Simple tours of Quebec confirm the need and urgency to support Quebec’s interpretation sites and museums. I have just visited the Parc du Bourg de Pabos and the Pasbébiac National Historic Site, before returning to the Musée acadien du Québec and the Musée de la Gaspésie.
These spaces are, of course, essential partners in territorial and tourist development by being a factor of attraction; studies confirm that cultural tourism has real repercussions on the local economy. But they are above all of capital importance in terms of sharing knowledge. They make us aware of the evolution of our society, of questions of regional planning or of social issues. They tell us not of a nostalgic story, but of the reality of people who have shaped today’s world by confronting challenges of development (or failures) and survival. It is by visiting these places that we discover where we come from, that we measure the paths traveled and to be traveled, in short, that we understand what we are.
The government has been sensitive to the importance of history by proposing, in a clumsy and improvised way, a heritage protection policy in the form of Blue Spaces; this failure (at least, some places have been protected) cannot make us forget the need and the urgency of supporting throughout the territory places of interpretation and museums which, with too often few resources, are engaged in cultural dissemination actions and have been able to develop a real relationship with citizens. These institutions, with libraries and the education sector, are part of an ecosystem that structures our society. When will there be a real shift allowing this network not to maintain itself, but to reach its full potential?
When will there be real investment in these places of knowledge, reflection and enchantment?
To see in video