Heritage NL and the Craft Council are worried about a decline in traditional craft skills in the province.

The two cultural groups are compiling a list of crafts at risk with the aim of developing a new funding program to encourage the sharing of heritage skills.

While skills like rug hooking have seen a resurgence in recent years, other skills, like birch broom making or Indigenous basket making, are at risk as the population ages and certain skills are no longer needed.

They’re developing a heritage mentor-apprenticeship program for some of those skills.

Heritage NL’s list of Craft at Risk includes 55 crafts, ten of which are listed as critically endangered. They include harness making, and the fabrication of tin flat-bottomed kettles. Executive Director of Heritage NL, Dale Jarvis, says another skill at risk is bark tanning, a traditional method used to make leather for boots and garments.

He says people may remember barking pots on beaches years ago which were used to preserve nets and fishing gear, but because most of our leather goods are now imported, the number of people who remember how to bark hides is dwindling.