After more than 30 years of existence, in 2022, 2023 and 2024, Métiers & Traditions will occasionally leave its premises located in Vieux-Longueuil to go on tour on the roads of the Montérégie aboard its colored van.
The Métiers & Traditions van will stop in the 12 MRCs of the Montérégie and in the agglomeration of Longueuil, during events or celebrations that will attract large numbers of local and even regional populations. It will be an opportunity for them to discover and get to know the tradition bearers of the region. Here are the locations and dates of our 2022 tour:
See cooper Réal Beaudin at work
Photo: Métiers & Traditions
Follow us in 2022!
August 6 ➔ The Saint-Hyacinthe Agricultural Expo
August 21 ➔ Saint-Hubert’s Back to School Party
September 3rd ➔ Chambly’s Festival Bières et Saveurs
October 1st➔ The Great Gathering at St. Mark’s Park in Longueuil
Réal Beaudin is a cooper and a member of our Board of Directors. Réal loves to be in contact with the public and to share his passion with him, which is why he will be with us in Chambly for the Festival Bières et Saveurs on September 3rd. This is a very appropriate event for a barrel maker! Réal will be demonstrating his know-how in alternation with storyteller François Lavallée and hurdy-gurdy player Michel Bordeleau. Métiers & Traditions sur la route in 2022 will also feature a cabinetmaker, a telegrapher, knitters, storytellers and more!
Michel Bordeleau playing the hurdy-gurdy
Photo: Johanne Alarie
Storyteller François Lavallée
Photo: Ann-Marie Hamel
What is a tradition bearer?
A tradition bearer is someone who has acquired his know-how or his knowledge from someone and who has then transmitted it to another person or persons. It is this notion of transmission that is essential to obtain the status of tradition bearer. It is what makes this intangible heritage remain a living heritage. Often, this transmission is done from one generation to the next, or over a longer period of time from generation to generation, and in a patrilineal or matrilineal way.
One can find these custodians of a know-how or an exceptional talent in the sectors of the craft industry, the arts of the veillée and the agri-food production in the 12 MRCs of the Montérégie and the agglomeration of Longueuil. Some tradition bearers are well known by the public, while others deserve to be better known. Sometimes, they themselves are not even aware that they are tradition bearers or that they master the gesture in such a way that it deserves an official recognition.
An inventory to index all the tradition bearers of the Montérégie
This is the main objective of our inventory of tradition bearers: to put the spotlight on them, to make them known and to promote them! Anyone who would like to know the names and occupations of the tradition bearers of the Montérégie region need only to visit the Métiers & Traditions website since a section will be entirely dedicated to them. It will not be a simple directory, but also – and above all – an essential source of information to know how the craftspeople, artists and producers acquired their know-how, and how they passed it on to one or more other people. Métiers & Traditions has the ambition to become a regional reference for intangible and living heritage.
The inventory of tradition bearers also highlights artists and artisans who come from diversity or who belong to the Native community of Kahnawake. This is notably the case of beader Angel Horn who makes wampum, a traditional form of beading also found in the collection of the Pointe-à-Callière Museum in Montreal:
The Wampum of Angel Horn
Photo: Patrick Desrochers, © Pointe-à-Callière, Cité d’archéologie et d’histoire de Montréal
Wampum
Shell beads, leather and porcupine quills, 2020
Pointe-à-Callière collection
Angel Horn (fabrication), is a traditional Kanien’kehá:ka artist from Kahnawá :ke. Sylvain Rivard (concept), from Montreal, is multidisciplinary artist who specializes in Indigenous clothing design. This jointly created contemporary work is inspired by the traditional diplomatic wampum. Its stylized forms evoke the City of Montréal’s coat of arms with the fleur-de-lys, thistle, rose and shamrock, and the Great Tree of Peace in the centre. The border symbolizes water, and the white background the archipelago.
At the time of writing these lines, our inventory already contains one or more: cooper, ceramists, knitters, crocheters, spinners, flécheurs.euses, weavers, dancers, cabinetmakers, carpenters, maple syrup producer, mason, watchmaker, bread oven maker, plant dyer, origami maker, storytellers, lacksmith, puppet maker, etc. And the list will only get longer in the next three years, when the inventory of tradition bearers may (hopefully!) include hundreds of names of craftspeople, artists and producers from the Montérégie.
If you have acquired your know-how (or knowledge) from someone and then passed it on to someone else, join the Montérégie tradition bearers directory by clicking here.
Photo: Emmanuelle Roberge
Example of a tradition bearer form from the Montérégie
Nom : Hélène Blouin
Métier : Flécheuse
MRC : Agglomération de Longueuil
Profil : Hélène Blouin began her apprenticeship in the fascinating technique of making ceintures fléchées with Marie-Berthe Guibault Lanoix, a renowned flécheuse. In 2020, she was designated Master of Living Traditions by the Conseil québécois du patrimoine vivant (CQPV). She teaches fléché at Métiers & Traditions and leads various master classes.
*The masculine term « tradition bearer » is used to lighten the text
The Great Gathering at St.Mark’s Park in Longueuil
The Great Gathering of Métiers & Traditions sur la route will be a unique opportunity to gather on the same site the craftspeople, artists and producers of the Montérégie region who have participated in the other events of our tour. For the 2022 tour, it will be held on October 1st at St-Mark Park in Longueuil, where we will find those who participated in the Expo-Agricole in Saint-Hyacinthe, the Festival Bières et Saveurs in Chambly and the Fête de la rentrée in Saint-Hubert.
Develop a sense of regional belonging
The inventory and the tour of the tradition bearers aim to demonstrate that the know-how and talents of our artists, craftspeople and agri-food producers are numerous in Montérégie. Unfortunately, they are not well known by the regional population. By remedying this situation, Métiers & Traditions hopes to contribute to the appreciation and recognition of the region’s rich intangible and living heritage.
Would you like Métiers & Traditions sur la route to stop in your MRC for a specific event?
Contact us to discuss it! 418 906-6412 or programmation@metierstraditions.com
This project is financially supported by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs under the Support for Regional Outreach component of the Fonds régions et ruralité and by these partners: