(upbeat music) (projector clicking) - Have you ever wondered where the television signal you're watching is coming from?

♪ I love to go a wanderin' (projector clicking) ♪ along the mountain track - Welcome to True North.

(upbeat music) (mysterious music) - Good evening and welcome to Mainewatch (upbeat music) (projector clicking) Welcome to From The Vault, a celebration of 60 years of Maine Public Television.

On this episode, we celebrate Maine's French Acadian Heritage with two programs.

In the second half of the show.

We go to 1984 for "The Story of the Acadians".

We will examine their history and what it means to be an Acadian.

But first we will go to 1973 for an episode of the French Acadian series "A Time To Live".

Here, we spend time at Van Buren Days, a festival to celebrate Acadian History and culture.

In the show, you will hear about plans for an Acadian Museum.

Well, those plans were realized in the Acadian Village Living History Museum which opened in 1976 and is available to tours between June and September.

So let's go back to 1973 for a time to live.

(children singing in French) - [Dawn] This is the St. John River Valley, where today live many descendants of the French families who settled here almost 200 years ago.

It was in the summer of 1785 that the first small band of Acadians came to the Valley.

30 years had passed since the deportation of the French by the British from Nova Scotia, and for those who finally made their way up the river into a new wilderness, it was an end to wandering.

Laurent Thomas Albert describes their first sight of the promised land.

"After making the portage around the Great Falls, the small party came to a halt on a promontory which dominated the lower Valley of the St. John, and from which they could see the river sweeping in gentle curves through a broad valley, bordered on either side by mountains.

It was the threshold to the new land, the land of peace they had dreamed of.

They rested."

In Van Buren today, the new Acadians remember, and a celebration of their living heritage becomes "A Time to Live."

Bonjour!

Ed Mayo ici.

bienvenue à un temps de vivre.

Nous sommes ici en Van Buren pour la célébration de la Acadiens français.

- Hello, I'm Dawn Halsted, and welcome to "A Time to Live."

We're here in Van Buren, where they will be celebrating the Heritage Weekend of the French Acadians.

Ed and I have been studying the program for the weekend.

It is, incidentally, the very first such celebration of the heritage and traditions of the Acadians of the St. John Valley, and they have a very full program, wouldn't you say, Ed?

- Indeed they do, Dawn.

I'm looking forward to the French cuisine, which we'll have a little later on.

- (chuckles) Yes.

These foods sound so much more interesting in French, don't you think?

- It's a good thing they wrote them in English, so we know what they are, too.

- Yes.

But then there will be a lovely display of the crafts of the area, and the rapidly developing craft program.

We will have French music, French dancing, French singing.

Personally, I'm very excited about it.

Ed, I think it is interesting to know that this, as I said earlier, is the first.

There will be others.

- This is the first.

And I think probably, as an observance of the significance of French culture, with respect to the Maine heritage, that there's a contribution that French people have made to the culture of the state of Maine.

This is a significant event.

- Yes.

And then, of course, eventually they hope to establish a living museum here, where the traditions will be kept sound and whole for oncoming generations.

Un futur musée d'héritage vivant.

And everything begins with a ribbon cutting.

- We're talking with Mathilde Derosier of Van Buren.

Mrs. Derosier's exhibit is rather unique in that it shows the furnishings and the older furniture and equipment in the homes on the St. John River Valley.

Mrs. Derosier, could we start here with the quilting frame, which is obviously homemade?

How old is it?

- Yes, it is definitely over a hundred years old.

Probably not 150, but in between somewhere.

- But you could use it, of course, today, quite easily.

- Oh, yes!

My mother used it all the time in quilting her blankets.

- And this is another example of your mother's handiwork?

- Yes, my mother used a hook and wool to, she'd go through with the hook and hook the wool and bring it out.

- [Dawn] Did they all create their own patterns?

- [Mathilde] There were some in later years who bought ready-made patterns, but my mother never did.

- [Dawn] I see.

- [Mathilde] She saw a picture somewhere that she liked, and she reproduced it, enlarged it, and then would put it on there.

- I see.

Well, handiwork was very important.

I mean, so much was created.

- Oh, she enjoyed it, yes.

- So you had your quilts made.

You had your clothing made, actually.

- Oh, yes.

- And what do we have over there on the... - We have carding of... - The carding of wool.

- Of wool, which was done in the home.

- [Dawn] I see.

