The Contributions Of Yukon Francophone Women: With Angélique Bernard
2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Les Essentielles. For this occasion, short biographies of Yukon francophone women will be presented throughout the year in the pages of our paper. Thank you to l’Association franco-yukonnaise, l’émission Rencontres, and l’Aurore boréale for their collaboration in this project.
Céline Roy
Céline Roy was born in Sainte-Thérèse de Blainville, in Quebec.
She did her primary, secondary and college studies in Rimouski. She then obtained a bachelor’s degree in education at the Université de Rimouski and did superior studies at Université Laval and the University of British Columbia.
Céline arrived in the Yukon on August 15, 1991, after driving from Vancouver to the capital. She just obtained a teaching position at Whitehorse Elementary School. Once she arrived in Whitehorse, she made friends rapidly. They all had a great time discovering the Yukon together.
The following year, Céline met her partner, Christian Tessier, at the Frostbite Music Festival. It was love at first sight. After the birth of their second daughter, they decided to return to Quebec to be closer to their families.
Céline continued her teaching career in Quebec where she held the positions of teacher, academic counsellor and school principal. After more than 34 loyal years in the field of education, she decided to take a well-deserved retirement.
In 2018, the couple moved back to the Yukon. Céline worked for five years as vice principal and principal. She retired a second time in 2023.
She got involved in the Yukon francophone community by sitting on the board of directors of the Yukon francophone historical society and taking part in activities offered by the Association franco-yukonnaise for young retirees.
Life in the North suits her to a T and she feels privileged to be able to say that the Yukon is her home.
Maryne Dumaine
Maryne Dumaine was born in Paris, France, in 1980. As a child, she liked to draw and put on shows for her family. She told her parents that she would one day live far away …
When she was around 20, she went to live in Australia for one year. She came to Canada in January 2004. She travelled across the country and arrived in the Yukon in the summer of that year. She immediately went to the Moosehide Gathering in Dawson, and this event opened her eyes to a different way of seeing life.
Since 2004, Maryne has worked for almost all the Yukon francophone organizations, as an employee, contract worker or volunteer. She decided to stay in the Yukon due to job opportunities and to her growth as a woman.
Maryne connected with Les Essentielles through a painting workshop. Thereafter, she had children, and the francophone Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program was very important for her. She appreciated the community support during her pregnancies. She then had a few contracts with Les Essentielles and occupied various positions, including acting executive director. She was president of the group from 2019 to 2025.
Since 2018, Maryne has been the director of the Aurore boréale, the Yukon francophone newspaper. Since 2024, she has been the president of Réseau.Presse, the national network of francophone newspapers outside of Quebec.
An artistic soul, Maryne practices dance, photography, literary arts and drawing.
Through the francophone community, Maryne has found a lot of opportunities.
Nathalie Parenteau
Nathalie Parenteau was born in Montreal in a family with deep roots in the Bois-Francs region of Quebec.
In 1983, Nathalie arrived in Whitehorse to volunteer with a youth group and immediately fell in love with the region. She worked for three months at the Yukon Conservation Society and, during weekends, she learned tricks on life in the North.
She lived for a few years in a luxurious, reinforced prospector tent at the foot of Nares Mountain. During the summers, she worked at the Carcross Visitor Information Centre and met some legendary Yukon characters.
Still in her twenties, Nathalie decided to go to university and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Western University. With her diploma in hand, she came back to the territory and decided to reconnect with her artistic side.
She took part in several exhibitions and participated in murals. For the last 25 years, Nathalie has lived entirely from her art, and her work has been showcased in several galleries in the Yukon, Canada and Alaska. Her beautiful painting Spirit Bear was part of the art collection at the office of the Commissioner of Yukon from 2018 to 2023.
Nathalie and Peter, her long-time partner, live in Whitehorse and both share a great passion for dogs, reading and wild spaces. They frequently visit their families in Quebec and California.
Nathalie is honoured to say that she saw the creation of Les Essentielles, the Yukon Francophone Women’s group, and designed their first logo.
Suzanne Bertrand
Suzanne Bertrand was born in 1947 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She started curling when she was 12. She moved to the Yukon in 1967 to begin her teaching career. For over 35 years, Suzanne worked in several elementary schools in Whitehorse.
She started volunteering with the Whitehorse Curling Club in 1981. Her career as a curling coach started in 1987 and she accompanied several teams to the Canadian Junior Curling Championships, Canada Winter Games, Arctic Winter Games and Brier.
In 1988, she won Sport Yukon’s Coach of the Year Award and the Excellence in Education Award in 1990.
In 1999, she was recognized nationally with the 3M Coach of the Year Award. In 2004, she received the Volunteer of the Year Award from the City of Whitehorse; and in 2005, the Canadian Curling Association recognized Suzanne with a Volunteer of the Year Award for all of Canada.
In 1985, Suzanne challenged the Yukon Change of Name Act, which denied married women the right to change their surnames. She won her case and was able to retain her maiden name of Bertrand.
Suzanne Bertrand died on Feb. 15, 2010, in Whitehorse, at the age of 62.
In 2011, she was posthumously inducted into the Yukon Sports Hall of Fame in the coach/builder category.
Since 2010, the Whitehorse Curling Club has awarded the Suzanne Bertrand Volunteer of the Year Award.
Through her positive attitude and optimism, she has left an indelible mark on the fields of curling and education in the Yukon.
