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Notes From Exile: On Being Acadian
What it means to be a people without a nation is one of the more haunting problems of our times. In the twentieth century, this has been an immense issue for Jews, for the Romanies, and for African-Americans; it has been a question for Acadians for more than 350 years.
In 1755, in retribution for their refusal to bear arms, all Acadians were deported from their homeland around the Bay of Fundy in what is today Canada’s Maritime region. Ever since, they have worked hard to keep a sense of their identity as Acadians, no matter whether they lived in New Brunswick or Louisiana, Nova Scotia or Texas.
Clive Doucet has wrestled with the question of Acadian identity since his childhood, when he spent some unforgettable summers with his paternal grandparents in an Acadian village in Nova Scotia and others with his maternal grandparents in London, England. In 1994, he joined with a quarter of a million other Acadians in their first ever reunion as a people, in New Brunswick, Canada. It inspired him to write Notes from Exile , which is in part a charming story of his childhood holidays, a heartwarming account of “les Retrouvailles,” and an eye-opening history of the Acadians, woven into a whole by a thoughtful, challenging consideration of what it means to be Acadian in a world without Acadie.
In 1755, in retribution for their refusal to bear arms, all Acadians were deported from their homeland around the Bay of Fundy in what is today Canada’s Maritime region. Ever since, they have worked hard to keep a sense of their identity as Acadians, no matter whether they lived in New Brunswick or Louisiana, Nova Scotia or Texas.
Clive Doucet has wrestled with the question of Acadian identity since his childhood, when he spent some unforgettable summers with his paternal grandparents in an Acadian village in Nova Scotia and others with his maternal grandparents in London, England. In 1994, he joined with a quarter of a million other Acadians in their first ever reunion as a people, in New Brunswick, Canada. It inspired him to write Notes from Exile , which is in part a charming story of his childhood holidays, a heartwarming account of “les Retrouvailles,” and an eye-opening history of the Acadians, woven into a whole by a thoughtful, challenging consideration of what it means to be Acadian in a world without Acadie.
- GenresCanada
224 pages, Paperback
First published August 7, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 23, 2020
What an astounding book!
I picked it up because I didn't really know much beyond Evangeline about the Acadian experience.
It reminded me of An Inconvenient Indian in the way it looks at history and the repercussions on people and nations. If the Acadians hadn't been exiled, if Louise Riel hadn't been reviled and executed, what a different kind of country Canada could have been.
"In August 1755 ... the British navy and a force of two thousand New England militia began the deportation of the Acadian people from what is now Atlantic Canada." This is the year burned into memory for everyone of Acadian descent.
What amazed me was learning who Acadians actually were. They were descendants of of the first Europeans to settle in North America, the first to have a New World name. They created a rich, rewarding society tied to the land. They farmed, they befriended local natives and perhaps most importantly they refused to bear arms.
I learned so much here. Clive Doucet brilliantly explores his mixed heritage ... for his father was Acadian, while his mother was British. They met during World War II. He lovingly describes both sides of his family and their values which influenced his own.
He also looks at how changing times affect values and leads us to the spectacular 1994 reunion of a quarter of a million Acadian people from all over the world. It happened in New Brunswick and I wish I could have been there.
I picked it up because I didn't really know much beyond Evangeline about the Acadian experience.
It reminded me of An Inconvenient Indian in the way it looks at history and the repercussions on people and nations. If the Acadians hadn't been exiled, if Louise Riel hadn't been reviled and executed, what a different kind of country Canada could have been.
"In August 1755 ... the British navy and a force of two thousand New England militia began the deportation of the Acadian people from what is now Atlantic Canada." This is the year burned into memory for everyone of Acadian descent.
What amazed me was learning who Acadians actually were. They were descendants of of the first Europeans to settle in North America, the first to have a New World name. They created a rich, rewarding society tied to the land. They farmed, they befriended local natives and perhaps most importantly they refused to bear arms.
I learned so much here. Clive Doucet brilliantly explores his mixed heritage ... for his father was Acadian, while his mother was British. They met during World War II. He lovingly describes both sides of his family and their values which influenced his own.
He also looks at how changing times affect values and leads us to the spectacular 1994 reunion of a quarter of a million Acadian people from all over the world. It happened in New Brunswick and I wish I could have been there.
June 26, 2019
Good insight on Acadian history
July 30, 2024
A book that gave me the warm n fuzzies in regards to identity, a feeling of being rooted and how it's often not a place, but the feeling of a community.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews