Acadian resilience in Canada’s smallest province
Although contrary to its rural-based humour on the subject, never let it be said that Prince Edward Islanders can’t keep a secret.
There’s at least one that’s been hidden away for generations: the first European colonizers were French, long before the Island was ceded to Great Britain in 1763 by way of the Treaty of Paris. Explorer Jacques Cartier had visited as early as 1534, staking France’s claim, even though the Island had a Native population for centuries earlier.
The task of bringing settlers to colonize P.E.I. went to an entrepreneur from Normandy, the Comte de Saint-Pierre, who founded the Compagnie de l’Île Saint-Jean. In the spring of 1720, the company sent some 200 French settlers and fishermen to the Island. They built fortifications at Port-la-Joye, near present-day Charlottetown, which served as a French satellite of Île Royale (Cape Breton) and its fortress of Louisbourg.
Although Charlottetown was the administrative capital of the colony, most colonists were brought to the north shore of the Island where they named the settlement of Havre Saint-Pierre (now St. Peter’s Bay) in honour of the company’s founder. Havre Saint-Pierre was the breadbasket for Louisbourg, growing and shipping cultivated wheat, oats, peas, and linseed.
Beyond Havre Saint-Pierre, a 1752 map of what was then called Île Saint-Jean illustrates 51 more French place names from one tip of the Island to the other, and virtually every nook and cranny in between. Twenty-seven of these still bear the French monikers.
The words “every nook and cranny” hold great meaning for Island teacher Eileen Pendergast, active in the establishment of a French school in western P.E.I., in addition to writing and directing several plays about local Acadian traditions and history. She identifies as a woman “woven with Acadian threads … wholly Acadian with fierce determination and honourable pride in who I am because of who came before me.”
On the point of secrecy, Pendergast says that her ancestors “hid, by and large, in the most remote nooks and crannies in a desperate need to survive, places off the beaten path or not considered favourable in other ways. The same can be said of the Cajuns recessing in the bayous,” she explains, places like swamps that were not attractive to higher-class folks at that time. “Acadians also hid, so to speak, by changing their names to English versions in order to be able to secure jobs and to fit in. Now when a person’s identity has found a prominent place in the development of the total person, Acadians are able to take a stand and come out of hiding. Thus, over the recent years, pockets of Acadians are recognized where there seemed to be none.”
Seventh-generation Prince Edward Island folklorist, historian, author, and lecturer Georges Arsenault is widely considered the authority on Island Acadian history. While attending the Université de Moncton, he learned of the importance of preserving the oral traditions of his people, researching and recording traditional singers and storytellers. He discovered in his mother’s home community of St. Edward, for example, a wealth of French traditional songs and stories that were on the verge of being forgotten after radio and television entered Acadian households.
“It is certainly through the influence of my mother that I became interested in researching the history and traditions of the Acadian people,” he says. “She was not a historian, had little education, but she enjoyed telling us stories of growing up in the West Prince area where the important Acadian community lived closely
and generally peacefully with a good number of Irish families … A visitor to Prince Edward Island would never guess that a quarter of the Island’s population is of Acadian or French ancestry.”
He attributes that to marriages into the dominant population of British origin, the decline of the French language, and the anglicization of family names. Most people don’t know that familiar Island surnames such as Perry, Deagle, Myers, Burke, Peters, and Wedge were once Poirier, Daigle, Maillet, Bourque, Pitre, and Aucoin.
Alcide Bernard is a past president of the Acadian Tourism Association of PEI. He describes the Island’s Acadian presence as “a story of resilience marked by strong commitment towards the preservation of a culture that has been continuously drawn into the melting pot” of Island society.
“The tourism theme ‘Ile Acadie’ is an acknowledgement of the overall presence of Acadians that have long standing roots in this province and have contributed greatly in shaping the socio-economic fabric of this province,” he says. “It is this amazing sense of pride in the roots of a people that visitors will discover when visiting Ile Acadie.”
Through the centuries
Immerse yourself in Acadian culture by visiting communities and attractions where Acadie comes to life through stories and interpretation, education, live music, culinary experiences, and theatre. Begin with the Acadian Tourism Association website and plan a visit to locations such as Skmaqn–Port-la-Joye–Fort Amherst National Historic Site, the Village musical acadien in Abram-Village, the Farmers’ Bank Museum and 1772 Doucet House in Rustico, Le Carrefour de l’Isle-Saint-Jean in Charlottetown, the Roma at Three Rivers National Historic Site near Montague, and the Acadian Museum in Miscouche.
Archaeological excavations at Greenwich in the PEI National Park have uncovered evidence of human activity spanning 10,000 years, including artifacts from later settler cultures, exhibitions of which are featured in the Greenwich Interpretation Centre.