Community Building on the Avalon Conference
"It is Within Our Grasp" - Breakfast with Sir William Coaker
Rick Boland is an actor and Artistic Associate with Donna Butt of
Rising Tide Theatre. He is the co-author of "The New Founde Lande -
Trinity Pageant" and is currently playing William Coaker in Paul
Rowe�s "To Dare Mighty Things- William Coaker and the Fisherman�s
Protective Union" at the Summer in the Bight Festival in
Trinity.
William Coaker was born on the South side of St. John�s, the son of
a schooner captain. At the age of 14 he organized the boys working on
Job�s wharf and struck for wage parity with boys working on other
wharves in St. John�s and won. At 16 he worked as a merchant�s agent in
Notre Dame Bay. Convinced that agriculture was the answer to the
economic woes facing the country in the 1880's he attended Agricultural
College in Nova Scotia. He later trained as a telegrapher and worked at
various stations around the island. In 1905 he and his wife and friend
Edward Kierley moved to an island in Dildo Run and started a vegetable
and dairy enterprise. He called the farm Coakerville.
It was here that he conceived the Fisherman�s Protective Union for
the rest of his life he worked tirelessly to organize fishermen. Using
the capital obtained from union dues and member investment he created
the Fisherman�s Union Trading Company, The Fisherman�s Advocate ( A
newspaper), The Town of Port Union, The Union Power Company, The Union
Party ( a political party that held the balance of power in two
elections). He became Minister of Fisheries and Marine and enacted a
series of reforms in the fishery.
Coaker was a charismatic leader, a tireless worker, and a visionary
who believed in the potential of rural Newfoundland. As a capacity
builder he is un parallelled in Newfoundland�s history.
Over breakfast, Rick Boland , as Coaker will address the delegates
to the conference as Coaker would have addressed the delegates to the
Bonavista Congress in 1911. He will challenge the delegates to adopt a
manifesto of the solutions to the problems of Rural Economic
Development and to establish a cohesive organization to accomplish
their aims. He will expound on the value of leadership and solidarity.
Finally he will share his vision of the future of Newfoundland at the
beginning of the Twentieth Century and charge the delegates with the
creation of a future for Newfoundland in the 21st. Century.
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