SITE SPECIFIC

RONALD FRANKLIN WILLIAMS, FCSLA, AAPQ, FRAIC LANDSCAPES OF THE ACADIAN RENAISSANCE

Many of Canada’s most significant Expulsion and return landscapes are virtually unknown to the But this prosperous, peaceable and majority of Canadians. Few but local egalitarian society had the misfortune of residents, for example, are aware of the being caught in the crossfire of the great landscapes of the village of Memramcook, world wars of the 18th century. In 1713, most , yet it was here that the of Acadia was taken over by the British; Acadian Renaissance of the mid-19th then, between 1755 and 1763, following four century began. decades of cold war between France and Britain, some 10,000 Acadians, almost their Farming the sea entire population, were deported in a sombre Memramcook is a village of some 4,600 prelude to the tragic “ethnic cleansing” that residents. Its name derived from a Mi’kmaq disfigured the 20th century. expression meaning “crooked river”, the settlement was founded around 1700 by Only a few escaped expulsion by taking Acadian settlers as they expanded from refuge with the Mi’kmaqs or hiding out. But their first settlement at Port Royal on the astonishingly, as soon as it was possible, Annapolis River, moving gradually eastward large numbers of Acadians returned, settling along the river to Grand-Pré, then north-east primarily at coastal locations throughout the to New Brunswick’s Tantramar marshes and Maritime provinces. The Acadians could not the valley of the Petitcodiac, where Moncton reclaim their ancestral lands – most of these is now located. had been distributed to recent immigrants from New England. They were able to return While overcoming great obstacles, the to only a few of their original settlements; colonists developed a unique system of one of these was Memramcook. agriculture based on a key feature of the existing maritime landscape – the salt The tragic expulsion of the Acadians, the marshes that extended all around the Grand Dérangement, was immortalised by 1, 2 . These prairies were flooded the celebrated New England poet Henry twice daily by salt-water tides that brought Wadsworth Longfellow in his epic poem rich deposits of sediment. By enclosing Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, published in The voyage becomes a the marshlands with earthen dikes and 1847. The Evangeline legend – and through pilgrimage, like going to Chartres. employing an ingenious technique of it, the history of the Acadian people – is aboiteaux (tunnels equipped with backwater recounted in vivid terms by the symbolic valves or clapets), Acadian farmers gradually landscape of the Grand-Pré National Historic drained and reduced the salinity of the Site in . On a plateau overlooking marshlands. By this laborious collective vast fields that extend to far-off dikes on the effort, they harnessed the great agricultural horizon, an Acadian association built, during potential of the land, harvesting prodigious the 1920s, a memorial church on the site of quantities of wheat and barley, apples and the long-demolished Église Saint-Charles, vegetables, and providing vast pastures for where the men and boys of the parish were livestock. assembled before the deportation in 1755.

WINTER HIVER 2012 1 3 4, 5

In front of the church stands a statue of across the perfectly flat prairie – all these Evangeline, conceived and carried out by aspects of the landscape reinforce the the Quebec sculptor Louis-Philippe Hébert meaning and the importance of this slow and his son Henri. The church and park, ceremonial journey. Like Grand Pré, it is a designed by Montreal architect Percy Nobbs, landscape charged with memory. is surrounded by an orchard and a kitchen garden as reminders of the agriculture of Once within the complex, one is the time. Ancient willows frame and define overwhelmed by the sheer size of the church, the spatial ensemble. On walking the far-off the tallest in Acadia. Otherwise, the visitor dikes and contemplating the immense is within the familiar and non-spectacular marshland prairies on one side and the vast confines of a rural French institution: rows bay on the other, one has the sentiment of tall trees, symmetrical axes, statues of being cut off from the world and having of dignitaries, of Mary and of the Calvary, returned in the 18th century. a playground for students at the former 6 college that stands just beyond an elegant Acadian Renaissance garden shelter. To this ensemble was added The author thanks Kitty Forrestal and Bob at Memramcook the 1895 Monument Lefebvre, a building Russell, his guides and interpreters of the For almost a century, the Acadian people that houses an auditorium famous for its Maritime landscapes. survived on the periphery of maritime almost magical acoustics. society. Then in 1864, with the founding of the Collège Saint-Joseph by father Camille Memramcook’s noyau institutionnel is typical REFERENCES Lefebvre of the Quebec teaching order the of those found in French communities Margaret Conrad & James K. Hiller, Atlantic Congrégation des pères de Sainte-Croix, across Canada, from all the Canada: A Region in the Making, 2001 Memramcook became the “Cradle of the way to St. Anne’s Academy in Victoria, New Acadia”. The first French-language BC. Located at the main crossroads of Harry Thurston, Tidal Life, 1990 institution of higher education in the villages and urban neighbourhoods, these Yves Cormier, Les Aboiteau en Acadie, 1990 Maritime Provinces, the Collège was soon harmonious and distinguished compositions raised to university status and eventually are always signalled by the church spire, a Sally Ross & Alphonse Deveau, Les Acadiens de la Nouvelle-Écosse, 1995 became, in the 1960s, a central component symbol of human presence and civilisation. of the new University of Moncton. A series Their location and orientation with respect Parcs Canada, Lieu Historique National of subsequent events helped to cement the to the larger landscape, including the linear de Grand-Pré, Guide, 1999 town’s central role within Canada’s Acadian assembly of buildings and spaces along Parks Canada & Memramcook Valley community. a body of water or the crest of a hill, is, in Historical Society Inc., Guide itself, a fascinating object of reflection. Most visitors first see this historic town across the broad, open valley of the Today, the old Collège St-Joseph building Memramcook River, as they move inexorably houses the Institut de Memramcook, a 1 THE PRESBYTeRY (CURÉ’S RESIDENCE) AT towards St. Thomas Church, the town’s centre for adult education and conferences. ST. THOMAS CHURCH + VIRGIN MARY 2 BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF EVANGELINE PARK BY PERCY ERSKINE most striking feature. The voyage becomes But the peaceful environments of this NOBBS 3 VIEW OF ST. THOMAS CHURCH FROM a pilgrimage, like going to Chartres. The remarkable precinct remain as reminders APPROACH ROAD CROSSING THE MEMRAMCOOK great height of the church tower; its location of the site’s remarkable contribution to VALLEY 4 FROM ST. THOMAS CHURCH 5 flanked by a complex of related buildings and Canadian history. MEMRAMCOOK KIOSK 6 EVANGELINE STATUE AND CHURCH ALL PHOTOS AND DRAWING #6 RONALD spaces, on top of a long ridge perpendicular WILLIAMS 2 Nobbs drawing: jOHN BLAND CANADIAN to the perfectly straight approach road [email protected] ARCHITECTURE COLLECTION, McGILL UNIVERSITY

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