Rosette Boucher (nee Larammee) was born on a cold December 12, 1815 to Jaques Adam Laramee, North West Company employee and War of 1812 veteran, and Rosette Cloutier, a “half-breed woman” from Mackinaw Island in the Upper Great Lakes.
Rosette’s upbringing was grounded in her Métis community’s traditional way of life, including participating in the annual spring sugar camps common among Métis families throughout the Upper Great Lakes.
In 1828, however, at just thirteen years of age, Rosette made the treacherous voyage to Penetanguishene with her family and other members of her Métis community, after being displaced from Drummond Island following the British ceding the island to the Americans after the War of 1812.
“We came in a large bateau with two other families and a span of horses. Our family consisted of father, mother, four children—Julien, Zoa, James, and myself. James was only two years old. I was about thirteen. “
Later in her life, Rosette recounted this memory and many others of her Métis community in an interview with journalist A.C. Osborne, including those of other women, like Angelique Lepine (nee Cadotte), as well as the knowledgeable wife of the stubborn and ill-fated Pierre Rondeau:
“Pierre Rondeau, while planting potatoes, found a root of la carotte à moureau, and his wife took it away from him. While she was getting dinner he ate some and died.”
Rosette would eventually marry fellow Drummond Islander, Jean Baptiste Boucher, and have several children. Like those of her descendants, Rosette's vibrant memories continue to live on in the Georgian Bay Métis Community.
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