Denis Lord – Local Journalism Initiative
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The Chibougamau Regional History Society became the James Bay Regional History Society following a unanimous vote by its board of directors, which took place on April 25th.
The Society already had a regional vocation but the fact that Chibougamau was included in its name was confusing.
“It should help the expansion of the Society, facilitate obtaining grants and allow projects with other localities and municipalities,” says the director general of the Société d’histoire régionale de la Baie-James (SHRBJ). , Francis Marcoux.
The approach could eventually lead to the founding of local branches elsewhere in the territory. Mr. Marcoux points out that there was once a historical society in Matagami, which closed in 1995. An archival collection is dormant there, he says, as in Lebel-sur-Quévillon, where we find the Domtar background.
The SHRBJ is housed at the Chibougamau town hall. The administration of the latter approved the name change of the organization. “The city is not offended, reports Mr. Marcoux. She also sees the benefits. »
The website address will later be changed to shrbj.com.
A fruitful year
In start-up or in continuity, there are many projects at the SHRBJ which, concedes its director, has “a little detached itself from the population with the pandemic”. “We are a bit in the process of reopening our doors, if we can say that it’s over,” he adds.
From an organizational point of view, the SHRBJ has set itself the objective of doubling its number of members, which is currently around thirty. However, the terms of a membership drive are not set at the time of this writing.
At the same time, the Society, which has a rich collection of artefacts, wants to take advantage of its showroom.
“We would like to hold an exhibition every year and use the space as a film club and the like,” explains archivist Marie-Claude Duchesne.
She wants to modernize the exhibition hall and equip it with removable presentation equipment that would allow her to set up traveling exhibitions.
Fundraising is underway.
An industrial history
Since April 14, the SHRBJ has joined forces with a government partner that it cannot identify for the moment, but who is participating in the financing of an ambitious three-year project.
The essence of the project consists in creating an application which would list the regional industrial heritage on the territory. By industrial heritage, Mr. Marcoux means the places and buildings, whether they have disappeared or not, having been used in the fur trade, the mining and timber industry, and roads.
The app would provide access to photos, text, etc.
Conferences and services
Simultaneously, the digitization and posting of the archives of the SHRBJ, founded in 1979, continues on http://atom.shrcnq.com/.
The Society intends to organize conferences in schools on the history and archeology of Chibougamau, and to set up an authentication service for artefacts and documents.
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