Acadian Remembrance Day honoured in P.E.I. ceremony

Islanders were able to come together in person Monday to commemorate Acadian Remembrance Day at a ceremony at Skmaqn–Port-la-Joye–Fort Amherst National Historic Site.

The annual ceremony honours the more than 3,000 Acadians who were deported from Prince Edward Island in 1758.

The event was cancelled last year because of COVID-19, but this year a small group of community members, Acadian organizations, politicians and students came together to mark the day. 

"It was special that we could do it again in person this year because since 2008 we have had a ceremony here," said Georges Arsenault, Acadian historian and master of ceremonies for the event.

He said the ceremony has only ever had to be cancelled twice, once for a snow storm and last year due to the pandemic. Arsenault said the event is always an emotional one for him, but he's very glad to be back here again.

"Being able to have it, although for a smaller group, is important to us because Port-la-Joye played a role — important for the deportation — because it was here that the British co-ordinated the deportation of the Acadians from the Island in 1758."

Arsenault said about half of the 3,000 Acadians who were deported from P.E.I. didn't survive the journey, and many of them were children. He said this day is about honouring and remembering them while also celebrating those who survived and brought Acadian language and culture back to the Island. 

"I want to promote things that the Acadians did after the deportation, how they survived, that we had some politicians, we had some great leaders, we had traditions," he said.

'It takes me back in the past'

This year, reflecting on those people from generations ago was done through storytelling and song.

Among those to speak at the event was Lt.-Gov. Antoinette Perry, who said for her the day is about coming together with her community to pass on that knowledge and share with future generations.

"It takes me back in the past when I was a young child and the stories from my grandparents, my parents, people in my community — other Acadians," she said. 

"To be able to gather with my community, my cultural community, to me it's very important … we learn so much more about our history and that, but with that comes the promise to never let that happen again and I think that every year we renew that promise." 

She said the event also serves as an opportunity for the community to speak out against discrimination of all kinds. 

'Ceremony filmed this year'

After the ceremony, Perry led the group on a walk toward the water to lay a wreath at the base of the monument that commemorates the deportation.

They stopped for a moment at the historic location to imagine what it was like for those forced to leave so many years ago.

"The wind, it's cold and it makes you realize — at least a little bit — how it would have been in 1758 in the middle of the ocean in this time of the year, how cold that would be. It helps you grasp the moment," said Charles Duguay, vice-chair of Société acadienne et francophone de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard.

"Then you say look at our ancestors, they made it. So sometimes it helps us go further when you look at what they've done in the past."

This year for the first time, a film crew documented the ceremony and will make videos available to the public online.

"We really wanted to document it because with the pandemic and also just with some people with mobility issues that couldn't come we made sure that we had something on tape that we could make available to the public who couldn't be here today," said Isabelle Dasylva-Gill, executive director of Société acadienne et francophone de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard.

She said the hope is for the videos to also be used as teaching materials in Island classrooms.