Louisiana’s Acadian Diaspora An Important Cultural And Economic Touchstone For New Brunswick
SAINT JOHN — New Brunswick artists got the chance to shine last month in Louisiana, as the province and state strengthened cultural bonds during a celebration of Acadian heritage in the southern U.S.
The Hush Sisters author Gerard Collins was one of the many New Brunswick creators who showcased their work to a new audience as a part of this relationship. He was a featured author at the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge, culminating in a book reading on October 29.
“It seemed like everybody wanted to know something about New Brunswick, about Eastern Canada, about Atlantic Canada,” said Collins.
He got to meet with authors from across the United States, from Europe, and got to eat dinner with the former Poet Laureate of Louisiana, Darrell Bourque.
“They were keenly interested when they found that I was a writer from eastern Canada,” Collins said. “They immediately want to know: ‘What’s it like, How’s it different from Louisiana? How’s it different than the U.S. in general?’”
“The Book Festival is the ideal place to share those kinds of experiences with people because writers then become vessels themselves, they become carriers of knowledge.”
With the connections made and stories traded, Collins’ message about New Brunswick will now be shared with an even wider audience of creators, as the writers he spoke with as a part of this exchange share his knowledge with their communities.
New Brunswick’s own book celebration, the Frye Festival, has been a primary facilitator of this relationship and has big plans for the future.
“We will be working with several partners to try and create a bilateral residency program to send New Brunswick authors to Louisiana — not just for one day, but hopefully for a little bit longer and get them to meet separate communities around the state,” said Léonore Bailhache, the communications manager of the Frye Festival. “And then do the same with the Louisiana authors who would come here to New Brunswick, and get them across the province as well.”
Musical connection
But writers are not the only ones who participated in this cross-cultural exchange. The Frye Festival joined with Acadian bands and Acadian cultural organizations at the Festivals Acadiens et Créoles in Lafayette in mid-October.
“There’s concerts all weekend. There’s workshops for artists. There’s a dance floor. Everything is outdoors as well,” said Bailhache.
“The delegation from New Brunswick had a little pavilion. We had our tents with some folks who are representing some cultural organizations and then we had two bands [Acadian bands Weldon and Josée Boudreau, and La Patente] that were performing throughout the weekend.”
“It gives them good exposure,” said Bailhache. “And it gives them an opportunity to connect with Cajuns and Louisiana musicians who play music that is similar in terms of the instruments, but also has different tones and different rhythms.”
“I think it’s really interesting, artistically, to offer that kind of kind of event.”
These exchanges were facilitated by the provincial government with the aim of strengthening ties with the southern state.
Memorandum of Understanding
On October 14, Minister of Tourism, Heritage and Culture, Tammy Scott Wallace signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser.
The MOU recognized the importance of the relationship that creative individuals, institutions, businesses, and communities have on the economic well-being of New Brunswick and Louisiana.
Through those relationships with province hopes to promote cultural, artistic and heritage links; share best practices from the creative field, heritage and museum spaces that could foster new partnerships and cross-border activities; and identify the professional development needs in heritage and culture in both jurisdictions with educational institutions.
“In 2019, I visited New Brunswick for the Acadian World Congress,” said Nungesser in a press release. “After experiencing a culture and art scene much like ours in Louisiana, it was easy to recognize the value that artists, cultural businesses and the uniqueness of communities have on the economic growth in both our state and New Brunswick. By strengthening our cultural connections, we can create opportunities for further economic growth between our two regions.”“1
Scott Wallace says the relationships built today will form the foundation for what she hopes will be an even more fruitful relationship m`oving forward.
“My wish would be that I visit I visit Louisiana, and I see the store shelves occupied with our incredible books written by new Brunswickers that we hear Acadian music, more prevalent prevalently on the on the radio there,” she said when asked about her vision for the relationship.
“Here in New Brunswick I hope that we see the number of tourists climbing significantly higher, of people from Louisiana visiting our province to reconnect to their roots,” she added.
She said that among the discussions with Nungesser was the exploration of art exchanges between galleries in New Brunswick and Louisiana, with works being showcased in each location.
Sister states
The relationship between New Brunswick and Louisiana is longstanding, with city twinning of Moncton and Lafayette going back to the early 1970s, and the province and state becoming ‘sisters’ in 1977.
“For Acadians in the Maritimes being a minority group, albeit an important minority group, the ability to develop these cross-border, transnational connections with the diaspora, allowed them to project outward onto a larger stage,” said Clint Bruce of the Canada Research Chair in Acadian and Transnational Studies.
“There’s a lot of energy directed towards promoting these international relationships among Acadian communities. There is forward momentum that keeps these diasporic connections relevant for issues of cultural development and economic opportunity,” said Bruce.
That sentiment is echoed by Scott Wallace.
“I’m hoping that in five years from now, we don’t have people in New Brunswick still surprised by this tight-knit relationship we have with Louisiana,” Scott Wallace mused. “Everyone will know it, everyone will feel it, and everyone will celebrate it.”
Alex Graham is a Huddle reporter in Saint John. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].