Festival du Voyageur HÉ HO! : A Celebration of Culture and Heritage

Lucienne Beaudry Loiselle

Description

Every February, tens of thousands from all over the globe flock to St. Boniface, Manitoba, to attend the largest winter celebration in Western Canada—Festival du Voyageur. For its duration, these visitors can experience the customs and ways of our voyageur ancestors, the hardy men and women who settled the prairies after the arrival of La Vérendrye in 1734.
In 1969, the Franco-Manitoban community laid the groundwork for a new winter festival inspired by the historic voyageur era. It also introduced the ambassadors of the endeavour—the Offi cial Voyageurs, based on notable historical fi gures such as Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière
and his wife Marie-Anne Gaboury, the fi rst pioneers of the Red River Settlement and the grandparents of Louis Riel.
Thanks to its experienced team and thousands of volunteers, Festival du Voyageur has since its inception provided a space in which to gather and celebrate the history of the voyageurs and the fur trade, by way of the First Nations, the Métis, and the early days of the Red River Settlement.
Festivalgoers are invited to visit striking snow sculptures, skate on the Red River, enjoy traditional foods, take part in a host of contests and
competitions, learn legends and lore from kitchen party and folk music
performances, and mingle at the various trading posts.
This fond retrospective, spearheaded by Lucienne Beaudry Loiselle and brought to fruition under her careful and dedicated guidance, offers a candid and faithful account of Festival’s many successes and challenges over its fifty-year history of warming hearts and cold prairie winters.

Sujets

• Essays
• Histoire
• Canadá
• Festival du Voyageur
• Metis
• Canada
• History
• Métis (homonymie)
• Manitoba

Informations

• Publié par: Éditions des Plaines
• Date de parution: 18 février 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781989282274
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

FESTIVAL DU VOYAGEUR
H HO!
A Celebration of Culture and Heritage
Lucienne Beaudry Loiselle
Festival du Voyageur H HO!-A Celebration of Culture and Heritage
Copyright 2019 Vidacom Publications
ISBN: 978-1-989282-47-2
Original text Lucienne Beaudry Loiselle, 2019
Preface Bernard Bocquel, 2019
Photos as identified by their sources
Originally published in French under the title Le Festival du Voyageur H HO! : une c l bration de culture et de patrimoine by Vidacom Publications 2019
The publisher and the author wish to thank Festival du Voyageur s management and Board of Directors, the Soci t historique de Saint-Boniface, as well as the families of the Order of Official Voyageurs for their precious collaboration in producing this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems-without the prior written permission of the publisher, or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency.
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Manitoba Arts Council for its publishing program. We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Government of Manitoba through the Publishing Tax Credit Program for our publishing activities.

English translation: Freynet-Gagn Translation
Design and layout: Dave Maddocks, Shine Branding
Front and back cover photos: Dan Harper
Editor-in-Chief: Joanne Therrien
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication data available upon request.
Legal deposit 2019:
Library and Archives Canada
Manitoba Legislative Library
Vidacom Publications
C.P. 123 Winnipeg (Manitoba) Canada R2H 3B4
T l. : 204.235.0078 [e-mail]
www.vidacom.ca www.plaines.ca

Printed in Canada by Friesens Corporation
Table of contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PREFACE
EDITOR S MESSAGE
INTRODUCTION
THE EARLY YEARS
STABILITY AND GROWTH
FESTIVAL DU VOYAGEUR TURNS 25
OFFICIAL VOYAGEURS STORIES
MOVING INTO THE FUTURE
CONCLUSION
ENDNOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PHOTO CREDITS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My sincere thanks to Hubert Pantel, official Festival du Voyageur photographer from 1976 to 2001, for providing access to his extensive photo archives of over 16 000 images. Since 1969, the French-language newspaper La Libert has published Festival updates that are an important chronological record of events of the past 50 years. The Peel initiative, which digitized the paper s entire 100-year run, generated hundreds of pages of information, greatly facilitating the research.
The Centre du Patrimoine archives and research centre kept and sorted Georges Forest s archives, which include the Francophone Chamber of Commerce of St. Boniface s meeting minutes from the 1960s, as well as Lucien Loiselle s personal archives, which date back to the 1970s.
The collective memory of the committee consisting of Gabriel and Marcelle Forest, G rald and H l ne Cl ment, Philippe and Jacqueline Lavack, Marc R millard, Lucien Loiselle and Lucienne Beaudry Loiselle, H l ne Martin, and Ida St-Vincent helped identify the many people depicted in the Festival pictures kept at Centre du Patrimoine.
Thanks to ditions des Plaines for their invaluable assistance, and a special thank you to Joanne Therrien for her wise counsel.
Thanks also to Darrel Nadeau and the Festival du Voyageur Board for understanding the importance and value of revisiting and celebrating Festival s 50 years.
I am indebted to all those who, through the many stories they shared, were rich sources of information.
This book was made possible by this collective support.
- L. L.
PREFACE
Long live the great Festival family!

