Feeling homesick.I am french canadian, Acadian, Let me share a little of my roots

Sister Maryam
CANADA

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History
History of the Acadians
Acadia is home to the first permanent French settlement in North America,which was established at Port-Royal in 1604. In 1603 Henry IV, the King of France, granted Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, the right to colonize lands in North America between 40° and 60° north latitude. Arriving in 1604, the French settlers built a fort at the mouth of the St. Croix River, which separates present-day New Brunswick and Maine, on a small island named Île-Ste-Croix. The following spring, the settlers sailed across the bay to Port-Royal (Annapolis Royal) in present day Nova Scotia.

During the 17th century, about sixty French families were established in Acadia. They developed friendly relations with the aboriginalMi'kmaq, learning their hunting and fishing techniques. The Acadians lived mainly in the coastal regions, farming land reclaimed from the sea through diking. Living on the frontier between French and British territories, the Acadians found themselves on the front lines in each conflict between the powers. Acadia was passed repeatedly from one side to the other, and the Acadians learned to survive through an attitude of studied neutrality, refusing to take up arms for either side, and thus came to be referred to as the "French neutrals."


Acadia (1754)In the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, France ceded the portion of Acadia that is now Nova Scotia (minus Cape Breton Island) to the British for the last time. In 1754, the British government, no longer accepting the neutrality previously granted to the Acadians, demanded that they take an absolute oath of allegiance to the British monarch, which would require taking up arms. The Acadians did not want to take up arms against family members who were in French territory, and believed that the oath would compromise their Roman Catholic faith, and refused. Colonel Charles Lawrence ordered the mass deportation of the Acadians. Historian John Mack Faragher has used the contemporary term, "ethnic cleansing," to describe the British actions.


Deportation of the AcadiansIn what is known as the Great Expulsion (le Grand Dérangement), more than 14,000 Acadians (three quarters of the Acadian population in Nova Scotia) were expelled, their homes burned and their lands confiscated. Families were split up, and the Acadians were dispersed throughout the British lands in North America; some were returned to France. Gradually, some managed to make their way to Louisiana, creating the Cajun population, while others returned to British North America, settling in coastal villages and in northern New Brunswick. Others returned and settled in the region of Fort Sainte-Anne, now Fredericton, and were displaced again by the arrival of the Loyalists. Mail carriers who helped Halifax and Quebec stay in contact became knowledgeable of the St. John River area (Michaud, 2008). In 1785 the mail carriers organized a group of 24 families and led them to the Upper Saint John River valley, above Grand Falls which the British ships could not pass.

In 2003, at the request of Acadian representatives, a proclamation was issued by the Government of Canada acknowledging the deportation and establishing July 28 as a day of commemoration each year, beginning in 2005. The name given in English on at least some calendars as "Great Upheaval."


[Geography

Present-day Acadian communitiesThe Acadians today predominantly inhabit the northern and eastern shores of New Brunswick, from Miscou Island(French: Île Miscou) Île Lamèque including Caraquet in the center, all the way to Neguac in the southern part and Grande-Anse in the eastern part. Other groups of Acadians can be found in the Magdalen Islands and throughout other parts of Quebec, in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia such as Chéticamp, Isle Madame, and Clare. Still others can be found in the southern and western regions of New Brunswick, Western Newfoundland and in New England. Many of these latter communities have faced varying degrees of assimilation. For many families in predominantly Anglophone communities, French language attrition has occurred, particularly in younger generations. The Acadians who settled in Louisiana after 1764, known as Cajuns, have had a dominant cultural influence in many parishes, particularly in the southwestern area of the state known as Acadiana.


[]Culture
Today Acadians are a vibrant minority, particularly in New Brunswick and Louisiana (Cajuns). Since 1994, Le Congrès Mondial Acadien has united Acadians of the Maritimes, New England, and Louisiana.

Notable Acadians in the Maritimes include singers Weldon Boudreau, Delores Boudreau, Angèle Arsenault and Edith Butler, singer Jean-François Breau, writer Antonine Maillet; singer/songwriter Julie Doiron; boxer Yvon Durelle; pitcher Rheal Cormier; former Governor General Roméo LeBlanc; former premier of Prince Edward Island Aubin-Edmond Arsenault, the first Acadian premier of any province and the first Acadian appointed to a provincial supreme court; Aubin-Edmond Arsenault's father, Joseph-Octave Arsenault, the first Acadian appointed to the Canadian Senate; and former New Brunswick premier Louis Robichaud, who was responsible for modernizing education and the government of New Brunswick in the mid-20th century.

August 15, the feast of the Assumption, was adopted as the national feast day of the Acadians at the First Acadian National Convention, held in Memramcook, New Brunswick in 1881. The national anthem of the Acadians is "Ave, maris stella". On that day, the Acadians celebrate by having the tintamarre which consists mainly of a big parade where people can dress up with the colours of Acadia and make a lot of noise.





]Language
Acadians speak a dialect of French called Acadian French. Many of those in the Moncton, NB area speak Chiac and English. The Louisiana Cajun descendants mostly speak English but some still speak Cajun French.]

Tributes to The Expulsion
In 1847, an epic poem by American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, was loosely based on the events surrounding the 1755 deportation. The poem became an American classic, and also contributed to a rebirth of Acadian identity in both Maritime Canada and in Louisiana.