Louise Abbott finished a contract for COTA (Cree Outfitting and Tourism Association) in June of 2015, producing two interpretive panels about the history of Cape Hope Island, or Nunaaluk, in southeastern James Bay. The panels were installed on the island.

One of the panels features a reproduction of a detailed watercolour by Townships artist Dominique Gagnon that shows the location of homes and dog teams as well as other aspects of life on the island during the Inuit occupation from the 1920s to 1960. Mini Aodla Freeman, the only surviving Inuk to have been born and raised on Nunaaluk, provided a sketch for Dominique and conferred with her on several occasions as Dominique's painting evolved. Dominique wanted to include Inuktitut names, and Mini kindly provided those for her.  

 .

 The second panel features historical photos of Nunaaluk, including family patriarch George Weetaltuk, and a bilingual text by Louise Abbott outlining the history of the Inuit occupation of the island. Mini Aodla Freeman acted as a consultant on this panel, too.

As part of the Journées Culturelles (Culture Days), the Austin Cultural Committee invited Louise Abbott to act as  guide for a tour on September 27 of the historic round barn  on her family's former farm on Austin Bay, Lake Memphremagog. As luck would have it, Don Fisher, whose family owned the property prior to the Abbott family's occupancy, was on hand. Louise asked if he would serve as co-guide. He agreed, offering rich personal reminscences of dairy farming, chicken farming, and gladioli raising. Below is a photo of the round barn that Niels Jensen produced, along with a couple of pictures of the proceedings that Blanche Paquette, the community development agent for Austin, kindly provided.

Rural Route Communications partner Niels Jensen has always enjoyed photographing flora, day or night. Here's a purple iris that he commemorated in our garden yesterday evening. 

Each year since 1994, Scotia Waterous, formerly Waterous & Co., has produced a book of photography focusing

Every year since 1994, Waterous & Co., now Scotia Waterous, has produced a book of photography focusing on the work of a single photographer. Louise Abbott's portfolio on French-speaking Newfoundlanders was showcased in the third volume, published in 1996. 

In sponsoring the photographic book series, Scotia Waterous has provided important support to the careers of serious photographers from around the world. The books, exquisitely printed and elegantly designed, are now collectors’ items and a photographic legacy. They are works of art in themselves and reside in prestigious collections around the world.

 The year 2013 marked Scotia Waterous’ twentieth consecutive year of commitment to the photographic arts. This year’s book, Legacy: Twenty Years of Global Black-and-White Photography, features a collection of photographs from the past nineteen books—two images from each photographer. 

Craig Richards, the curator of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, also mounted an exhibition, "The Photographers of Scotia Waterous," which  includes each of the photographer’s two photographs as well as two recent works.  The vernissage was held on February 1, 2014, and the show will run until March 30, 2014.

Craig Richards shows gallery goers a copy of  Legacy at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff during the vernissage of  "The Photographers of Scotia Waterous." Photo by Niels Jensen.

Louise Abbott's recent images in the exhibition are drawn from her portfolio on the Cree of northern Quebec, or Eeyou Istchee, as they call their territory. 

Louise speaking about her work at the vernissage of  "The Photographers of Scotia Waterous" exhibition at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff. Photo by Niels Jensen.