Acadians out to tell 'story of Grand Pre to the rest of the world'

[Grumpy Cat]

Acadians out to tell 'story of Grand Pre to the rest of the world'

Governments contribute to UNESCO world heritage site effort

By GORDON DELANEY Valley Bureau

GRAND PRE — A bid proposal to have Grand Pre designated a UNESCO world heritage site received a major financial boost Monday.

Three levels of government will contribute a total of $1.3 million to a project that would see the area, a site that symbolizes the Acadian Expulsion in 1755, receive recognition as a worldwide historic and cultural treasure.

The bid process, being prepared by a nomination advisory board, began two years ago. The deadline for the proposal is 2010.

"Nova Scotians know that Grand Pre and surrounding area is a place of very special significance," Premier Rodney MacDonald told about 100 people gathered at Grand Pre National Historic Site on Monday.

"It’s easy to understand why local residents and Acadians from one end of the province to the other are so proud," he said in announcing the province will contribute $280,000 to the bid process.

"Grand Pre is an outstanding example of a distinctive community-based approach to farming in the 17th and 18th centuries in North America," he said. "It is an inspiration for Acadians, artists, writers and poets."

He added that the Acadian story has become a symbol of hope and perseverance.

"It’s time, I think, that we told the story of Grand Pre to the rest of the world."

He said the designation would add to the province’s international competitiveness as a tourism and cultural destination, along with creating new economic opportunities.

Senator Gerald Comeau announced the federal government will contribute $211,348 toward the bid through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. Parks Canada will contribute $500,000, while the Municipality of Kings will kick in $23,000.

Also contributing are the Kings Community Economic Development Agency with $117,000 and Societe Promotion Grand-Pre with $54,000.

The bid is expected to cost about $1.3 million.

Acadian Affairs Minister Chris d’Entremont said Acadians across the province are working on the project.

"We have something very special in Grand Pre," area councillor John Fuller said. "The history is unique."

About 10,000 Acadians were dispersed throughout the world in the Expulsion.

Canada now has 15 official world heritage sites, including Lunenburg and the Joggins Fossil Cliffs in Nova Scotia.

Source

[Psychonaut]

Woo Hoo!

I really hope this works out. Perhaps we will end up with a descent museum of Acadian Heritage there!

[Gooding]

That would be awesome.I'd certainly start saving so I could go visit it one summer

[Solwyn]

Aaaaah, hearing this stuff just makes me miss Nova Scotia that much more

[Thorum]

All I know is I love Acadian music!!

[Osweo]

It's amusing sometimes to read somebody going on about something for not too short a period of time, and yet for the listener still to remain oblivious as to what the main subject in question actually IS!

Id est, what's the Grand Pre?!?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Pre

Even there, I'm not too enlightened! Is it just a load of villages and farmland?

I see the French were expelled from it, and New Englanders brought in, so I can see the emotional significance for the descendants of the former.

Here's a little something for fellow ignorants:
http://www.grand-pre.com/GrandPreSit...t/en/Site.html



EDIT;
Ah, finally; 45 06 Nord, 64 18 Ouest! Central part of Nova Scotia, on the bay that cuts in from the southwest.
How big an area does it cover? Local toponymy seems heavily Anglicised on Google Earth.

[Solwyn]

Its not "just" a load of villages and farmland....no place is, really - not to the people who cherish it. For the Nova Scotians who identify as Acadian it is a place symbolic of their ancestral past. Grand Pre was the last place that many Acadians ever saw - although there were other areas along the coast that have much local significance to folk, Grand Pre is the one that gets the most press.

It was in these places that they were "processed", hence the emotional attachment by their descendants. And by processed I mean stripped of everything that was theirs while their land was burned, sometimes separated from spouses, children, and siblings, packed up on ships and sent away. The names of these areas are mostly in English because they've either been directly translated from the French or renamed by the Loyalists that replaced the Acadians. One site that attracts many descendants of these people is Point d'Eglise (Church Point). There is also a statue of Evangeline at Grand Pre and although she never truly existed outside of Longfellow's poem, many people come from all over the world to lay flowers at her feet.

My paternal grandfather was Acadian, he came from Cormier Village in New Brunswick - my last name He lived in Cape Breton for 50 years and 30 years after his death he is still known as "Tom that Frenchman from New Brunswick", LOL. Although I can identify statistically as Acadian, I was raised in a predominantly Gaelic environment by the rowdy maternal half of my family, who made sure I knew my Vinland Sagas, Highland Clearances, and Battle of Culloden inside and out.

Although my grandfather spoke Acadian French to me as a child, he died when I was 7. I learned Parisian French in public school which confused the hell out of me because Acadian French uses words and structures that have not existed in mainstream French for ages. I took Acadian French in university but I consider myself to be more anglophone than francophone.

I lived in the Annapolis Valley for several years. It is a beautiful place to visit if you ever get the opportunity, particularly if you have ancestry there.

Id est, what's the Grand Pre?!?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Pre

Even there, I'm not too enlightened! Is it just a load of villages and farmland?

I see the French were expelled from it, and New Englanders brought in, so I can see the emotional significance for the descendants of the former.