Researchers from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and scholars from universities such as Yale and Vanderbilt will gather Thursday to discuss the history and culture of the Acadians.
The symposium will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the arrival of a group of Acadians in southwest Louisiana in 1765.
“The Path to a New Acadia: A Symposium” will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Vermilionville Performance Center, 300 Fisher Road. It is free and open to the public.
The French Acadians were driven from Nova Scotia and other Canadian provinces by the British during the French and Indian War. They settled in southwest Louisiana.
Barry Ancelet, a retired UL Lafayette professor and renowned Cajun folklorist who will speak at the symposium, said “those first Acadian pioneers laid the foundation for what has evolved into Cajun culture.”
The symposium will explore topics such as the Acadians expulsion, the environment that early settlers inhabited along the banks of the Bayou Teche, and their existence alongside others in the region, including Attakapas Indians.
Dr. Mark Rees, a UL Lafayette professor, anthropologist, and archaeologist, will discuss “The New Acadia Project,” or “Projet Nouvelle Acadie,” his ongoing work to pinpoint an early settlement of Acadians.
In 1765, Joseph “Beausoleil” Broussard led a group of 193 Acadians to Louisiana. They settled in what was then the Attakapas District, along the banks of the Bayou Teche. Over 30 of those settlers, including Broussard, died quickly, cut down by disease. Historians believe their homesteads and gravesites are located on the Teche Ridge, an area near Loreauville, La. The exact spot, however, is unknown.
Rees is leading a group of researchers and students on archeological digs for artifacts, and attempts to locate unmarked graves.
Other presentations and sessions include:
• "A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland" by John Mack Faragher, Yale University;
• "The Acadian Refugees in France" by Jean-François Mouhot, director, Centre Les Courmettes, France;
• "The Environmental Context: A Brief History of Bayou Teche" by Shane Bernard, author and historian;
• "The Initial Acadian Settlement: A New Look at its Location in the Attakapas" by Donald J. Arceneaux, Moscow, Idaho/Lafayette, La.; and
• "Indians, Settlers, and Slaves on a Colonial Frontier: The Acadians among Other Peoples" by Daniel H. Usner Jr., Vanderbilt University
The symposium is sponsored by the Center for Louisiana Studies, Festivals Acadiens et Creoles, Atchafalaya National Heritage Area, and Bayou Vermilion District. Dr. Michael Martin, director of the Center for Louisiana Studies at UL Lafayette, organized the event.
Learn more or register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-path-to-a-new-acadia-a-symposium-on-the...