To brooklynhabfan

Nil d · Guru

To brooklynhabfan

barry33 · Guru

Nilsey- you will be happy to know that I am teh only Anglophone in an Acadian company here (Blanchard). I have been welcomed with open arms and am taking french lessons and am coming along fine. I truly love the Acadian people. To be honest I think that in many ways, the New Brunswick Gov't has done more to harm English/French relations by pushing bilingualism on us (although that is a debate for another time when you and I are having a few Keiths).

I will say one thing. The French know how to do it right. I barely recovered from the last company Xmas party and the next one is coming up. Vive L'Acadie!

Nil d · Guru

barry33 wrote:

Nilsey- you will be happy to know that I am teh only Anglophone in an Acadian company here (Blanchard). I have been welcomed with open arms and am taking french lessons and am coming along fine. I truly love the Acadian people. To be honest I think that in many ways, the New Brunswick Gov't has done more to harm English/French relations by pushing bilingualism on us (although that is a debate for another time when you and I are having a few Keiths). I will say one thing. The French know how to do it right. I barely recovered from the last company Xmas party and the next one is coming up. Vive L'Acadie!

Hey, we're a nice bunch!

But I disagree about the NB government. I think the promotion (a much better word than "pushing") of bilingualism has created a ton of job opportunities for NB-based companies that are world-class (the former NB Tel, for example). I grew up in an Acadian village, speaking French, and surrounded by anglo villages and towns. I have no racial tension stories to report. Not one. I think the regions where Acadian are living side-by-side with English-speaking populations (NS/NB primarily) are a model for the rest of the country. Northern Ontario might be the same; I don't know that area well. (NOHF? Hockeyman?) But let's leave that whole debate until those few Keiths.

Zulrath · Senior Member

Nil d wrote:

My Acadian avatar post seems to have gathered more interest than I foresaw. I'm particularly impressed that you, brooklynhabfan, even knows who the Acadians are.

Actually in our Acadian Documentary (two shameless plugs in less than a week, I'm doing good) we ran into a man visiting Pubnico during the Congres Mondial from New York because he wanted to learn more about the Acadians, so there is knowledge about them and their American cousins, the Cajuns in the states.

brooklynhabfan · Guru

Hey

yes, I'm only brooklyn by residence, but born in Montreal General. Here since 1979 (mmmmmmm... aaahhhhhh... I think I brought that cup with me, but I don't tell them that at msg)

The Acadian thing got me interested on a car trip through NB, Nove Scotia and PEI about 10 years ago. It was cool to see such a show of pride with all the flags and such we saw outside so many houses.

So while not Acadian, I've been here long enoughto be Amerdian (Canerican?)

barry33 · Guru

Nils-surpsisingly the issues i have had have been calling on customers up the Acadian Coast. I have had two clients there tell my boss that they will "not buy anything from an English guy". Thank God they are the minority. Vive L'Acadie

davidb · Guru

Nild, This is not to be taken as an insult to you or anyone else on the board. I always heard that the Acadians were people who were born in Canada and moved to louisiana many years ago. Is that true??? I notice when I watch TV there is Acadian music which I love to hear. This music is always being played in New Orleans. Am I way off base??? Also I hear Theo refered to as a Phrancophone (spelling) what does that Mean??? And again this is not meant to insult anyone just asking. For me I am Portuguese, Irish, Polish and Scotch. The Scottish is from my Grandmothers side. She was from Cape Breton Island (Grand River) The McCloud Clan. I guess everyone up there knows someone named McCloud. My uncle showed me a piece of the Family Tarton. D Braga

-- Edited by davidb at 15:07, 2005-11-03

plouf · Guru

That's Cajuns ....Cajuns were originally Acadians, deported to Louisiana after the French-English colonial wars.

Lots of Cajuns regularly come up to the Moncton-Shediac area (and to other parts of the maritimes) for a kind of mega-Acadian reunion...

That's why certain names are big in both Louisiana and NB/PEI/NS, such as Gallant, Blanchard, Arsenault, Doiron, etc...

Nil d · Guru

davidb wrote:

Nild, This is not to be taken as an insult to you or anyone else on the board. I always heard that the Acadians were people who were born in Canada and moved to louisiana many years ago. Is that true??? I notice when I watch TV there is Acadian music which I love to hear. This music is always being played in New Orleans. Am I way off base??? Also I hear Theo refered to as a Phrancophone (spelling) what does that Mean??? And again this is not meant to insult anyone just asking. For me I am Portuguese, Irish, Polish and Scotch. The Scottish is from my Grandmothers side. She was from Cape Breton Island (Grand River) The McCloud Clan. I guess everyone up there knows someone named McCloud. My uncle showed me a piece of the Family Tarton. D Braga -- Edited by davidb at 15:07, 2005-11-03

A francophone is merely someone who speaks French (me, for example).

The story of the Acadians is well told all over the web. In a nutshell: The Acadians refused to sign an oath of allegiance to the British Crown, so the British colonial governor in what is now Nova Scotia had them rounded up and deported. (Longfellow's poem "Evangeline" tells this story well.) Their lands and homes were burned, cattle taken, crops destroyed, their families split up. Many died of scurvy and malnutrition on board the deportation ships. Many returned to "Acadia" (roughly the present-day Atlantic Provinces) when the treaty was signed some 10 years later, but had to settle in new regions because English settlers ("Planters") had occupied their lands - many Acadian villages and towns in NB and PEI were created this way. The exception is my home village of Pubnico, NS - my ancestors have been there from 1651 to the present day, with a break from 1758 to 1786 or so. They were expelled later than the rest, stayed in Massachusetts and then returned to their original lands when the treaty was signed.

As for the Cajuns, they are descendants of former Acadians (you can see how the name came about, right?), and specifically a group of a few hundred who were expelled to the eastern seaboard, were not welcomed there, eventually sailed to France where the also suffered (remember they spoke French, but were born and raised in the "New World", so they were not French citizens), and eventually heard of an opportunity to go back to North America in a place where they could practice their religion (Catholic), language (French) and livelihood (farming) in peace. That promised land was Louisiana. They have been there to this day.

End of history lesson!

davidb · Guru

I feel at age 47 I should have known more about the subject. Thankyou very much

Zulrath · Senior Member

I think also with the deportation, they changed their names to try to fit in. (Bourque became Burke, LeBlanc became White, etc.) I don't know if these names were around before this tho.