Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network partners with Mulgrave and Derry Historical Society

J-D Potié

With funding from the Secrétariat aux relations avec les québecois d'expression anglaise (SRQEA), the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) recently allocated $2,250 to the Mulgrave and Derry Historical Society (MDHS) to fund the creation of its new website.

In a press release issued by the QAHN on November 27, MDHS board member Suzanne Daoust explained that the MDHS intends to use the money to employ a webmaster to implement a newly-furbished webpage, with ongoing technical assistance, to improve its capacity to promote projects, and other information, and better connect with the community.

"Over the past 22 years, our members have documented much of the Mulgrave family lineage in displays held in St. Matthew's Lutheran Church parsonage," Daoust said in the press release, noting that the MDHS had long been in need of an efficient and stable website.

"This is really a new and special way for Mulgrave and Derry residents to reconnect with their history and culture, and for all other members of the QAHN to discover and enjoy it."

The new website, when ready, should be accessible via this link - http://www.mdhist.org/.

As part of an initiative dedicated to supporting English-speaking communities in the Outaouais, called Belonging and Identity in English-speaking Quebec, QAHN Project Director Heather Darch told the West Quebec Post that the initiative intends to aid the implementation of heritage projects throughout the province until the spring of 2023.

Noting that the QAHN published a call for project proposals back in June, Darch added that the initiative allows the QAHN to allocate as much as $5,000 to a heritage and cultural organization in its network to subsidize activities aimed at contributing to the promotion of public knowledge of Anglophone culture and history in the province, enriching English-speaking Quebecers, and educating people about belonging and identity for language minorities.

Marking the initiative's third and final year, she noted that it has been a vital source of support for small organizations who rely on all the volunteer work, donations, and grants they can get to survive and keep giving back to the community.

With English heritage organizations from six regions across the province, including the Outaouais, Montreal, the Eastern Townships, Gaspé, Capitale-Nationale, and Côte-Nord, collectively receiving $40,000, to help finance various projects and activities over the coming months, QAHN Executive Director Nathan Farfan said he's thrilled to see the provincial government support such positive initiatives.

"The competition for funding to create projects based on the history and heritage of the English-speaking communities in Quebec was very strong this year," Farfan said in the press release. "But the final recipients have each presented wonderful proposals and QAHN is delighted to be working with these heritage organizations. ... All the projects promise to be valuable additions to our collective understanding of the English-speaking community in Quebec."

More information about the QAHN is available on its website - https://qahn.org/,