New hashtag #AmFr Promotes French North America

I have been approached by an informal group of writers, bloggers, and artists who are promoting a new hashtag: #AmFr – Amérique Française or French North America.

The intention behind this new hashtag is to have a means of cataloging, finding and linking writings of interest to Amérique Française across all current international, state or provincial borders.

This approach is consistent with my interest in raising awareness, both within our cultures and outside of them, of what I have called les Enfants de la Nouvelle-France (the children of New France). I coined this term to include all of the descendants of the French 17th and 18th century colonial possessions in North America wherever they now live and whatever language they now speak.

In this context, I use the term Nouvelle-France in the broad sense in which it embraces all of the former French Colonial settlements in North America including l'Acadie, le Canada (including the St. Lawrence Valley and le Pays d'en haut), and la Louisiane (both Basse- and Haute-Louisiane) and all of their diasporas and extensions.

By this definition, the term les enfants de la Nouvelle-France may include (but is not limited to) those who self-identify as:

• Québécois(e) 
• Acadien(ne)
• Créoles throughout the former French la Louisiane 
• Cadien(ne)s/Cajuns 
• The Acadian diaspora in Canada outside of the Eastern Provinces 
• French-Canadians in today's Canada and the USA which includes Franco-Ontarians, Franco-Manitobans, Fransaskois, etc. and also those who continue to describe themselves as French-Canadians in the U.S. Midwest and West 
• Franco-Americans in New England and New York with origins in both Québec and Acadie 
• Francophone and Franco-gene Métis 

I am quick to point out that the intent of the #AmFr hashtag is not to minimize the uniqueness of any of these cultures but to promote a greater understanding and communication between different groups that share a common historical root.

The promoters of the #AmFr hashtag intend it as a means of creating an alternative Franco media. This media will not operate from the top down but from the bottom up. There will be no editorial board setting policy, but the impetus will come from the writers and bloggers themselves.

If you are a blogger or participate in social media, we would like to encourage you to use the hashtag #AmFr to flag content that fits the description above.