On Saturday, March 7, it was standing room only in the Dundee Zion United Church basement where upwards of 140 Valley locals waited in anticipation to view Raising Spirits: Exploring the Cemeteries, Crossroads and Vanishing Places of Rural Quebec, a documentary series presented by the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN).
QAHN is a non-partisan, non-profit network devoted to the preservation and promotion of the history, heritage, and culture of the English-speaking communities of Quebec. For this Raising Spirits series, QAHN chose six places across the Chateauguay Valley – all historically significant but little known, their memories kept alive largely due to devoted local families that trace their heritage back to the original Irish and Scottish settlers of the region.
Reg Burrows welcomed the crowd, joking that he would love to see the church this full on Sundays. He then invited Dundee’s Mayor Daibhid Fraser to the stage. Fraser thanked the church members for hosting the event and thanked the mayors from surrounding municipalities for attending, including Philippe Besombes of Ormstown, Judith Fouquet of Godmanchester, Daniel Pinsonneault of Sainte-Barbe, and the former mayor of Hinchinbrooke, Carolyn Cameron.
Heather Darch, project director and series host, then came to the stage to talk about what a pleasure it was to work with folks in the Chateauguay Valley. She said that she was not surprised to see such a full house because when she and videographer Allison Kirkwood travelled through the Valley for the project last summer, people were “so supportive, so social, and they know their history so well.”
The film series starts in Riverfield, a Scottish settlement as enthusiastic about curling then as it is today; it then goes to Babyville, originally an Irish settlement located in what is present-day Sherrington. After that, the audience was transported to the 138A in Ormstown to the site of the first Catholic church and cemetery west of Sainte-Martine. Powerscourt was next with its small humble church, covered bridge, and abandoned dam. The last two parts of the film focused on Dundee and Godmanchester, originally settled by the Scottish as well but unique in their proximity to the lake St. François and Mohawk territory.
The common thread between films was that the Scottish and Irish settlers of the region, who largely came to escape economic and political oppression, arrived here to find a better life – which they achieved by the sweat of their brows and the work of their hands. Their legacy leaves traces on the land and in local family histories, and these legacies are worth remembering and celebrating.
The films will soon be available for free on the QAHN YouTube channel.