing a Family of Boatbuilding ~ Harkers Island Heber Guthrie’s passion and appreciation for Harkers Island boatbuilding began before his was born with his father, Chauncey, and his uncle, Julian Guthrie, who learned from Island legends Brady Lewis, Earl and James Rose and a community of master boat builders. Today Heber honors the “old way” through traditional boat building demonstrations at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum throughout the year. Heber, and his son Clifford, are also model boat builders and decoy carvers, keeping the family woodworking skills safe for another generation.	Jimmy Amspacher, Honoring Traditional Boatbuilding: Core Sound Style ~ Marshallberg Jimmy grew up pulling crabpots, hauling scallops and culling fish for the commercial fishhouses of his home community, Atlantic. Here he experienced firsthand what made a “good boat work,” learning from both the fishermen and boatbuilders of Down East, as they worked the waters of Core Sound. Today he preserves and maintains the same high standards of traditional boatbuilding in his models and in his backyard boatbuilding operation.
Connie Mason, Musician, Historian and Storyteller ~ Morehead City As an historian/collections curator at the NC Maritime Museum, Connie is recognized as one of the state’s leading resources for coastal research. As a folklorist, she has collected valuable firsthand stories of the Southern Outer Banks and coastal region of the state. As a musician, she has collected, written and performed the music of the coast to audiences from around the world, sharing her love for the history, people and traditions of her home-communities.	Rodney Kemp, Fish House Liar, Educator and Historian ~ Morehead City Rodney’s love for the people of Carteret County has been the centerpiece of his lifetime’’s work in collecting, teaching and telling the stories of this region. His storytelling, known affectionately as “fish house lies,” tells the facts through the voices and experiences of the folks who have lived and shaped this history for generations. Rodney was named the NC Historian of the Year in 2003.
Sonny Williamson, Fish House Liar, Writer and Researcher ~ Marshallberg Sonny Williamson, a native of his beloved Down East Carteret County, spends his retirement researching, documenting and publishing historical records of everything from shipwrecks and sailing vessels to hunting stories and recipes. His storytelling brings all that together in a “mix of fact and fiction” known locally as “fish house lying.”	Ginny Williamson, Lover of History and Family Traditions ~ Marshallberg Ginny Williamson, a native of Marshallberg, works with husband Sonny in researching and sharing the history and traditions of Down East Carteret County. Her working knowledge of Core Sound’s natural and cultural heritage stretches from the state archives and libraries to the shore of Core Banks where she is an avid collector of shells and artifacts brought by the daily tides.

The following story about Harkers Island/Core Sound is typical of the region’s rich heritage and efforts being put forth to preserve that heritage.

HARKERS ISLAND / CORE SOUND, NORTH CAROLINA

If you stand very quietly in the duck blind behind the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and look out over the marsh, you will get a sense of the world that the folks of Down East North Carolina love so much: mullet jump, herons spread their impressive wings, ducks splash and quack. If you are lucky, you might even see a loon, and someone you meet inside the museum can tell you how they used to cook and eat this now-endangered bird. The region stretching from Cedar Island to Beaufort encompasses many small villages whose inhabitants traditionally drew their living from the Atlantic Ocean, Core Sound and the surrounding marshes. Harkers Island, the departure point for visitors to diamond-patterned Cape Lookout Lighthouse, is home to the newly opened museum, a large building that also serves as community center and gathering place. Local boat builders, net makers, and decoy carvers come here to show their skills at such events as the Decoy Festival in December, and recently came together with all the volunteers who made the project possible to dedicate the building with prayers and not a few tears. Executive Director Karen Amspacher notes, “The museum is the stories we tell, the history we collect, and the traditions we carry on....Everyone who cares about Down East and who loves the place and wants to hold on to it - that’s who the museum is for.”

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is a living cultural exhibition, held each summer on the National Mall of the United States, spanning the Fourth of July holiday. The Festival is a richly evocative open-air celebration of the traditions, customs, and history of various states, foreign countries, and regions around the world. It is 24 acres of Festival between the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol. It is free-of-charge to the public. CSWM has been invited to participate in this year's events. Water Ways: The Past, Present, and Future of Maritime Communities in the Mid-Atlantic Bringing together people from six states and 15 different communities, including the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum, the program explores the complete gambit of maritime environments (ocean, bay, river, and marsh) each with their own distinct way of life. The Festival is an opportunity for communities to exchange information and grow regional networks while they engage the public in demonstrations of nautical skills. FISHING SKILLS AND FISH MARKETS CRAB POT MAKING OYSTER SHUCKING CHOWDER COOK-OFF BOAT BUILDING SKIPJACKS AND SCHOONERS NAVIGATION KNOT-TYING SHIP RIGGING LIGHTHOUSE MARSH LIFE DECOY CARVING GOOSE CALLING MENHADEN CHANTEY SINGING GOSPEL MUSIC BOARDWALK ACTIVITIES MORE THAN ONE MILLION VISITORS WILL ATTEND THIS FREE FESTIVAL