We're All Set to Reopen on June 25! Visit and “Like
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By Warren A. Perrin, Chairman June 2021 CONTENTS Page We’re All Set to Reopen on June 25! Museum News 1 Louisiana/Cajun News 2 Good news! After a long closure (due French/Acadian News 8 to pandemic), the museum will Lagniappe 11 reopen Friday, June 25, 2021. Starting that day, the museum will SHARE THE GOOD NEWS! be open on a regular basis Tue-Fri If you know anyone who’d like to get 1 to 4 pm and Sat 10-noon. As part this newsletter, send their name and email address to [email protected]. of our opening, we will host a special La Table Française (French Table) HELP PROMOTE THE CULTURE 10:00 am at the Café Erath next Your tax-deductible contributions1 can door. This will be the first in a series help fund these important projects: of such meetings hosted by local • Finding the lost location of our resident Layla Melancon and others. first Acadian settlement. Come join your coozans and • Transcribing and digitizing tapes practice your French. Acadian brown cotton of rare and valuable interviews. • Developing videos and podcasts During the closing, we added new exhibits, including one on for distribution online. Acadian footwear (p. 6), one on the American Legion (see last • Promoting the French language issue), and one showcasing ancient textiles spun by local weavers and “immersion” programs. • Expanding and categorizing our called “Acadian brown cotton” (p. 3). Come and see it all! holdings of cultural treasures. Visit and “Like” Us on the Web and Facebook You can donate1 online or by sending a check to The Acadian Museum, P.O. The Acadian Museum will be re-opening on a regular schedule Box 53597, Lafayette, LA 70505. starting June 25 (see above), but you can visit us online anytime. Group tours can be arranged by calling 337 456-7729. UNSUBSCRIBE If you no longer wish to receive this Website: www.acadianmuseum.com newsletter, please send your request to [email protected]. Facebook: www.facebook.com/AcadianMuseum Museum Store: www.acadianmuseum.com/boutique.html 1The Acadian Museum is a Louisiana 501(c)(3) nonprofit. All contributions are tax-deductible. LOUISIANA/CAJUN NEWS “Best Books” Website Includes Acadians Shepherd.com is an American website that Erath Native Drafted by NFL invites acknowledged experts in various fields to Three-time All-Sun Belt Conference running choose the five best books in that field and back Elijah Mitchell, a native explain why each was chosen. One category is of Erath, was drafted into the the Acadian deportation, and the contributor is National Football League A.J.B. Johnston, a professional historian who (NFL) after he was selected spent much of his career with Parks Canada at by the San Francisco 49ers Fortress of Louisburg National Historic Site in with the 194th overall pick in Nova Scotia. Five books chosen by Johnston are: the Sixth Round of the 2021 A Great and Noble Scheme by John Mack NFL Draft. He is the first athlete from Erath to Faragher (2005) play professional football and we are very proud From Migrant to Acadian: A North American of his accomplishments and his stellar Border People by N.E.S. Griffiths (2005) representation of our town. Deportation of the Prince Edward Island Please go to www.athleticnetwork.net for Acadians by Earle Lockerby (2008) stories about Elijah and other local sports heroes. Acadian Driftwood: One Family and the Great Acadian Awakening Is Postponed Acadian Expulsion by Tyler LeBlanc (2020) The Grand Reveil Acadiens Acadian to Cajun: Transformation of a People (Great Acadian Awakening) by Louisiana’s own Carl A. Brasseaux (1992) has been postponed again The first two books were published on the 250th until 2022. The Louisiane- anniversary of the deportation of 1755 in Nova Acadie board met and decided to postpone GRA Scotia, while the third book was published on the until 2022 because of ongoing concerns about 250th anniversary of the deportation of the Covid-19. However, a Mass in French is Acadians from Île Saint-Jean (Prince Edward tentatively planned for a Sunday in October, Island) in 1758. Lots of good reading here! For 2021. There will be an announcement in a future more about Johnston’s picks, click here. newsletter. LA PAROLE NEWSLETTER Acadian Museum of Erath, Louisiana PAGE 2 Museum Receives Brown Cotton Donation The History of Crop Dusting Mary Alice Hale, Jerry Aviation pilot Ted Campbell, a native of Vermilion Hale and Mavis Frugé of Parish (pictured below), will give a talk and Acadian Brown Cotton PowerPoint presentation on Monday, June 14th donated to the museum from 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon on the history of this contemporary crop dusting at the outstanding oral history brown cotton blanket series hosted by William Thibodeaux. The talk made from locally grown will be presented in the conference