An undertaking that endures to see its 50-year anniversary has a duty to celebrate it and to recognize the significance of the event in terms of its own history. Commemorating such a milestone honours the longevity of the enterprise, but it also provides an opportunity for us to hear the testimonies of those who witnessed its origins, and who wish to pay it tribute for posterity s sake.
The February 2019 celebrations represent an important benchmark in the life of Festival du Voyageur. Festival s golden anniversary, along with the previous 49 editions, reminds us of our duty to embrace winter alongside all communities.
Therein lies the main spirit of this book, willed into existence by one of Festival s own pioneers. Lucienne Beaudry Loiselle brings into focus that truth Canadians have always cultivated, applied, and shared-that nurturing an unfettered joie de vivre is the key to successfully negotiating the cold winter months.
Backed by solid research, the author shows that the event founders were keenly aware of the key roles their French-Canadian and M tis ancestors played in the development of the province of Manitoba. Year after year, Festival du Voyageur is a reminder of their courage and resilience in the face of a slew of challenges unique to their time and place in history. Initially conceived as a way to involve St. Boniface residents in their province s centenary celebrations, Festival du Voyageur was, is, and will continue to be an expression of self-affirmation by a strong-willed people. These men and women worked together to transfigure a spirit of resistance into an irresistible force of attraction. The famous H HO! that rallies festivalgoers is a testament to their legacy and a reminder that we must all embrace ourselves and our roots.
A retired teacher who remains committed to passing on her knowledge, Lucienne Beaudry Loiselle has a gift for bringing attention to the pivotal moments in Festival s history. She recounts evocative anecdotes, filled with delightful details that effectively capture each era. For indeed there had been numerous chapters in Festival s long history.
The storyteller derives great pleasure in relating to readers that Festival du Voyageur has been a source of inspiration for many enthusiasts-a hodgepodge of lovers of history and stories, songs and music, snow sculptures, and new discoveries. The Brigade de la Rivi re-Rouge, Fort Gibraltar, the Associ s du Fort Gibraltar, the Canot bar, the Rendez-Vous, La Compagnie de La V rendrye, the International Snow Sculpture Symposium, and the Order of the Capote are just a few of their initiatives touched upon throughout this book.
The author and her husband, Lucien Loiselle, have had the honour of representing Festival as Official Voyageurs, and she highlights the contribution of all the Official Voyageurs and past Board presidents. It is an effective way of underscoring the extent to which Festival s success is due to the involvement of its host of volunteers. Every page of this retrospective reminds us of the need to renew old ties and forge new ones, encouraging us to think of ourselves as one great family coming together for the sheer delight of basking in joyful energy.
This book, which is a cultural act in and of itself, exists because Lucienne Beaudry Loiselle took it upon herself to see it to fruition and because Joanne Therrien from ditions des Plaines sought to see it published. In highlighting the exceptional value of their contribution, suffice it to say that this work has earned its rightful place in the archives of Soci t historique de Saint-Boniface s Centre du patrimoine, to be preserved as a reference for all time. H HO!
Bernard Bocquel, author and journalist

Lucien Loiselle and Lucienne Beaudry Loiselle, 2018
EDITOR S MESSAGE

ditions des Plaines and Vidacom Publications are extremely pleased to present this title, which dovetails with their mission of publishing literary and historical works that showcase western Canadian Francophone and M tis culture and heritage.
50 years already! This book of photos and recollections traces the history of Festival du Voyageur since it was established in 1969. Inside, readers will discover a number of fascinating historical vignettes shared by author Lucienne Beaudry Loiselle. Accompanying these are selections from the catalogue of long-time official photographer Hubert Pantel and that of Festival s current official photographer, Dan Harper, as well as community archive photos and contemporary submissions.
Our sincere thanks to Lucienne for her trust and countless hours of research over the last few years, and for her tireless contribution to the preservation of Festival history. We hope that you share her passion for this wonderful winter celebration, an event that has carved out a niche for itself over the decades as something inextricably linked to the development of Manitoba s Francophone community.
We would also like to express our appreciation to Bernard Bocquel, a true connoisseur of Franco-Manitoban history, for writing the preface. Dave Maddocks, who has showcased his artistic snow sculpting talents at Festival for the past 24 years, was committed to contributing to the graphic design of this 50 th anniversary book. His creativity is behind the exceptional visual impact of the album s pages.
A retrospective such as this would never have been made possible without the contribution of many people: the Order of Official Voyageurs and their families; festivalgoers who shared their memories or photographs from their personal collections; the author s research collaborators; the Soci t historique de Saint-Boniface; the teams at ditions des Plaines and Vidacom Publications; as well as the Festival du Voyageur staff and Board. A special thank you to former Festival executive director, Ginette Lavack, and to the current director, Darrel Nadeau, for their support throughout the publication process.
Happy reading, and long