Acadian Driftwood

On a road trip to Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula in the fall of 2021, my wife and I passed through the Matapedia Valley, in driving rain, to land late in the day in a town called Carleton-sur-Mer, on the shores of the Baie des Chaleurs. The next morning, the rain had given way to sunshine and a clearing breeze, and we decided to go for a walk along the shoreline across from our motel. There we happened upon an impressive memorial to one of Canada’s almost forgotten minorities, the Acadians. The monument, a large cross commemorating the grand dérangement (great upheaval), was installed on a base in the form of a star; along its pointed sides were a series of inscriptions relating the tragic event, and at the centre was an inlaid map indicating the subsequent forced migrations. Fifteen similar monuments are scattered throughout Quebec and the Maritimes.

Canada is a land of diaspora peoples: successive waves of newcomers, who were often dispossessed in one way or...