room at the cotton in Arnaudville, Hospice of Acadiana located at 2600 Johnston Louisiana. Mary Perrin is Street, Lafayette, Louisiana 70503. The public is shown displaying the invited to attend. beautiful blanket. The item will be incorporated into our growing display of brown cotton textiles. Google Helps Preserve Creole Language Google – the multinational tech company with headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. – wants to help preserve Louisiana Creole and other critically endangered languages with its new online tool Woolaroo, created in collaboration with language organizations from five continents. Woolaroo users will be able to take a photo of a common object and receive a translated label of the object in a chosen endangered language, as well as listen to the correct pronunciation. Woolaroo can recognize common objects such as cups, plants, glasses, bicycles, etc. If a translation hasn’t yet been provided, users can provide the LSU Student Helps Archive Museum Items information through the app. The feedback will We are delighted to learn that Angela Baudoin then be reviewed and approved by language will undertake a project for her LSU course work partners. Google hopes Woolaroo will help to archive some of our museum materials. She language communities expand their word lists will be starting with our textile exhibit and then and add audio to help with pronunciation. may progress to other categories. LA PAROLE NEWSLETTER Acadian Museum of Erath, Louisiana PAGE 3 Celebrating the Huval-Fuselier Cajun Band Is James Carville Really Cajun? Pictured, left to Many people wonder: is James Carville really a right, are Zack Cajun? The Advocate recently published an Fuselier, Luke Huval and Chris Stafford article about him titled “Carpetbaggin’ Cajun.” The piece by Tyler Bridges starts out like this: Zach Fuselier James Carville is known near and wide as the and Luke Huval Ragin’ Cajun. But is he really a Cajun? are founding members of the His mother was Lucille Normand, but everybody Huval-Fuselier called her Nippy because, according to Carville, Cajun Band and she regularly gave handouts to a hobo named Nip during the Great Depression. have been playing together Her side of the family came from both Canada for ten years and France, and she was raised in Avoyelles now. Chris Stafford is a musician, producer, and Parish in central Louisiana, just like Edwin recording engineer who was a founding member Edwards. So, yes, her son has a Cajun lineage. of the progressive Cajun band Feufollet. All three learned the French language through the LeBlanc Elementary School’s Fiddle Club Lafayette Parish French Immersion program. Passes Down the French Culture These young men are keeping Cajun music alive This story by Leigh Guidry appeared in the Daily and are continuing to work towards its Advertiser on May 12, 2021: preservation for generations to come! LeBlanc Elementary teachers expanded its French immersion experience beyond learning Imahara Honored as Outstanding Alumni the language to include another integral part of Walter Imahara and Dr. Steven Conrad were the culture — the music. recently honored at the UL Alumni Center as the More than 30 fourth- and fifth-graders have been Outstanding Alumni of 2020. learning to play the violin, rub board and triangle over the past year as part of the school's Fiddle The announcement is posted at Club. "I joined because I wanted to learn to play www.athleticnetwork.net and has links to two the fiddle, and I know it's a big part of our other significant pieces of information: culture," said Clayton Broussard, a fifth-grader in Walter's Army photo and his Athletic Network the club. "Way back, music was just big; people profile, which contains the wonderful story done gathered around and played, and it was just fun." by Bruce Brown when he put Walter in the Jason Harrington, Gifted/Talented music teacher Spotlight on Former Athlete. for Vermilion Parish schools, makes it a point to incorporate lessons on history and culture while LA PAROLE NEWSLETTER Acadian Museum of Erath, Louisiana PAGE 4 also teaching them to read music and play violin. Forty Queens Visit the Museum He also gets help from the school's music teacher and fellow musicians. On June 5, the Acadian Museum You can read the rest of the story here. hosted 40 visiting queens who are Possible Bancker Church Photo Discovered participating in In 1895, a Roman the Erath Fourth Catholic Church of July pageant. named Our Lady Volunteers Boni of Prompt Succor Suire and Douglas was established and Jackie Vincent on lands donated helped to explain the various exhibits to them. by William Cade Pictured above are Warren Perrin and Sarah to the west in Sommers of Lake Charles, who is studying French nearby Bancker, at McNeese State University. She is the Queen which was the representing the Cajun French Music Association.