A territory with a plural history, whose roots go back into the dawn of time, Quebec is the focus of the new permanent exhibition inaugurated Wednesday at the Musée de la civilization de Québec (MCQ). Titled Quebec, in other words, and organized on the theme of encounter, the exhibition places greater emphasis on indigenous populations, explores how society has evolved to the rhythm of social movements and integrates the themes of cross-breeding and immigration. It aims to be a “reference exhibition on Quebec”, and offers a succession of rooms, developed under the themes Living, Living, Exchange, Sharing, Claiming and Belonging, and some 1,300 objects mainly from the MCQ collection.
As soon as you enter, the tip of a tool discovered around fifteen years ago in the Mégantic region bears witness to an indigenous presence dating back 12,500 years. This point was probably used by natives who arrived from the United States, specifies ethnologist Valérie Laforge, curator responsible for the exhibition.
The museum team also drew on the collections of Laval University to exhibit stuffed specimens of caribou, polar bears and moose, and even a giant turtle, an animal which is also the symbol of the earth. mother in several indigenous cultures here.
La Petite Hermine preview
One of the firsts of this exhibition is the presentation of presumed remains of the Little Erminea ship that Jacques Cartier left in Quebec after his stay in 1535. These remains were first extracted in the 19the century, vases from the Saint-Charles River. Although the expertise allows us to identify beyond any doubt that these remains actually come from the Little Ermine have not yet been completed, the MCQ team considers it likely that these conclusions will be reached in the near future.
The exhibition also gives pride of place to recent discoveries around the fort built by Cartier and Roberval at Cap-Rouge. It is a shard of earthenware, the design of which referred to a production that took place in 1540 and 1545 which made it possible to date the site, where research continues.
Some pieces in the collection have a fascinating history. In the room dedicated to the theme of mutual aid and sharing, we see a lathe (a box built into a wall used to pass something to the other side) which was part of the Augustines collection, and which made it possible to transport objects to the cloister without breaking the vows of silence. In certain cases, poor parents placed babies in this round, accompanied by a small letter in which they promised to come back to pick them up, which was rarely the case, specifies M.me Forge. In the collection of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who took care of the Quebec women’s prison, Maison Gomin, we find a word of thanks for good treatment on a crucifix offered in 1970 by the wife of the criminal Jacques Mesrine, Jeanne Schneider.
Struggles of all kinds
The pavilion dedicated to the theme of the claim bears witness to the various population uprisings which formed the Quebec of today.
Let us mention the famous gallows of Marie-Josèphe Corriveau, whose body was exhibited, after her death sentence, to frighten the inhabitants of the Côte-du-Sud who were resistant to English domination.
A painting by Euroma Awashish evokes the traces left by the Indian residential school experience. The fight for women’s right to vote, the unionist workers’ movements and the conscription crisis are evoked through various objects.
The fallen head of the statue of Queen Victoria, which was decapitated in a Quebec park by members of the FLQ in the 1960s, symbolizes the October Crisis of 1970, and the rise of the Quebec Liberation Front. A work by Diane Trépanier brings together 14 steles dedicated to each of the female victims of the Polytechnique massacre in 1989.
The exhibition Quebec, in other words, has been in the making for six years, well before the announcement by the Quebec government of the upcoming opening of a National Museum of Quebec History. For Stéphan La Roche, outgoing director of the MCQ, the two museums, which will both draw from the MCQ collections, can easily coexist in Old Quebec.
Regarding the words of Quebec Prime Minister François Legault, who began the history of Quebec with the arrival of Champlain, Mr. La Roche said diplomatically: “Mr. Legault, in his enthusiasm, gave examples. After that, it is the job of the teams from the Musée de la civilization, who are setting up the National Museum of the History of Quebec, to do rigorous work with the scientific committee. With the experts we consulted, we will find the right way to present the evolution of Quebec history throughout Quebec. »