Francophone band Onzie Parade paid a visit to Fernie on Feb. 7 for art workshops with local students.
Onzie Parade, a bilingual English and French duo from Nelson, held music, song-writing and performance workshops with French students from École Sophie-Morigeau and Fernie Secondary School. École Isabella Dicken later joined the group for a concert in Fernie Secondary School's gym.
The event was organized by Association Francophone des Rocheuses du Sud with funding from Heritage Canada. The Association is a regional group dedicated to making Francophone culture more accessible to residents in the southern Rockies and it hosts cultural events a few times per year for students and the wider community.
Association president Heather Kerr said many Francophone people grow up only hearing French spoken in the home, so immersion at school helps bridge the gap between cultural exposure in the private and public sphere.
"It helps them have a context that French does exist in B.C and it does exist in the Kootenays," she said. "To hear a language you only hear at home being spoken for at school, being spoken outside of that context, can give you insight into how you might live out the French parts of your life going forward and what place French is going to have in your life."
The group is a driving force behind community meet-ups in Fernie and the region. Recent efforts have focused on expanding into Invermere with a series of potlucks.
They're inviting Winnipeg-based Francophone soul band Jérémie & The Delicious Hounds to Griz Days this year. March is Francophone month, so the concert celebrates both events.
Kerr said Francophone culture is deeply rooted in the East Kootenay, with Fernie, Golden and Invermere ranked among the top B.C communities for highest percentage of Francophone population.
"Historically, Francophone people would come here for skiing and industry jobs like mining and forestry, but I would say that Southern Rockies have seen a big increase from Francophone Europe and Francophone Africa ending up in our area," she said.
Kerr is of mixed French and Scottish ancestry and grew up in a French-speaking area of northern Ontario. She said many people are unaware that Francophones have such a large cultural presence in the region, and events are one way to increase exposure.
"So many Francophone and French speakers in Fernie have multiple identities," she said. "They don't speak English with a particular accent or they may have even not been born in an area that's particularly known to be Francophone."
"I think there's a lot of people who have some connection to French in their lives around here who just slip under the radar until they open up and start a very fluent conversation in that language," she added.
