Barbeau's Story

Images from the Folk Festival of Québec, 1928.

An Advocate of the Arts (2)

In 1925, that was several years after the beginning, I decided to study the folk art of French Canada. I had noticed in a few churches at Île d'Orléans that there were very fine wood carvings and statues and other things never spoken of in our Canadian literature. These were ignored by Canadian people. So I went on studying the folk art of French Canada: sculpture and weaving textiles and so forth. I may say that there are a number of museums in Canada that I have equipped, like the museum at Chambly, and the house commemorating Sir Wilfrid Laurier at St-Lin.

Louis Jobin, Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, 1926.

Boy with a weather vane, Île d'Orléans, 1925.

The Royal Ontario Museum had me at various stages of my career get totem poles and medicine men's equipment. And such other things I collected for the University of British Columbia too, totem poles and equipment. I say that I had a happy career here because I succeeded in what I thought I should do, and I had the best judgement in the case because I was a specialist in those subjects. I see with great pleasure and satisfaction now the fact that folklore, linguistics and folk art are accepted in the museum, at the core of its very existence and activities and program. Certainly it's development of my work. I was a pioneer.

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