LETTER FROM MONTREAL
By announcing, on April 25, the creation of the first “national museum of the history of Quebec”, the premier of the province, François Legault (Coalition Avenir Québec, nationalist, center right), did not hide the intention that he assigned to the future institution: “ A place that makes Quebecers even more proud to be Quebecois “. Installed in the austere building currently under renovation of the Camille-Roy pavilion of the Séminaire de Québec, where the first university of the Province was founded (1852), the museum will open its doors in spring 2026.
“ This is where it all began four hundred years ago, with the explorers [Jacques] Cartier and [Samuel de] Champlain, founders of our nation », enthused the head of government while presenting the project in the provincial capital. By donning the clothes of a true museum chief curator, he detailed precisely what he intended to see honored in the future establishment: the “great men” therefore, and a few women “ builders “, like Jeanne Mance, pioneer of New France who established the first hospital in Montreal in 1642, and Marie de l’Incarnation, missionary who dedicated herself in the 17the century to the education of young girls and the evangelization of the natives.
He also listed among those who had their place in this pantheon of Quebec pride, artists (Gilles Vigneault, Robert Charlebois, Céline Dion), authors (Michel Tremblay, Danny Laferrière), athletes, and even businesses “ like Bombardier or HydroQuébec », symbols of Quebec’s economic success. On the other hand, the question of the original peoples was evacuated with a short sentence: “ We also have the presence of indigenous nations who helped us,” he simply declared, judging it more essential to insist on the need to celebrate, above all, the French language, because “ in a context where we were surrounded by a sea of English speakers, it was still an achievement that we still spoke French! »
“A return to the dusty national narrative”
Barely revealed, the intention of the new museum building made part of the community of Quebec historians choke up. “ It is nothing more and nothing less than a return to the dusty national narrative that emerged here in the 19th century.e century, this goes against the grain of everything that is done today in terms of research in the historical field, but also in museology », Explains Camille Robert, lecturer in the history department at the University of Quebec in Montreal. “ This view of history is not only outdated, it is also dangerous, adds Catherine Larochelle, professor of history at the University of Montreal, because organizing the framework of this story around a people of exclusively French language and culture fuels a feeling of identity that is completely out of step with our current collective identity. »
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