Brian Avery was three years old when he and his parents packed their belongings into a boat and pulled away from Deer Harbour, N.L., leaving behind their home, their way of life and centuries of family history.
The Averys and their neighbours were abandoning their community on Random Island in Trinity Bay as part of Newfoundland and Labrador’s resettlement program. Their boats were pointed toward Clarenville, N.L., and larger towns beyond, where roads, running water and the promise of jobs outside fishing and forestry awaited.
Fifty-seven years later, Avery is part of a new generation of Newfoundlanders navigating the painful history of resettlement and bringing people back to these abandoned communities through tourism.
“It was a lot of years before they went back, a lot of years before anybody went back. You don’t want to go back to something that hurts,” Avery said of his parents and other residents.
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“But I …