L'écho d'un peuple : Franco-Ontarian myths of national identity.

Throughout this study I examine the ways in which Franco-Ontarian historical narratives rely on racial, gender, national and territorial hierarchies that interpellate Franco-Ontarian subjects into stories of origins. I do so by analyzing two important sites where these dominant historical narratives are expressed. The first is what I have termed Franco-Ontarian historiography and includes the amalgam of contemporary historical representations that carve out a specifically Franco-Ontarian place in the nation. The other is my main research site: L'Echo d'un Peuple, an outdoor cultural production that takes place in rural Eastern Ontario. Through an analysis of these two sites, I demonstrate how myths that celebrate the enterprising French Canadian male settler produce and maintain the above-mentioned hierarchies. In the end, I argue that what these narratives do is help Franco-Ontarians imagine and narrate our place in the nation as white settlers innocent of conquest.