Deportation Memory 2005

In 2005, numerous events were staged to mark the 250th annivesary of the grand dérangement. In the process, new sites of memory were created and new ways of thinking about this moment from the Acadian past were presented to the public.

List of Media

  1. Herménégilde Chiasson: Le Grand Dérangement
    Herménégilde Chiasson, the Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, discusses the significance of the 250th anniversary of the deportation of Acadians.
  2. Jean Gaudet: Commemoration
    Jean Gaudet discusses why he organized processions and pilgrimages to mark the 250th anniversary of the deportation of Acadians.
  3. 2004 Procession
    In 2004, on 15 August--the Acadian national holiday, Jean Gaudet led a procession from Horton Landing (where Acadians had been loaded on to ships in 1755) to Grand-Pré three kilometres away, where they had been assembled before being forced to march to the waiting ships. This procession, in a sense, reversed the deportation and spoke to the survival of the Acadians. Although 2004 was the 400th anniversary of the founding of Acadie, this event (staged at the end of the Congrès mondial acadien) spoke to the legacy of the deportation.
  4. 2005 Procession
    On 5 September 2005, the day on which Acadians had been rounded up for their deportation 250 years earlier, Jean Gaudet led a procession that reversed the route that had been taken in 1755, marching from Horton Landing (where Acadians had been loaded on to ships) to Grand-Pré where their march to the ships had begun. While some had sought during this year of deportation memory to "turn the page" on this episode, this procession was an opportunity to remember its on-going significance for Acadians.
  5. Crosses to Bear, 28 July 2005
    28 July 2005 marked the 250th anniversary of the signing of the order for the deportation of the Acadians. It was also the first federally-declared "Journée de commémoration du Grand Dérangement," during the course of which numerous events were staged, many of which featured a cross, long a symbol of Acadian memory of the deportation.
  6. Pèlerinage historique
    During Labour Day weekend, a small group of Acadians (and one historian from Montreal) travelled across New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, led by Jean Gaudet, to visit sites of Acadian memory to mark the anniversary, on 5 September, of the 250th anniversary of the rounding up of Acadians, leading to their deportation. The journey ended at Grand-Pré, following a procession that reversed the footsteps of Acadians in 1755.