For nearly 30 years, ôkhra-écomusée de l'ocre has been working with the municipality of Roussillon to safeguard the ochre heritage. The rehabilitation of the Mathieu ochre factory, the washes, the oven and the collection of machines, mills and furniture throughout the department ensures a transmission of knowledge to future generations.
A "living heritage" means the reappropriation by the inhabitants of the territory of their ochre heritage. This central objective of the ecomuseum will be initiated by the presentation of photos and archives collected since 1994 by ôkhra: photo of the ocher workers of the Joseph Mathieu factory before 1893, the Mathieu Thomassin factory (1893-1901), the Mathieu family (early 20th to date and identify), the Mathieu factory in 1942 and postcards of Roussillon for a century. This exhibition in the corridor of the Yellow building is a call to the inhabitants of Roussillonnais and the territory to draw from their own archives and memories of the «moments of life» to share as part of a campaign to digitize these documents. The attendance booklets of the workers of the Mathieu-Thomassin factory (1894-1901) will also be an invitation to reconstruct family trees.