P2P Session: From the Rock – Placed-based Development in Rural NFLD & Labrador

William Evan Butler has worked in multiple media, exploring notions of identity, place and process. These themes come out of a desire to better understand his mixed Lʼnu (Mi’kmaw) and European heritage, and his combined rural and urban upbringing. With an Interdisciplinary BFA from NSCAD University and a Masters of Philosophy in Humanities from Memorial University, Evan went on to teach in Digital Animation & Digital Filmmaking at College of the North Atlantic (2019–24). He built youth mentorships into his projects in recent years, which mainly centred on documenting cultural activities in Nujioʼqonik, Ktaqmkuk (Bay St. George, Newfoundland) in order to protect & promote Lʼnu culture through art. Currently he is in post-production on a film about a master basket maker titled ETLITOQ [They | He | She Make(s) It], and aims to begin the Master of Fine Arts program at Memorial University (Grenfell Campus) in May 2025.

Joan is a physiotherapist and the owner/operator of Cottage Hospital Physiotherapy and Fitness.  She has had the privilege of living and working in the beautiful rural community of Norris Point in Bonne Bay on the west coast of Newfoundland since 1988. For many of those years, she worked at the old Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital, both in its former life as a cottage hospital and in its current incarnation as a social enterprise incubation centre. She volunteers as the coordinator for the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital Heritage Corporation which has owned and operated the centre since 2001. Our mission is the adaptive reuse of the Old Cottage Hospital for the preservation of culture and heritage, the promotion of health and wellness, and community economic and social development. 

She strongly believes that community-based research and social enterprise are critical elements in rural vitality and sustainability, as well as the future of health care.  She worked with a dedicated group of volunteers in Port aux Choix to set up the interdisciplinary “GNP Community Place”  which offers access to health services and wellness resources and operates as a social enterprise. She is interested in learning from anyone who has experience in this area and will work with a variety of partners to develop this project as a Community Health Centre and a rural research hub. 

She believes in the value of community/ university research partnerships. The GNP Research Collective was formed to provide support to the GNP Community Place and has done much to strengthen the project in a variety of ways – by providing access to knowledge and expertise in the field, by facilitating access to a network of national and international researchers, and by offering credibility to an idea that is new to provincial funders and policy-makers. 

She has been involved in many professional associations both provincially and nationally and is currently a member of the NLSUPPORT Patient Advisory Council as well as the PCPRN Pan Canadian Patient Council. These councils are both part of the SPOR (Strategy for Patient Oriented Research) of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). She was involved with the Bonne Bay Development Association, the RED Ochre Economic Development Board, and the Corner Brook/ Rocky Harbour Rural Secretariat.