Although Newfoundland was first settled by the Vikings, the European occupation did not truly begin until about 1497 with John Cabot’s voyage.  Primarily focusing on fishing the waters off the 23,200 km of wave-beaten coastline, both the English and the French started by making annual trips, but later simply created colonies on the province.   The primary English colony on the island, St. John’s, is one of the oldest cities in North America.  The massive fishing grounds found in the Grand Banks off the south-east coast of the island, and indeed fishing all around the province, have played a massive role in shaping the communities, cultures, and foodways that still exist to this day. 

The Learned Societies Meetings took place at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1971. Part of the duties of the host is to promote the local area, society, and culture. Since food is arguably one of the best ways to learn about and understand a culture, it only makes sense that Memorial University release a specially made cookbook for the occasion, featuring some of the more distinctive recipes of Newfoundland in comparison to the rest of Canada. For example, one of the recipes, Seal Flipper Pie, would have been considered a staple in Newfoundland society but probably would have been completely foreign to many “mainlanders.” Likewise, the very first recipe featured in the cookbook is something called “Fish and Brewis,” a hearty and simple, yet delicious meal made with seafood and bread. This meal, according to the recipe, was a staple dish for Newfoundlanders, and variants featuring steak, bacon, and ham were also quite common. These dishes would both have been alien to many of the conference’s attendees, which may be a hint towards the growing feelings of distance between Newfoundland and mainland Canada. This was undoubtedly fostered by the declining fishing industry that had for decades been such a critical part of the local economy as well as the relatively recent media and government crackdown on the sealing industry. 

In 1964, a documentary was published by Artek Films, which seemingly showed a hunter skinning a seal while it was still alive.  Although it was later proven that the seal was probably already dead, the public outcry from around the globe put pressure on the Canadian government to begin instating and enforcing increasingly stricter regulations on the already endangered seal hunts.  By 1971, international laws were being put into place to protect the seals, and prices for seal furs were declining at a rapid pace.  In the context of the cookbook, the recipe for seal flipper would have thus been fairly controversial. Seeing as how 1971 was roughly the middle of the seal hunt crisis, the inclusion of this recipe may have been a way for the academics and elite of Newfoundland to defend their history and culture. 

In 1971, over 7,000 of the 147,990 working inhabitants of Newfoundland and Labrador were employed in fishing, hunting, trapping, and other related jobs.  This represented a significant drop from the roughly 18,000 people employed in the industry in 1951, a mere twenty years prior.  The statistics indicate a rapid decline in the traditional way of life for the inhabitants of Newfoundland and Labrador. Although this may not have been one of the primary reasons for creating the cookbook, it may have been an influencing factor.