Summer Series – Introduction to Acadian History

“A view of the burning and plundering of Grimross” by Thomas Davies, National Gallery of Canada (Digital image from Wikimedia Commons)

Welcome to our summer series on Acadian history! We are very excited to be presenting this special six- week series, cross-posting on Unwritten Histories, Borealia, and  Acadiensis, and in collaboration with the Fredericton Regional Museum, the York Sunbury Historical Society, an Open Academy grant from the Royal Society, the UNB Departments of History and French, the New Brunswick College of Craft & Design, the Institut d’Études Acadiennes, and Historica Canada.

The blog series is the result of an exhibit, which will be opening this summer at the Fredericton Region Museum (FRM), and which myself and Dr. Chantal Richard of the UNB French Department have been coordinating – Dr. Richard as Curator, and myself as Research Director, along with many more wonderful folks. The exhibit originated in numerous conversations between Chantal and myself about how lacking Fredericton was in terms of public education and knowledge of its Acadian history. Everything you see around here is Loyalist history . Beyond a few street names, and the name of the French school here in Fredericton, there is very little acknowledgment of the complex history of Saint-Anne, the Acadian village that existed in this location until its destruction in 1759. In an effort to get some traction behind the notion of revamping the history of Acadians in Fredericton, we organized a lecture series. The series has been far-reaching, and has included so many excellent speakers, including Dr. Andrea Bear-Nicolas, Fidèle Thériault, Dr Greg Kennedy, and many more.

In honour of this series, we have invited several of the presenters to share their presentations here in blog-post form. Here’s what you can look forward to seeing over the series:

• A blog post by me with a 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.
• The following week, we will post Anne Marie Lane Jonah’s talk on “Reconciling Chignecto: The many stories of Siknikt.”
• She will be followed by Dr. Christopher Hodson, who will be discussing his research on the Acadians deported into far-flung regions of the world.
• Next, Dr. Elizabeth Mancke will be discussing the legal ramifications of the deportation of the Acadians from Nova Scotia.
• In week five, we will be releasing three resource guides for teaching and researching Acadian history in three parts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
• And we will conclude on August 13^th with an interview with Maurice about the development of their brand-new Historica Canada Heritage Minute on the Acadian deportation.

We hope that you will enjoy this series as much as we will! And don’t forget to stay tuned for my blog post, coming later today!

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