- See, before this, it had to be washed, and clean, and then it was carded, then spun.

- I suppose every home, too, had its own sewing machine.

- Oh, yes.

Well, yes.

I think there were quite a few who did not have a sewing machine, but mostly, they did.

- They did.

- In my grandmother's time, she didn't have a sewing machine.

She did the sewing by hand.

- There is the equipment there.

What is, these are chests?

- This dates to, yes.

Here is the chest that belonged to my grandfather.

It was in use to build the church in Grand Falls.

- [Dawn] I see.

- [Mathilde] That must have been around 1874, because my father was born in Grand Falls.

- Well, this will be very interesting and will attract a great deal of attention, Mrs. Derosier, I'm sure.

- Yes, yes.

- [Dawn] The art of transforming homegrown flax and wool into finished cloth survives in the Valley.

Ed learned how it was done when he talked with Mesdames Marthe Jeanette and Euphemie Ouellete.

- And what are we going to do after we get the flax all squared away?

- We have to spin it on the spinning wheel.

- I see.

- And then it has to be put on a ball until it's all dry.

- Okay, and then Mrs. Ouellete here is doing some spinning for us.

- She's spinning.

- Euphemie, spin away!

Let's see the thing work.

Now, that's a very old spinning wheel she has there, is it not?

The wheel that Mrs. Ouellet has is quite old.

- Over a hundred years.

It belonged to her grandmother.

- I see.

Works just as well now as ever it did, doesn't it?

- [Marthe] Yes, and she has been using it at the fairs, and also at different parties that we had.

- [Ed] And at one time, about all the clothing that was worn had to be originated on a spinning wheel.

- On the spinning wheel.

- I see.

- [Marthe] Because it had to be taken from the sheep, carded, washed, put into a roll, and then on the spinning wheel.

- [Ed] And some of it was from flax, as well as from wool?

- The flax was, yes, flax was cotton.

The first spinning wheel, really, was made for flax after they started using wool.

They used it before for mats and different things, not woven.

- She spins it out pretty fast there, doesn't she?

- Yes.

- See how it goes?

- The new procedure.

See, years ago it had to be carded.

Now, probably the last 35 years, they have been using a machine.

Take the machine to make what we call the curls.

- Right.

Right.

- And in order to spin very fast, you have to have those that are all together because these were broken in small curls, you had to wait.

- Right.

- That's why the yarn was not even.

- It would have a bob to it here?

- A little, yes.

- Now, after you get the flax or the wool all spun, and you wind it on the reels, which we have seen, then you have a machine.

- Yes, and the wool- - Show us, see this.

- [Marthe] Is used in colors, or like I'm using, it's a white wool, and the gray and white together.

I change needle to go through the different kinds, see, and as you go through, you have to use the little comb, they call it, to press your wool together.

- [Ed] Right.

That tightens the weave.

- That tightens the weave.

Years ago, our loom at home was with pedals, and all you had to do was to press on the pedals, like pianos, and the little comb would- - [Ed] Oh, that would alternate the threads.

- Alternate the, yes.

- [Ed] So that you could pass the shuttle through.

- The shuttle.

- And then the comb itself.

By pressing on one of the pedals, the comb would push it.

So you hardly had to use your hands, except to pass the needle in between.

- [Ed] Yeah, so it was much bigger than this, I could assume.

- Yes, yes, it was.

And then- - [Ed] Now, this is the size that you can make on a small one- - [Marthe] On a smaller one.

A little wider, too.

- Yes, I'm going to make four, four of these for a small skirt.

We have made the different kinds with colored yarn, like this, for scarves.

So you could have four or five at the same time.

- I see.

And then you put them all together and you have a garment in the true French tradition.

- In the true, yes, French way.

And the pictures that we have, see, all the men had what they called homespun.

And my grandfather, on one of the pictures here, has a homespun suit of two colors of gray.

- [Ed] Yeah, and he wore the homespun suit.

How do you think that would look on me?

Pretty good, huh?

- I could make you a necktie.

- I think you could.

(chuckles) Yeah, sure.

It'd be great.

This would make a very fine necktie.

I can envision it now.

- Yes.

Yeah.

It would be warm, anyway.

- (laughs) Yeah, it would be.

If you had it wide enough, you could wear it like a tie and a scarf at the same time.

- Yes, and part of a shirt, too.

(Ed chuckles) (slow, lively piano duet) - [Dawn] Gio Meadow came from Canada originally, and brought with him a multifaceted musical talent for the enrichment of daily life in Van Buren.

Some of his young students appear in recital.

(steady, playful piano duet) ("Toreador Song" from Bizet's "Carmen" on piano) (children singing in French) - [Dawn] Language and the arts tell the true story of a people's culture.

The young people of Van Buren are featured in French-language playlets, carol singing, and dance sets.

The songs were old when they were sung in France 300 years ago, and many of them are now a part of our common heritage.

Who is not familiar with "Sur le Pont d'Avignon," "Au Clair de la Lune," and "Alouette"?

The dances, too, have survived from the early years of exploration and settlement.

(children singing in French) (hat seller speaking in French) (hat buyer speaking in French) (hat seller speaking in French) (hat buyer speaking in French) (hat seller speaking in French) (hat buyer speaking in French) (audience applauds) (girl speaking in French) - Bonjour.

- Bonjour.

- Bonjour.

- Bonjour, monsieur.

(waitress speaking in French) (customer speaking in French) (waitress speaking in French) (customer speaking in French) (waitress speaking in French) (customer speaking in French) I don't know what any of this is!

(customer speaking in French) (waitress speaking in French) (customer speaking in French) Caw, caw!

(customer imitates bird) (audience laughs) (waitress speaking in French) (Mr. Dionne singing in French) - [Dawn] Austria has the Trapp family, America has the King family, and here in the Valley, we have the Dionnes, father, mother, and seven children.

There is something warm and appealing in the thought of a family making music together.

It calls up memories of an earlier time, before radio and television and countless other diversions, when entertainment was something we provided for ourselves around the piano in the parlor.

(Dionnes singing ballad in French) (Dionne children sing "Dominique" in French) (audience applauds) We're talking with Wilfred Duman, one of the organizers of Heritage Weekend.

- Mrs. Halsted, it's a pleasure to see you.

- Well, it's good to be here.

- I'd like to point out, Mrs. Halsted, some of the handiwork and the arts and crafts that are at our huge display here.

These are some quilting done by local ladies.

This is a quilt.

The pattern is the Texas Star.

And these have all been hand-quilted.

We have such a variety of items here that it is really interesting just to browse through and see how handy the people of the Valley here really, really are.

- [Dawn] Well, you are emphasizing the traditional, the aspects of your heritage, really.

Has this sort of thing come down, has it been practiced through the years?

- [Wilfred] It has been, but we've noticed, and a few people from the community have noticed, that some of this tradition, some of this heritage that we've been handed down from generation to generation is slowly becoming lost, so as a group of interested citizens got together and thought that we'd sort of highlight this kind of a thing, that the living heritage that we do have now be kept up by dramatizing it as a living Heritage Weekend, such as we've done today.

- [Dawn] Now, this is your first celebration of Heritage Weekend.

- Yes, it is.

- [Dawn] Did you feel that you were in danger of losing some of the most important parts of your cultural heritage?

- Oh, definitely.

The Valley and Van Buren is full with unique kinds of cultural things due to the French background and our isolation from the rest of Maine, and for long periods of time during history.

This culture is very unique to this area, our songs, our dance, our superstitions, our religion, and we were afraid that a lot of this would be lost and that our children's children wouldn't have the benefit of being able to have the joy of this culture.

- [Dawn] Well, there was one point that I noticed.

You speak about the special quality, character, of the people of the St. John River Valley.

But I noticed, also, the sign outside of Van Buren that says "Gateway to the St. John Valley."

Just what does that define, in terms of geography?

- The Valley here was isolated for a long time, and the Acadians settled here purposely for that purpose, because they had been banished by the British from Nova Scotia, and they wanted to settle in a place that would be isolated, that they wouldn't be bothered by the British.

And so they chose the St. John Valley.

And so, coming from U.S. 1 from Caribou, you enter into the Valley, and Van Buren is the first French town in the Valley, and it is the gateway to Canada, and the gateway to St. John Valley, and it's the gateway to Acadian Country, U.S.A. - I wonder how many of our fellow citizens in Maine are aware of this distinguishing quality?

They know, for instance, the Acadians ended, some of them, at least, in Louisiana.

- Yes, they are.

We've lost contact, really, culturally and what have you.

I did, I was fortunate in going over a few years ago and trying to find out some of their old customs, starting to compare with what their folklore, how similar or how different, or some of the things that I could pick up along similar lines.

I, surprisingly enough, found a lot of similarities in their cultural background that we have that they've still maintained, and it was quite rather interesting.

- Now, you are very young, really.

I find that interesting, because I think it's important to sustain, mounting and sustaining, a program of this kind.

Tell me, are the children still bilingual?

- Yes, I would say that we have, probably, this would be a rough estimate, but probably 75% that are pretty well bilingual.

And due to federal programs, we have additional funds now to keep the bilingual aspects so that now, French is better accepted.

It is taught in the schools, and in the junior high, for instance, we have three full-time French teachers, which is remarkable, which wasn't so, let's say, 10 years ago.

- I find that very surprising.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - And I'm sure that you saw today the activities that these children have practiced, the lessons that they've learned in school, were demonstrated in their little folklore dances and songs and so on.

- [Dawn] Now, what do you project for the future?

You may have to (laughs) say this quickly.

- I would like this to become a annual affair.

But emphasizing the living culture, having something very much alive, very much with us, very much so that the French people are proud of being French, and they're proud of their heritage and their background.

- Well, with you and people like you gunning about, I'm sure will be a successful program.

- Why, thank you.

It's been a pleasure talking to you, Mrs. Halsted.

- Our great pleasure.

(choir sings in French accompanied by organ) St. Bruno's Roman Catholic Church, the spiritual focus of the community, stands very close to the center of all activity.

The parish hall was the scene of Heritage Weekend festivities.

And on Sunday, a commemorative Mass was celebrated in the beautiful Romanesque church.

The St. Bruno Choir Society, which we hear now under the direction of Gio Nadeau, may also be heard on stereo recordings.

One, "Noel in the Valley," presents Christmas carols in both French and English.

The other title is "Life Everlasting" and includes a number of familiar hymns.

(choir sings in French accompanied by organ) - We're talking with Eddie Belanger, town manager of Van Buren.

Well, Ed, a lot's happened since 1755, when the Acadians were expelled from Grand-Pre.

- It certainly has.

If you remember, at their deportation, when the British decided to deport the Acadians from Grand-Pre, they had first taken the precaution of locking them in in St. Charles' Church.

And when they were ready to deport the Acadians, they landed the men in one boat, the women and children in separate boats, and then they distributed the Acadians all along the Eastern Seaboard.

- Independently of one another?

- Independently of one another.

- I see.

- And from then on, from Massachusetts Bay down to Virginia.

And from then on, a lot of these Acadians turned into nomads, trying to find their lost relatives.

The Acadians that did settle the St. John Valley mostly had been deported to Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island.

And 10 years after the deportation, they had a meeting in Boston and decided to go back to Grand-Pre.

And they walked all through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and ended up near where Fredericton is now.

- [Ed] I see.

- Well, about half the contingent had had enough.

They just couldn't go any further.

- [Ed] They'd walked the entire distance.

- That's right.

Yeah.

On foot.

With their meager belongings.

So they settled, they found a good, fertile valley, and they settled there, right close to where Fredericton is now.

I think the colony was called Sainte-Anne at the time.

The rest of the Acadians continued on through the neck of the land between what is now New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and they did reach Grand-Pre.

Of course, when they reached there, the British had burnt about half their homes, and the others were occupied by new colonists.

And they continued on to the end of Nova Scotia, St. Mary's Bay, where they are now settled.

Well, our ancestors who did come to settle this part of Maine were settled and farming an area near Fredericton.

After the American Revolution, when the loyalists were no longer welcome in the colony- - I see.

- And of course, they wanted to stay under British rule, so they applied to the governor of Nova Scotia.

Yes, thank you.

They applied to the governor of Nova Scotia, and they gave them the lands that the Acadians had settled.

- I see.

- So they were, once more, displaced.

- I see.

But this brief history that you've given us is indicative of the character of the Acadians, and this is the type of thing that we're emphasizing during Heritage Weekend.

- That's right.

- And a fine thing it is.

Do you think that's an important thing to the area, not only from the standpoint of making people recognize Acadian culture, but it is important to make other people realize its importance to the area.

- Yeah.

Of course, you don't get Acadian history in the American history, or even Maine history, and you don't get it in Canadian history, either, except possibly New Brunswick, with a lot of Acadians there.

- Well, let, let's hope that this will emphasize Acadian history, and maybe this is the first of many, many enjoyable Heritage Weekends to come.

