CALEB NICKERSON
PONTIAC March 3, 2021
A virtual exhibit honouring four notable women of the Pontiac will be unveiled next week to mark International Women’s Day.
Put on by Fairbairn House Heritage Centre in Wakefield, the exhibit will recognize the achievements of . . .
Abbie Pritchard, Adelaide Devine, Rosaleen Dickson and Elsie Gibbons.
“We are very excited to be celebrating these incredible women,” said Fairbairn House Coordinator Helen MacKinnon in a press release. “Women’s accomplishments have historically gone unnoticed, and this is a great opportunity to bring them front and centre, where they belong.”
The exhibit will be available for the general public on the group’s website, fairbairn.ca, but there will also be a virtual presentation through the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network’s Heritage talks online series on March 11 from 7 to 8 p.m. Pre-registration is recommended and can be done here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvduqurDMiG9XgYdajufWVxhzxEhzgPzpv.
A physical display of these four women will be integrated in a larger Notable Women of the Outaouais exhibition, which is expected to tour the Pontiac region this coming fall and winter.
Tina Therrian, who will be conducting the online presentation on the 11th, said that she spent quite some time researching the four women.
“I met with folks at the Pontiac Archives, and the historical society in Shawville to look at the nominations, together we made the … the final four selection,” she said.
“I think the whole project probably went on for more than a year. Of course once the pandemic, hit that sort of slowed things down a little bit,” she added. “It might have moved quicker had we not had restrictions in travel … It was tricky getting into the archives at that time. That really was one of the key areas where we were able to get a lot of information on all the candidates.”
Names were submitted by the public, and there was a lot of deliberation over who would make the final cut from the 20 nominees.
Gibbons was the first female mayor in Quebec, taking elected office in Portage du Fort in 1953. She would also serve as the province’s first warden, a title she held from 1959 to 1961. In addition to her political trailblazing, she was also a sharp businesswoman, running a local store and restaurant.
Devine was a mother of 11 children and was a prominent local midwife and seamstress.
Pritchard was a driving force behind the women’s institute in the region and taught many local women about things like food safety and hygiene.
Dickson was the long-serving editor and co-owner of THE EQUITY newspaper and also served on Shawville council. She was a key driver behind projects in the Pontiac, like community radio station CHIP-FM and also the greater Ottawa Valley, like the creation of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
