By Juliana L'Heureux
 

  Although women are the oral storytellers in almost every culture, they
seldom receive adequate credit for passing along their contributions.
Perhaps women would achieve more credence if they wrote their stories rather
than retelling them.  Thanks to our technology era, women will now have
their rightful place in the cultural sun.
All women now have the opportunity to write personal stories or memoirs for
distribution on the World Wide Web in a special Franco-American publication.
"The Initiative" is an electronic publication of the Franco-American Women's
Institute. In fact, it is a collection of stories and essays written by
women about the culture are collected and subsequently distributed to
everyone who logs on to the web page.  One goal of the web page is to tell
the world how Franco-American women are voices in the culture.
  "The Initiative lays out an enormous variety of history, ideas, thoughts,
facts and even some recipes," says Rhea Cote-Robbins, a Franco-American
writer and Director of the Franco-American Women's Institute in Orono, Me.
 Another goal of "The Initiative" is to value little publicized areas of
women's lives, particularly through the written word and publication on the
web.
  In fact, dozens of writings are posted on the twice-yearly electronic
publication, but more are always welcome.  "I am always seeking submissions"
says Cote-Robbins.
  Poetry, short stories, essays and journal writings are all part of The
Initiative.
 For example, in an article featuring twelve "Women of Aroostook," readers
can subscribe to a special calendar created especially to honor the life
work of these select women.  In another article, Biddeford writer Doris
Provencher-Faucher writes about "Emigration", an excerpt from her historical
novel "Le Quebecois: The Virgin Forest."
  Gerilyn Bosse publishes a travel diary in The Initiative titled,  "A
Franco-American Woman Down Under", a chronicle of her visit to New Zealand.

  Actually, just reading the titles posted in The Initiative's table of
contents is as entertaining as the writing.  Each entry begs to be
electronically opened because every story is guaranteed to provide some
nostalgic feeling for the culture.  In the meantime, each article provides
surprising insight into the diverse and artistic talents of Franco-American
women.  This is a refreshing literary surprise because Franco-American women
are known for their quiet presence. Boasting is perceived as acting "better
than others". The Franco-American culture generally subdues extraordinary
pride in almost everything, especially if it brings personal praise.
In The Initiative, Franco-American women are invited to write about their
lives in a personal and artistic manner. Women finally have a safe place to
converse openly about their feelings and special experiences. Thankfully,
their interesting tales are laced with modest amounts of self-esteem; a
liberating break from stiffly poised cultural stereotypes.
 In addition to publishing Franco-American women writings, The Initiative
also posts a site for multicultural writing.  The entire web page project is
a recommended site in Netscape reviews.
 Publishing criteria in The Initiative are pretty open because of the freedom
of the web in publishing.  Contact Cote-Robbins at her electronic address,
which is rjean.cote@gmail.com.