Sweet story...

[TheRocketSurgeon]

---

No! I'm delighted that you know about us at all. Most people just sweep us in with the other Canadian French, and we're nothing like them. In fact, we were often disinclined to get along with them at all, especially early on, because we had fled the fighting around La Rochelle on the west coast of France, and disdained all things of the nobility and the old empire. It's why we stayed so isolated until the 18th century (1710) thrust itself upon us, as the French and British both took interest in the region because the Brits built Halifax (and its harbor) as a fairly major naval base in the region.

---

....and that's basically what I was guilty of, just now...lumping the Acadiens in together with Québécois for the sake of making a point.  So I apologize....because it's really not okay.

Yes, I know the story and I can tell you, even though you might laugh at me, that it brought real tears to my eyes when I read the story for the first time.  It's a sad story.  I know the Acadiens were trying to escape the religious strife in France, and traveling across the ocean back then was a miserable endeavor, most of the time; many didn't survive the trip for one of many reasons.

To then find the absolutely stunning coastal landscapes of (what is now) the State of Maine, and the province of Nova Scotia, must have seemed indeed wonderful, if extremely challenging to them....but with lots of fertile soil, rich hunting and fishing grounds, they did very well there, and, as you observed, got on well with the Mi'kmaq;

but to then be forced by the British to either assimilate or have their property confiscated, (or be killed or imprisoned), and be shipped either back to the UK, France, or to the Bayou of Louisiana, hot, and infested with mosquitoes, cottonmouth snakes, gators...challenging, to say the least...but not only did they survive, but they became one of the most distinctive populations in American history.

I watched a recent documentary about the Acadiens still living in Maine, and they were later persecuted by the KKK, as if they hadn't been through enough already (and as if they weren't there long before the KKK, or even America, as a Nation, existed, anyway)

Apparently many Acadien Americans living in Maine, today, even if they know the story of Le Grand Dérangement, do not really identify so much as Acadiens, as they do "Americans", obviously...whereas I believe the cultural identity of the "Cajuns" of Louisiana is significantly more entrenched, by comparison.

I know that the Acadiens living on the North Shore of Nova Scotia have quite a strong sense of their identity,
and I believe there is even a periodic memorial or pilgrimage observed to mark Le Grand Dérangement;
but while a common history is shared and understood, I believe they really have a different identity, today, than the Cajuns of Louisiana, or even the Acadiens living in Maine.  It's curious.

And today, many Acadiens from Nova Scotia have blended into Québec and New Brunswick, as well, although of course they know their distinctive heritage.

My mother, who has her PhD in Cajun theatrical storytelling and history from LSU, just went to the Nova Scotian gathering of Acadiens, a few months back. (I'd have to ask her when she went; I don't recall.) She goes every few years as an invitee because she does a character called The Cajun Lady, and tells The Cajun Night Before Christmas in full accent and regalia, as well as a great many anecdotes and stories and jokes. She's quite popular. Of course, she speaks on more serious, scholarly stuff, too.

You might enjoy watching this:




Edit to Add: Ugh, that guy's accent isn't very good. He sounds like one of the city-folk over in Baton Rouge. Below is a link to another (non-standard) version of a Cajun Night Before Christmas, re-written and unfamiliar to me, but told in a more realistic Louisiana accent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Dd-_Xke1k