Passed suddenly away on April 10, 2023 at the age of 79, as the result of a tragic accident, Christopher Robert Brookes, in St. John’s. Predeceased by his father Captain Lewis Brookes and his mother Phyllis Elmer. Leaving to mourn his wife Christina Smith; aunt Barbara Ryan (Roger Carpenter); father-in-law William Smith; brothers-in-law George Smith (Elizabeth Lawrence) and Leslie Smith (Margaret Fitzpatrick); cousins Barbara Knight, Sydney Ryan and daughters Anna and Sophie; David Ryan and daughter Siobhan; English cousins Dorothy Franklin, Sylvia Glaister and Ted Rhodes; dearly loved colleagues Rebekah Nolan, Jiri Slavicinsky, Paolo Pietropaolo and Annie McEwan; special friends Marnie Parsons, Kathryn Welbourne, Charlie Tomlinson, Lynn Lunde and Susan MacConnell, and a large circle of cherished friends and colleagues.
Chris Brookes was born in 1943 in London England during the Blitz. His father, a Captain in the Newfoundland Regiment, married in London and returned home with his war bride and infant son. Brookes grew up in St. John’s, attending Memorial University and Nova Scotia Technical College, where he earned a Bachelor of Engineering Science in 1965. Then, following his real love, he studied theatre, and radio and television production, at the University of Michigan, graduating with a Masters of Arts.
Upon his return to Newfoundland, Brookes began in earnest his life’s work of sharing the stories of Newfoundland and Canada, and his lifelong activism in support of the arts, local communities, the politically oppressed, and the under-represented.
Brookes founded the Mummers Troupe Theatre Company, a history-making company that pioneered the use of theatre for rural community development. During its 10 years, the Mummers Troupe mounted almost 40 productions, ranging from Newfoundland mummering plays (a tradition Brookes helped revive on the Island) to sharply political explorations of union politics, mining strikes, and the seal and cod fisheries; it helped launch the careers of many well-known Canadian actors and musicians, including Mary Walsh, Robert Joy, Ron Hynes, and Charlie Tomlinson.
While with the Mummers, Brookes discovered the Longshoreman’s Protective Union Hall. He co-founded the Resource Foundation for the Arts to purchase the building for a downtown cultural centre, personally guaranteeing the mortgage. The LSPU Hall remains an artist-run theatre and cultural space, a cornerstone of the vibrant St. John’s arts community.
In 1980, Brookes travelled in Central America, working with the Teocoyani Theatre Company, and amateur campesino drama groups of Los Alpes and Cantimplora, Nicaragua to research their use of theatre as a vehicle for social education and consciousness-raising. He returned to St. John’s to write Now We Know the Difference, about theatre for social empowerment in Nicaragua (1983), and A Public Nuisance, about the Mummers Troupe’s use of theatre for community development (1988).
His media production career began in 1982 with CBC Radio Newfoundland and Labrador’s afternoon show, On The Go. In 1984, Brookes became field producer for Sunday Morning, CBC’s flagship national current affairs show, for which he made his first documentaries—stories about every province and territory of Canada that brought awareness to Canadians of First Nations rights issues in BC, droughts on the Prairies, the creation of Nunavut, the seal hunt, and many other local and national issues. He also collected stories in war-torn Nicaragua and El Salvador.
Eager to tell Newfoundland stories to Newfoundlanders, Brookes returned to CBC St. John’s, in 1989, as Network Producer and Radio Features Producer, charged with Documentary and Radio Drama production. In this role he mentored numerous younger producers, helping them produce award-winning features, and in the process winning more than 20 national and international awards for the CBC. Long after leaving the CBC, he continued to support, mentor, and encourage younger producers and journalists, who often arrived unannounced at his door.
In 1997, Brookes established his own freelance production company, Battery Radio, to tell stories of Newfoundland and Canada to international audiences. His programs provided challenging new contexts for concerns both old and new, and transcended the borders of documentary, storytelling, composition, and audio art. He tackled topics ranging from the soundscape of Elizabethan England to the loss of traditional knowledge through the demise of Newfoundland’s cod fishery to the influence of electricity on music. His riveting stories have been broadcast in Canada, the US, England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Finland, Austria, Germany, and Sweden.
Brookes was a pioneer in locative audio, which he named “Landscape-based Documentary.” His audio art projects, HereSay and Inside Outside Battery combined traditional oral culture with dial-up cell phones to create a storytelling map of Water Street and the Outer Battery in St. John’s. When this new genre developed to include GPS, the Internet, and Smartphone technology, Brookes created locative smartphone apps for Torbay, Arnold’s Cove, and Brigus, and projects in Bannerman, Bowring, and Victoria Parks.
His work in all genres has been widely acknowledged and received the highest awards—from the Prix Italia and the Prix Marulic to a Peabody Award, as well as gold medals at many international audio festivals. Chris Brookes was the recipient of ACTRA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the CBC’s President’s Award, and an honorary doctorate from Memorial University, and was inducted into both the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council Hall of Honour, and the Order of Canada.
Endlessly curious and of great intellect, Chris Brookes was committed to telling stories that needed to be heard. He was a visionary storyteller and documentary producer, an ardent supporter of the arts, a wonderful community gatherer, an engaging conversationalist, a tireless mentor, an excellent cook, a passionate debater, a dearly loved friend, a truly great Newfoundlander, and a much adored and adoring husband.
He showed those who were willing to listen how to hear the world differently, more deeply. We are all richer for his life, beautifully lived.

Obituary written by Marnie Parsons