Oh, Buona Vista!

I knew I was going to like the New Founde Land Pageant from the moment it opened with an invitation for the audience — then standing in the drizzly outdoors on the picture-perfect shore of Trinity Bay, N.L. — to join in the singing of “Ode to Newfoundland.” 

Written in 1902, the song is the province’s official anthem. Where some Canadian provinces don’t even have a provincial anthem, and others have songs that have failed to strike a chord, “Ode,” with its unabashed declaration — “We love thee, smiling land” — is often sung alongside or instead of “O Canada” at public gatherings. And most people in the audience seemed to know the words. For those who didn’t, the pageant’s program helpfully included the lyrics. 

The New Founde Land Pageant is a unique, long-running theatrical production that tells the history of Newfoundland and Labrador, beginning with the Beothuk people as well as the Norsemen who temporarily settled L’Anse Aux Meadows on the island’s Northern Peninsula. 

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Of particular interest to locals — especially those living on the Bonavista Peninsula, where the town of Trinity is located — is the possibility that Italian explorer John Cabot (also known as Giovanni Caboto, or Zuan Chabotto, and by other variants) made landfall at Cape Bonavista in 1497. Upon landing he’s said to have exclaimed, “Oh, buona vista” (Oh, happy sight). No one really knows the facts, but it’s fun to imagine Cabot and his crew exploring the same rugged landscape as us modern-day visitors. 

The pageant has audience members wind their way through Trinity as actors with Rising Tide Theatre regale them with stories and songs. It’s an immersive experience that pulls the audience in to join a merry band of pirates — a scene the theatre program admits “is not entirely historically accurate” but that does reflect the amount of pirate activity in the region. 

All of the scenes are played against the backdrop of Trinity, a beautifully restored outport village in one of the most historically significant areas of Newfoundland and Labrador, if not in Canada. On the Bonavista Peninsula, as in other places in the province, great care has been taken to preserve or to recreate significant architecture, historic sites, and other elements of culture. 

The Trinity Pageant itself emerged after the devastating 1992 cod moratorium, under which the province’s cod fishery was closed due to the collapse of fish stocks. Rising Tide’s Donna Butt and the late Rick Boland initiated the pageant as a way to revitalize the area, which depended heavily on the fishery. 

Among many other notable historic attractions in the region is Port Union National Historic District of Canada, located a short drive north of Trinity. Billed as North America’s “only union built town,” it was established by the Fishermen’s Protective Union and its visionary founder, William Ford Coaker, in the early twentieth century. The town became a thriving centre for the Fishermen’s Union Trading Company, which was created to break the merchants’ monopoly on salt fish prices and trade. 

The community declined due to changing economic circumstances, particularly the cod moratorium, and many of its buildings are in need of repair. But recent restoration efforts mean that visitors can tour the restored factory building, peruse back issues of the Fishermen’s Advocate newspaper, and explore the townsite, which includes various interpretive panels. 

Port Union is also part of the Discovery UNESCO Global Geopark, which recognizes the unique geology of the upper half of the Bonavista Peninsula. At low tide in Port Union, it’s possible to view fossils from the Ediacaran Period, more than half a billion years ago. 

IF YOU GO