Ancrage et exil (Belonging and Exile)

I am the link between exile and belonging.

At Université de Sudbury, a new generation of Francophones is searching for the words to describe what they have left behind, what they carry with them, and what they are building now.

Brought together through the Collectif Ancrage et Exil, members of the first cohort welcomed since the university’s relaunch transformed their experiences into literary works. Guided by Isabelle Bourgeault-Tassé and a creative team, they explored love, courage, and identity through poetry, personal narrative, reflection, and performance.

Their voices come together in a 52-page digital collection shaped by writing, artistic direction, design, and photography. Together, they paint a portrait of a Northern Ontario Francophonie in motion, enriched by multiple languages, territories, and life journeys.

The Ancrage et Exil Collection

The collection brings together texts by 24 identified contributors, one anonymous contribution, a prelude, a prologue, and an epilogue. Its visual design supports the work’s three major themes, love, courage, and identity, while preserving the form and personality of each text.

Finding Words Between Exile and Belonging

In the fall of 2025, the first writing workshops invited participants to begin with their languages, memories, roots, and individual ways of experiencing life in Sudbury. Under the artistic and educational guidance of Isabelle Bourgeault-Tassé, personal experiences gradually became poems, stories, and texts intended to be shared.

It was during one of these gatherings that the phrase, “Je suis le trait d’union entre l’exil et l’ancrage,” emerged anonymously. It provided the group with a shared image through which to speak about what had been left behind, what had been passed on, and the connections that were gradually being formed.

Words gathered during a writing workshop, where the phrase “I am the hyphen between exile and belonging” emerged and became the project’s guiding thread.

Some texts evoke distance, family, or memories of other places. Others speak of the courage to start over, find one’s voice, or find one’s place among multiple languages, cultures, and versions of oneself. Each voice emerges from a unique experience, yet they all meet within this space between exile and belonging.

From Individual Voices to a Collective Work

A literary and artistic training day held in March 2026 provided an opportunity to explore new forms of creation. The spring workshops then gave the collective time to revisit the texts, refine their rhythm, and reveal the connections between love, courage, and identity.

The artistic work extended beyond the writing itself. Isabelle Bourgeault-Tassé, Connor Lafortune, and Alex Tétreault provided artistic direction, while Jasmine Morin developed the design and visual identity and Isak Vaillancourt created the photography. Together, these contributions brought the texts together within a shared editorial universe.

The colours, imagery, and typographic compositions give the collection its rhythm without homogenizing the voices. The book thus becomes a collective work in its own right, built through the meeting of texts, artistic perspectives, and visual choices.

This creation carries special significance at Université de Sudbury, where the Franco-Ontarian flag was raised for the first time in 1975. The new cohort, in turn, inscribes its voices in this place of memory, notably through a photo session centred on the flag and a public reading at the Salon du livre du Grand Sudbury.