My mother-in-law is Acadian -- more precisely, she is Cajun, a descendant of the Acadians who ended up in Louisiana after the British in the late 1650's expelled the French-speaking inhabitants of what are now the Maritime Provinces of Canada. For my own education and for the edification of our sons as to that strand of their ancestry, I have for years looked for a decent book on Le Grand Dérangement (or the Great Upheaval). The first two that I bought were less than satisfactory. Though NOTES FROM EXILE: ON BEING ACADIAN by Clive Doucet is not ideal, it is worthwhile and I will recommend it to my family.
The book was prompted by the Acadian Retrouvailles (homecoming) of August 1994, in which a quarter million Acadians from the worldwide diaspora returned to Acadie (with the center of the event being Moncton, New Brunswick). The United Nations called the reunion "the" cultural event of the twentieth century, and UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was among the dignitaries who attended. There were historical and political talks, presentations of Acadian culture, and scores of family reunions. Author Doucet went, and the event prompted him to ask, "Where is Acadie? Who is Acadian? Am I Acadian?"
In the book Doucet reports on the Retrouvailles and ponders questions of Acadian identity. Curiously enough, he himself is only half Acadian. When in England with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II, his father met and married an English woman. Doucet grew up in St. John's, Newfoundland (beyond the modern "Acadie"), but he spent his summers as a boy with his paternal grandparents in Grand Étang, Cape Breton Island. He acknowledges his split or divided heritage, but that doesn't stop him from speaking for Acadians in pondering issues of Acadian identity.
In general I am not receptive to identity politics. In my view we all are human and mortal, and society should strive to maximize the possibilities of rewarding and meaningful lives for all of its members, without regard to whether they be female, gay, or Acadian. Fixating on issues of "group identity", it seems to me, complicates matters unnecessarily. So I was not very interested in, or sympathetic with, that aspect of NOTES FROM EXILE.
Beyond that, Doucet is a tad sentimental, a tad precious, and at times (especially in Chapter 10) more than a tad preachy. He also has a knack for stating the obvious (example: "Times change. Cultures and people change."). Nonetheless, the book is, as I said, worthwhile. I learned a fair amount about the Acadians, at least enough to satisfy my curiosity for the foreseeable future.
Among the most notable things about the Acadian settlement in the New World was its friendly, respectful relationship with the indigenous Mi'kmaq. "They were one of the very few New World peoples never to fight with their aboriginal neighbours or to form a military alliance with them against others. There was a sense among the Acadians from the start that they had arrived not to conquer anyone, but simply to make a new life in the New World." As such, the Acadians merit special recognition and acclaim.
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