Speaker
Description
Jos Montferrand, legendary lumberjack whose death in 1864 was followed by an amplified biography 20 years later, offers an opportunity to analyze and understand how various communities may share common legends, in this case, strong men, and continue to evoke them to present themselves to the world and to understand their own distinctiveness. Almost 100 years after his death, Jos Montferrand returns to the forefront of francophone culture. While Jos, the person, died in Montreal, his legend lived on in the province of Quebec and the Ottawa Valley. Montferrand was, after all, a lumberjack and a raft man who worked around Bytown (which became Ottawa) in the 1830s. Most importantly, he was a fighter; both instigator and protector. How is it that his legend lives on? This presentation discusses how communities turn to the representations of heroes to understand their history and their existence. From 1960 and onwards in a changing context with different entrenched social values, Montferrand returns as something more fluid, changing. What changes is how he is represented. For the Outaouais region, he is the manly worker. For the Quebec nation, he symbolizes the necessity to establish itself in a growing country. For the francophone minority of Ontario, he is a protector, a symbol of victory in front of a lasting historical struggle. Jos Montferrand is a representation that changes through time and between communities. Yet, he remains a useful symbol for all surrounding Ottawa Valley communities and beyond.
