“Map of the River St. John in the Province of Nova Scotia, exhibiting the grant to officers &c. in 1765, with other patents.” Charles Morris (1765) Library of Congress
Content Warning: The history of Pointe Sainte-Anne’s displacement is violent, and mentions specific instances of violence and murder; in particular, child death & torture. Proceed with caution.
Editor’s note: This blog post has been cross-posted on Acadiensis and Borealia, along with the rest of the series; be sure to check them out!
As I mentioned in the last blog post, today we will be starting with general overview with the history of Pointe Sainte-Anne, the events of 1759, and what we are attempting to achieve with the exhibit at the FRM.
But first, we need to emphasize that the history of Pointe Sainte-Anne obviously does not begin with the French at all, but with the Wəlastəkwiyik. Sainte-Anne (and thereby Fredericton) is located on Wəlastəkwiyik territory, which was never ceded. The first thing we aim to do with our exhibit is disabuse ourselves of the notion that the Acadians always peacefully co-existed with the local indigenous people. They did not. Although Acadians mostly managed to avoid outright war with the indigenous communities nearest to them, that doesn’t mean they didn’t outright displace them, and it certainly doesn’t mean that the local indigenous communities benefited from their presence.[1]
Michelle Desveaux is a PhD candidate in history at the University of Saskatchewan studying historical consciousness. She has previously published ““Twenty-First Century Indigenous Historiography: Twenty-Two Books That Need to be Read,” co-authored with Patrick Chassé, Glenn Iceton, Anne Janhunen, and Omeasoo Wāhpāsiw, in the Canadian Journal of History.