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The impact of the Grenfell Mission on southeastern Labrador communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

John C. Kennedy
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, Newfoundland A1C 5S7 Canada

Abstract

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries British medical missionary Wilfred Grenfell created a mission in northern Newfoundland and Labrador, now part of eastern Canada. The Grenfell Mission's approach to health, educational, agricultural and industrial development are described and its impact on the southeastern Labrador region is examined. The mission changed the region's settlement pattern and economy by creating centralized mission communities: however, its failure to generate sustained economic alternatives to fishing and trapping inadvertently paved the way for the economic dependency still characteristic of the region. The Grenfell case confirms the need for viable development scenarios and for meaningful local participation in community development.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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