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Discovering a cultural heritage by Christian Giraldeau

A photograph, edited to look like a comic strip, of a man with a beard and long brown hair. He is wearing a coat, a burgundy scarf, and small round glasses. He is examining a roll of film. On the lower left corner are the words: “Discovering a cultural heritage”.

Image: Photographer unknown (graphic design by Audrey Fauteux-Robillard), 1976.
Private collection of Monique Villeneuve.

Audio excerpt: Interview with Christian Giraldeau, one of the organizers of the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache, by Sandrine Contant-Joannin, ethnologist, 2023.
Excerpt length: 2 minutes, 6 seconds. Patrimoine culturel Vieux-Saint-Eustache collection.

Christian Giraldeau was one of the organizers of the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache between 1974 and 1976. His main role was to create various kinds of content for the event. Here, he describes the growing interest in Québec’s traditional arts and crafts in the early 1970s, and shares his discovery of traditional music. The excerpt is transcribed below :

Christian Giraldeau (CG) : But you know, at that time, I’d say starting with Expo, starting with de Gaulle’s “Québec libre”* […] there was a lot of excitement, a growing interest, at least, in anything to do with traditional Québécois crafts, Québécois folk music… In the 1970s, at the beginning of the decade, in 1971 [in fact, it was 1975], I think, there was the Veillée des veillées, which was held at the École du plateau. Have you heard of it?

Sandrine Contant-Joannin (SCJ) : Yes.

CG : A whole week of veillées. Veillée des veillées – there was a group from Ireland, an Irish group who came. Zachary Richard, that was the first time he came to Montréal. Wow! We never wanted to let him go home! And La Bottine souriante, there was…

And at first, I was surprised that I enjoyed it so much because, you know, there was… It was that old stuff on TV – there was a program called “La veillée canadienne”.

SCJ : “La Soirée canadienne.”

CG : Something like that.

SCJ : Yes, and it was quite cheesy.

CG: Yes, exactly… And it was not, you know… But we were listening to Hendrix and uh… Pink Floyd and so on. But then we really started getting into Ti-Jean Carignan, who had played for the queen. When you heard him play live… You heard him there in person and you couldn’t help but be blown away!

We had a ball all week. There were uh, I think at least five concerts, five evenings; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Friday was the finale. It was incredible. So that was the environment with all the excitement about rediscovering our heritage and bringing it back.

*During a state visit for Expo 1967, General Charles de Gaulle, then president of France, gave a memorable speech in Montréal during which he proclaimed: “Vive le Québec libre!” (“Long live free Québec!”) Those words went down in history and had a significant impact on the nationalist movement in the province.