- That's right.

- I hope so.

(children singing in French) (Ed speaking in French) - [Dawn] "People of the Valley, you are great.

You are noble, a growing nobility strengthened by blood and by suffering, by love of God and family.

People of the Valley, cherish your greatness, cherish your honor.

People of the Valley, guard your heritage well.

It is your wealth.

It is your treasure."

Ed, c'était un grand plaisir d'être avec nos amis.

Oui, ils sont très gentils et c'est bien dommage on pon partie - You know, I'd like to invite a lot of people in Maine to make their own trip of discovery to the St. John River Valley.

I'm sure they'd be welcomed with the same hospitality that we enjoyed.

- And I know they'd enjoy it as much as we did.

It's a privilege to have been here.

Et maintenant au revoir de vallee St John des bons vieux temps et nos amis Acadiens.

- [Dawn] And now, goodbye, to the St. John River Valley, to the good old days, and to our Acadian friends.

(bright instrumental "Turn!

Turn!

Turn!"

and birds chirping) (futuristic music) - "This is the forest primeval.

The murmuring pines and the hemlocks bearded with moss and garments green-" - [Narrator] (continuing poem) "indistinct in the twilight.

Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pre lay in the fruitful valley.

Vast meadows stretched to the eastward, giving the village it's name and pasture to flocks without number.

Dikes that the hands of the farmers had raised with labor incessant, shut out the turbulent tides.

But at stated seasons, the floodgates opened and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows."

Longfellow's epic poem "Evangeline" is fiction.

There was never an Evangeline nor a Gabriel, but there were thousands of Gabriels and thousands of Evangelines, Acadians who had to leave their paradise home, their Acadie, and wander the length and breadth of our land forever after, a dispersed people.

"Evangeline" is an epic poem of a people, the people of Acadia, today, Nova Scotia.

How important was the poem in preserving the history of a people?

- Mr. Longfellow's poem has actually helped to keep the history going because here in Canada, for example, the deportation of the Acadians was not a very, or is not a very popular topic.

It's a very controversial issue.

So most Canadians would've just as soon forgotten what happened in 1755.

But Longfellow's poem has helped us remember.

It's actually made us remember.

We've had no choice in the matter.

So without Longfellow's poem, it probably would've been briefly mentioned.

I'm sure it would've been mentioned in Canadian history, but very briefly so.

And then, unless you were studying Canadian history in America, most Americans would probably know little of the Acadians.

They would've known something about the Cajuns, but to tie it with the Acadians, would be rather difficult.

- There are almost a quarter of a million Acadians in New Brunswick.

There are almost a hundred thousand Acadians in Nova Scotia.

There are thousands of Acadians in Maine, in New York, in Connecticut, in Rhode Island, in Kansas, in Illinois.

There are thousands of Acadians, only they're called Cajuns, along the bayous of Louisiana.

But life for all their ancestors started right here in Nova Scotia.

Only they call it Acadie, Acadia.

It started started for them when Sieur de Mons and Champlain first set booted-foot on this rocky shore.

It's a story of great courage, of great pain, of faith.

It's a story of continuity.

This, then, is "The Story of the Acadians" part one, "The Tip of the Iceberg."

(ballroom music) What is Acadia and what is an Acadian?

Are Acadians a sovereign people?

Are Acadians merely a point of view?

Is there a definition?

Is there an Acadian soul, an amorphous inexplainable, a je-ne-sais-quoi something?

- It's being true to one's roots.

That's about the size of it.

- [Terry] I thought perhaps you would start with the fact that the size of the family is also characteristically Acadian.

- [Edith] Well, it is, perhaps.

But then it is not a typical thing any more.

Of the past it was because the more children you had, the richer you were.

Today, it's not the case.

The more children you have, the poorer you are.

- [Terry] What is this called, French Shore?

- Yes, yes, in the District of Clare.

This is the beautiful Saint Mary's Bay that you see before us.

The entire area is made up of Acadian families.

We are of the Catholic faith, which is something that we got from our ancestors, and we always speak French together.

Also, perhaps our culture shows in our food, in our way of life.

- [Terry] And you still haven't mentioned how many make up your family?

- [Edith] Well, I have 15 children of my own and now many grandchildren are being added to the flock.

- [Terry] On the southwest shore of Nova Scotia is a 30-mile strip of neat, cheerfully painted houses, small wharves, churches known as the French Shore.

