Acadians in books; a tale of my culture

Good morning!

To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to share with y’all today..  And then I wanted to come back to an idea that popped into my head while listening to a re-make of a song based on one of our most-known acadian stories.

What if I talked about two (2) books in particular that has been thought for generations, historical-fictions of my culture ? Though i’ll be honest and tell you I haven’t read them – as we all know historical aren’t my thing – but I however has been thought the “legend” in primary school for the first one, and went to the “attraction-island” of the second story.

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What’s an Acadian?

In short, my culture is basically from the time France went ahead and colonized my province in Canada. Being so far of their mother country, they decided they shall do their own thing; as they were “too far” to get under their orders.

Between the wars between England and France, Our region has been thrown around and given left to right to the winner of said wars — finally ending up in England’s hands at the very end. In 1755, The english deported us from our lands* to Louisiana and other areas following the atlantic coast. Many were killed in the deportation, while some escaped to live with the amerindians, or even came back to their lands centuries after said deportation. Due to the fact that us Acadians were transported all around the globe, we aren’t tied to one specific area, thus we remain scattered and not only in Canada.

I am a descendant of thoses who escaped with the amerindians, if we take in consideration that my Grand-mother got tested, and she supposedly possess a 2nd Generation’ amerindians in her DNA; making my mom a 3rd generation and myself a 4th Generation.

* Talking here of my province the New-Brunswick, aswell as Nova Scotia and the Prince Edward’s Island specifically.
(All french speakers, as they remained France’s colonizers although now ruled by England – being deported as they saw acadians as “not good” for following their Majesty)

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Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This is an Historical-fiction Poem that we learned about in school, and a song based from this book gave me the idea of this whole post. [French song w/ English lyrics on screen]

Set in the acadian deportation specifically; it’s about the love story between Evangéline & Gabriel, whom get separated by the deportation shortly after getting engaged. Devastated, Evangeline travels the American continent until Philadelphia where she settles as a nurse. She finally find her Gabriel, dying in her arms.

 

La sagouine, Antonine Maillet

Now on a more humoristic note; this one is a fictional playscript, a monologue of an old lady. Based off a real person, La Sagouine tells us about her life as an acadian and her opinions on many different things.

She even has her own island since 1992, where actors are dressed like the old days and tell tourist stories of her universe.

 

I’m sure there’s probably way more out there, well I hope, but thoses two are the ones I grown up with the most ! As most of what is written in my province is in the line of historical-fiction, I shamely don’t really keep myself updated of what’s been out since i’ve graduated school. I also don’t think it’s such a big thing in this city i’ve moved to, opposed to what I recall growing up in my other town up-north.

 

Will you read one of thoses stories?
What are books based on your cultures, if there’s any?