By Shivam Das
Netflix’s Below places a fictional coastal community under pressure as residents confront danger, economic uncertainty and the possibility of losing the place they call home. That premise resonates with a real chapter of Newfoundland and Labrador’s history: government-supported resettlement, which helped move tens of thousands of people from small outport communities between the mid-1950s and the 1970s.
There is an important distinction, however. Netflix’s official material describes the series as inspired by creator Jesse McKeown’s experience of Newfoundland and its distinctive landscape and communities. The available official description does not say that the show’s plot is a direct retelling of the province’s resettlement program. The historical parallels are useful context—not proof that the fictional story reproduces a specific real event.
What happened during Newfoundland’s resettlement era?
After Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, governments faced difficult questions about how to provide schools, health services, roads, electricity and reliable employment to residents of remote coastal settlements. Many outports depended heavily on fishing and coastal trade, while geography made public services expensive and difficult to deliver.
In 1954, the provincial government began a Centralization Program that offered financial assistance to families willing to move. The early program generally required every household in a community to agree before relocation assistance was paid. A federal-provincial program introduced in 1965 expanded the effort and changed the rules and financial incentives. The programs were presented as a route to better services and stronger economic opportunities, but they also helped accelerate the abandonment of communities whose histories stretched back generations.
The scale was substantial. Memorial University’s Maritime History Archive summarizes the period as involving approximately 307 abandoned communities and more than 28,000 people relocated between 1946 and 1975. Academic research often describes roughly 300 communities and about 30,000 people moved during the main government-sponsored programs from 1954 to 1975. Totals vary according to the dates and categories counted, so the figures should be read as historical estimates rather than a single universally fixed number.
Why did families leave their home communities?
There was no single experience shared by every family. Some residents sought better access to education, medical care, roads, electricity and steady work. Others felt economic and social pressure to leave as fishing employment changed, young people moved away, schools shrank and governments signaled that services could become harder to sustain in very small settlements.
The story of Pushthrough illustrates that complexity. The south-coast community had a long history tied to fishing and trade. By the 1960s, changing employment patterns and concerns about schooling contributed to its decline. Memorial University’s historical account records that many families with school-age children moved in 1968, with residents relocating to several other Newfoundland communities.
For some people, relocation opened doors to jobs, education and services that had been difficult to reach before. For others, it meant leaving behind homes, family networks, familiar shorelines, local traditions and community institutions. Both experiences belong in an honest account of resettlement.
Arnold’s Cove shows what resettlement changed
Resettlement did not simply move people from one point on a map to another. It reshaped receiving communities too. Memorial University’s archive records that Arnold’s Cove became a major growth centre in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Families arrived from a number of Placentia Bay island communities, and some physically moved their houses to the new location.
For receiving towns, population growth could support new housing, businesses and services. But a new settlement could not automatically replace the relationships, local knowledge and sense of place people had left behind. A relocated house might preserve a physical link to home, while the surrounding social world had changed completely.
How does this history relate to Netflix’s Below?
The connection is thematic rather than a confirmed one-to-one adaptation. Netflix describes Below as a thriller about a fisherman trying to protect his family, community and a vanishing way of life. The series’ Newfoundland setting gives that conflict a real regional context: coastal communities have long had to negotiate geography, changing industries, out-migration and decisions about where public investment should go.
That context can make the show’s fictional threat feel more grounded. When a story asks whether a community can survive, the question is not only about individual courage. It is also about who gets to make decisions, whose livelihoods are valued, and what is lost when a place becomes harder to sustain. Newfoundland’s resettlement history shows that these questions have affected real families—and that the answers were never simple.
It would be inaccurate, however, to claim that the series directly adapts a particular resettlement vote or family’s experience unless the creators or production materials confirm that link. The documented history stands on its own, and the show can be discussed alongside it without turning interpretation into fact.
What the historical record still asks us to consider
Resettlement is remembered through archives, family testimony, scholarship, music, literature and visual art. Those records complicate any easy verdict. Government planners emphasized services and economic modernization; critics warned that policy could undervalue outport culture and the wishes of residents. Families themselves made decisions under different circumstances, with different hopes and constraints.
The most useful lesson is not that every relocation was forced or that every move was beneficial. It is that policies designed around efficiency and growth can have deeply personal consequences. The loss of a school, a harbour-based livelihood or a familiar network of neighbours is difficult to capture in a spreadsheet, even when official statistics can show the scale of change.
Readers who want to go beyond a television comparison can explore Memorial University’s “No Great Future” resettlement exhibit and historian Raymond B. Blake’s study, “The Resettlement of Pushthrough, Newfoundland, in 1969.” These sources provide historical evidence, community-specific details and a fuller account of the people behind the policy.
Quick answers
When did Newfoundland’s government-sponsored resettlement programs take place?
The main programs ran from 1954 to 1975, with provincial action beginning in 1954 and a federal-provincial program introduced in 1965.
How many communities were affected?
Memorial University’s Maritime History Archive gives an overall estimate of about 307 abandoned communities and more than 28,000 people relocated between 1946 and 1975. Counts differ by source and date range.
Was Netflix’s Below directly based on the resettlement program?
Netflix’s official description confirms that the series is rooted in the creator’s experience of Newfoundland, but it does not establish that the plot is a direct adaptation of the government resettlement program. Any connection should be described as historical context or thematic interpretation unless stronger evidence emerges.
Where can readers see original historical material?
Memorial University’s Maritime History Archive maintains a virtual exhibit with community photographs, documents and background on government-sponsored resettlement in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Sources
- Memorial University, Maritime History Archive: “No Great Future”
- Memorial University: Pushthrough community archive
- Raymond B. Blake, “The Resettlement of Pushthrough, Newfoundland, in 1969”
- Netflix Tudum: Below series background
Image note: Historical photographs are credited to Memorial University’s Maritime History Archive. Confirm reuse permissions and image acknowledgements with the archive before relying on external image URLs for long-term commercial publication.