Here beside the magnificent wooden cathedral, the L'eglise de Sainte-Marie, two flags ripple in the breeze, the flag of Nova Scotia and the tricolor, with a gold five-pointed star in the left hand corner, the flag of Acadie.

The flag pole is located on the campus of the Acadia University of Nova Scotia, University of Sainte-Anne.

Courses are taught in French here, Acadian French, Acadian history, Acadian literature.

There's a small dock behind the university, and there, Father Leger Comeau added his story of the Acadians.

- We've been celebrating the 375th anniversary of the arrival of the first French in North America.

And they settled in Port Royal after having spent one winter in Ste-Croix where half of them died of scurvy and cold and misery.

So after that, they settled about 70 miles from here at Port Royal.

They spent the winter there.

And gradually all the area around Minas Basin, which is excellent farmland, was populated by these French.

And they stayed there 'til the year 1755.

There were approximately 10,000 at that moment all along the Minas Basin.

Then the English, who had taken over all of Nova Scotia in 1713, decided that the Acadians should leave because they refused to promise the oath of allegiance to the English Crown, and also because they possessed the best lands in Nova Scotia.

So they were put on ships and dispersed all over the New England states, Louisiana.

Some of them returned to France.

Gradually, they started drifting back to Nova Scotia, their own homeland.

The first ones to arrive down here, in Pointe-de-l'Eglise, Church Point, arrived in 1768 and gradually they established themselves all along the shores of Nova Scotia, particularly here in southwest Nova Scotia and Cape Breton.

So that today, instead of being farmers, the Acadians are mainly fishermen.

There are four major communities.

There's a community of approximately 8,000 here along St. Mary's Bay, and another community in Argyle, which is separated from this one by an English town, the town of Yarmouth.

Then you have to go way up to Cape Breton, at Cheticamp, where you have a community of approximately 6,000 Acadians.

And they're separated from their brethren in Isle Madame by a wall of mountains, 100 miles long.

So you see, we still live in dispersion.

The 1755 dispersion has not come to an end.

We're still living it today.

(mournful music) - [Terry] Cemeteries yield their stories too.

There's old Acadian cemetery across the road from the university.

What kind of people were they?

- You know, I remember when I was a student here at St. Anne's University, one of our professors, who was a very vibrant Acadian, he very often reminded us of the first women who arrived after the dispersion.

Her name was Madeline LeBlanc.

She arrived here with a group of men.

When the men saw where they were landing, absolutely no farm land.

The woodland came up to the shore.

They fell down on their the knees and started weeping.

And this Madeline LeBlanc, she said that this is not a time to weep.

She started, she took the ax and started cutting down a couple of trees.

So she's the one who really showed great courage and who inspired those men.

Of course, it certainly wasn't easy because they had nothing.

What could they bring?

Walking back through this land here, they could bring very little.

They had very little, and they had to start from scratch.

- [Terry] Of recent years, the Acadian history, the artifacts, have become part of a federal effort to find and preserve the roots and plant them in the fertile soil of libraries and museums and restored villages.

But it isn't easy.

It would really be quite hard for a Canadian Rockefeller to rebuild a Williamsburg here.

- Our history, is a history, Terry, of destruction.

Anglo-French rivalry for supremacy in this territory simply boil down to destruction.

And one culture seemed to destroy the next.

Consequently, when Acadian culture was to develop and grow, it was to be completely obliterated in 1755 with their unfortunate and tragic expulsion.

So the torch was set to their barns, to their haystacks, their buildings and so on.

And it simply eradicated what had evolved over virtually a century and a half.

All gone, just completely wiped out.

It's a sense of great embarrassment to us because hindsight shows us that we might have done, we wouldn't have done it, but it would have been resolved in so many other ways.

But then of course we didn't live at that time.

And I suppose, we're making decisions based on our knowledge of it, rather than necessarily theirs.

- [Terry] I'm wondering whether it was conceived with the brutality with which it was carried out, or whether events have a way of getting away from one and suddenly one is left with the brutality that one hadn't meant.

- I think what happened was that there was a lack of communication.

And if I couldn't understand what you were saying to me, or if you couldn't understand what I was saying to you, then you could be asking for something which I was not providing.

I think that people became separated because they didn't understand that there was separation.

I don't think it was ever intended in this way.

I think in panic and confusion that all of this became something that was never really organized or planned to reach the proportions that it did.

