Who are the Acadians?

There are a few incidents in our history where large numbers of people faced public humiliation, were forced from their homes, and treated with more contempt than the common rat. The Acadians are one such group. They came from the Loire Valley in France to “pastoral paradise” or Arcadia in the land that was to be named Nova Scotia (Latin for New Scotland). Theirs was a largely agrarian society with strong ties to the Catholic Church and did I mention they were French? The King of England demanded signed allegiance from them when Nova Scotia came under British rule at the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht. Long story short, the Acadians stalled, England felt its suspicions justified, the Acadians acquiesced too late, the English forced 14,000 aboard ships and launched them into who knew where. Many ships sunk, entire families perished and the rest landed on foreign shores among unwelcoming strangers.

Some settled in the US south and are ancestors to present day Cajuns. Some landed in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic or France. Others found homes in the coastal Maritimes or hid out until the wind of political climate changed, which it eventually did. When the Acadians were invited to resettle on Canadian soil, they came home to find someone had been sleeping in their bed. Most of the farming land that they had previously owned no longer belonged to them so they opted for a livelihood of fishing and settled along the shores of Cape Breton Island, the French Shore of Newfoundland, the east coast of New Brunswick and various parts of Nova Scotia. Today about 18% of the Maritime population is Acadian although few speak French.

Of those who remain, a proud Acadian heritage is evident. It seems they identify themselves by displaying a large brass star on the front face or side of their homes and by flying an Acadian flag.

I have wished to meet an Acadian, to express my regrets, and to say what it means to me that their forefathers and mothers returned, stuck it out and continue to have a place in the mosaic of our Canadian landscape. I wish to convey my convictions around the celebration of cultural diversity and the tremendous opportunity we Canadians have to live differently without fracturing community. I wish I could say all that to my fellow Canadian Acadian and have it really mean something.

“To be of a peaceable spirit brings peace along with it.” Thomas Watson