The Association Francophone de Red Lake is being recognized with an award for promoting French heritage in the area.
The association received the Billochet du Jongleur prize from the Centre franco-ontarien de folklore, given each year to any organization or person or group that promotes and keeps the French oral heritage alive.
Agathe Breton-Plouffe, a community liaison officer with the association, said the award was for a website created during the pandemic.
The website is designed like a map to connect the community in Red Lake through French, she said.
“So people can just go through the different sections of the map and explore the different aspects of the francophone culture and heritage. It's really cool,” she said. “It's a website specifically for the Red Lake Francophones.”
She said the effort was a partnership between different schools, the elderly, parents, and kids.
“Everybody chipped in and there was storytelling, there was music, and that project really showcased the French culture in our area and the French people. Some of them did some short interviews to explain their journey,” she said.
The association is super excited about the award, she said.
“We did not expect it because, being at the end of Highway 105 in the middle of nowhere, it's sometimes hard to get recognized, but thanks to this online project and the partnerships with everyone, I think that helped us get a lot of exposure.”
She said during the pandemic it was really hard to collaborate with other people, but they were lucky to connect with a group of young professional web developers who passionate about the French language and heritage also.
“They were in a slow period. So they accepted to help us put everything together because we had videos, we had photos, we had audio. They were like, ‘Hey, we want to showcase this. How can we do that?’ So, he sat down with us and he's like, ‘why don't you guys make a website out of it?’”
Breton-Plouffe said they got nominated for the prize by a storyteller from the Ottawa region, who came at the end of January to do a workshop.
”When he came, he saw the website that we had worked really hard on and he saw that we were really passionate about keeping the heritage alive because that's what we do,” she said.
To view the award-winning website, visit: www.cartefrancoredlake.ca