- [Terry] If we may not call it brutal and heinous, then there has to be some justification.

- The British, it has to be kept in mind, were, of course, in a very awkward position in Nova Scotia in 1755.

The situation for the British, in fact, in all of North America, was a very touchy one.

The period of war in the 1740s and then in the early 1750s was not going, really, the way that the British would like it to go.

And there was very real fear among many of the colonists, in New England and further south, that, in fact, the British would not be victorious, but it would be the French.

And of all the British colonies in North America, Nova Scotia was, of course, the most precarious.

You find a colony that had been British for 45 years at this stage, but still had practically no substantial British population.

After all that time, the Acadians still vastly outnumbered the British settlers of this region.

And the Acadians, of course, their loyalty was very much suspect.

And again, with hindsight, we can perhaps look back and then determine that, by and large, most of the Acadians were at least neutral.

They were not pro-French.

But again, at the time, that wouldn't be at all apparent.

So you have growing fear during the 1740s and the early 1750s that the Acadians might rise up, might be induced by the French to support their cause if the colony was invaded.

And Governor Lawrence, faced with the defense of his own colony, looking at French incursion into the colony, at the French might at Louisburg and at Beausejour, and then looking at the majority of the population of Nova Scotia, feeling that he could not take the risk.

And again, I think he was wrong in his assessment but I think it was an honest mistake that perhaps many military men would make at the time.

Lawrence really didn't care about the Acadians one way or the other.

He very much had a military mind.

He was concerned with the military problems of his colony.

He, I think, made the decision that he made on the advice of his council with a clear understanding, from his viewpoint anyway, of the military situation in the colony.

- [Terry] What about the life of these Acadians of Nova Scotia who came back to the land of their ancestors?

Incidentally, many did return.

They were allowed to return in the mid-1760s.

And although their lands were not returned to them, they were permitted to acquire other lands, lands that were not quite so good.

Some in the smaller communities between Yarmouth and the public coast didn't go very far.

They hid in the forest and then returned to their old farms.

And so what about them today?

What is their life?

What is the color texture, the sound of their life?

Is there a dance, a song, a food that says something about them?

Well, when it comes to food, les Acadiens du nord have a lot to learn from their southern cousins.

If you were to take a pirogue down the bayous of Louisiana, you'd be stuffed with jumbalaya, crawfish pie, file gumbo.

Take a canoe along the Bay of Fundy and the tastiest anyone can produce is a dish called rappie pie.

- We mix the salt, the pepper, and the grated potatoes, plus the broth from the chicken, mix all that up.

And then we put a layer of this grated potatoes on the bottom.

- On the bottom?

- On the bottom.

- Uh-huh.

- And then there's a layer of meat.

- Yeah.

- And another layer of grated potatoes on top.

- But that looks like a pie dough up here.

And it's not?

That's not pie dough?

No, no, that's grated potatoes right there.

- And it makes that kind of a crust?

- Yeah, see?

- Yeah.

- Have a taste of it.

- I'd love to.

- That's a crust - [Terry] Crawfish etouffee, it's not.

But it must be admitted, it's different.

It's unique.

What are their songs and dances?

Well, this past summer to celebrate the 375th anniversary of the arrival of the Acadians to Nova Scotia, visitors from all over the world had a chance to hear their songs, enjoy their dances.

- Well, it started, we wanted to do something very special to commemorate the 375th anniversary of the founding of l'Acadie, or Acadia, in this part of the world.

And it was with this very significant anniversary that the Acadians decided to have the biggest birthday party they ever had.

And this is exactly what happened because for a period of four months, there were celebrations, all types of festivities, right across the province of Nova Scotia in every Acadian community.

And it ranged from a number of activities.

Everybody who had an idea, I think, just put it to to good use.

And I think it was the first time, really, that the Acadians did not speak of the expulsion or did not speak of their hardship return, but it was on a very positive note.

And, you know, people just felt like celebrating.

(singing in French) (singing in French) (singing in French) (singing in French) (rousing jig music) - [Terry] And what about their character?

Are there differences between these Acadians of the north and the Acadians below the Mason-Dixon Line?

- What I find about Cajuns from Louisiana is that deep down they have not forgotten their origins.

They're very proud of being called Cajuns also.

They don't hide the fact.

Some of them have retained, a good number of them have retained their language also.

The only difference that seemed rather evident to me, perhaps, is still a greater warmth among them.

I don't know if the southern weather which causes that.

Perhaps a little bit more mild also in character than we are.

- [Terry] Are you a dour and harsh people?

- [Leger] Not really because here again, very often you hear the English people of Nova Scotia say Acadians are nice, and we get along perfectly well with them.

Very often, it makes me wonder, is it because Acadians are dead, and, as Acadians, they're not different from the English population.

They speak their language.

They think as they do when they don't protest.

So, I don't believe that, in general, the Acadians of Nova Scotia, particularly, are very aggressive.

They're perhaps much more aggressive in New Brunswick because they're more organized and they're less fearful because they're not as small a minority as we are.

- I think I agree in principle to what he said, but I think that his attitude is generally the attitude of the older school of thought.

And I think today, the younger people of Clare, and I think the Acadian communities in general, are taking a different attitude.

I think they're looking positively at their culture.

They realize that their culture is a positive thing and that they can be Acadians and still work within the modern-day society.

I think that some of the points which Father Leger pointed out, such as possible passiveness or shyness, I think those are traits which you will still find today, but they are not necessarily bad traits.

I think that you'll find that if you were to go along the St. Margarets Bay, that anybody in the community would welcome you into their home and feed you if you want to.

And that, of course, is a trait that goes back many, many years.

And I think that's a good thing because some of those traits, of course, in other communities, you would not find that.

But, in general, I think that the younger people are using their culture, and they're using it in a positive way.

- [Terry] The story of Le Grand Derangement is not soon forgotten.

Talk to an Acadian, and it soon all pours out, the story of the Grand Derangement.

It all happened 250 years ago, and yet is as real as the last flood.

But there is an attempt to put all of that pain behind them.

- It was a sad event, but we don't think of it today as a sad event because the tenacity that our ancestors showed, the strength and stamina to come back and begin from scratch all over again and rebuild, is a much greater story than the story of the deportation.

So, we really don't dwell on it.

- [Terry] Time has a way of erasing the full impact of acts of infamy.

Extenuating circumstances can soften the full horror, can be understood.

However, Captain John Winslow, working under Colonel Moncton of the British Army, and charged with the handling of troops, wrote from Beausejour and Acadia, days before the official decision of deportation.

(drum rolling) - [Voice Actor] "We are now hatching the noble and great project of banishing the French neutrals from this province.

They have ever been our secret enemies and have encouraged the Indians to cut our throats.

If we can accomplish this expulsion, it will have been one of the greatest deeds the English in America have ever achieved.

For among other considerations, The part of the country which they occupy is one of the best soils in the world.

And in that event, we might place some good farmers on their homesteads."

(drum roll stops) - However, irony of ironies, when British farmers were settled on the reclaimed farmlands of the Acadians, they didn't know how to use them.

They'd never farmed in this way.

And so they left those farms.

They left the dikes untouched.

And so they are today, still.

The harvest of 1755 was one of the most bountiful on record.

The barns were filled to overflowing with grain, with fruit, with vegetables.

The seines were silvery with fish.

But it was all gone now.

It was all in cinders.

And the Acadians were gone to dispersed, dispersed all over the northern hemisphere and some of them back to France.

What happened to them?

Where did they go?

What became of them?

How did they fare?

We'll explore these subjects in future chapters of "The Story of the Acadians" - "Still stands the forest primeval, but far away from its shadow, side by side, in their nameless graves, the lovers are sleeping," - [Terry] (continuing poem) "under the humble walls of the little Catholic churchyard in the heart of the city, they lie, unknown and unnoticed.

Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside them, thousands of throbbing hearts, where theirs are at rest and forever, thousands of aching brains, where theirs no longer are busy, thousands of toiling hands, where theirs have ceased from their labors, thousands of weary feet, where theirs have completed their journey.

Still stands the forest primeval, but under the shade of its branches dwells another race, with other customs and language.

Only along the shore of the mournful and misty Atlantic linger a few Acadian peasants, whose fathers from exile wandered back to their native land to die in its bosom.

In the fisherman's cot, the wheel and the loom are still busy.

Maidens still wear their Norman caps and their kirtles of homespun, and by the evening fire repeat Evangeline's story.

While from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced, neighboring ocean speaks, and in accents disconsolate, answers the wail of the forest.

(dramatic music builds) (music crescendos) (music softens) (dramatic music) (music builds) (music fades)