World Acadian Congress 2014 spent two years recruiting families to hold more than 120 reunions during a two-week period last August in northern Maine, northwest New Brunswick and the Temiscouata region of Quebec.
The effort was wonderfully inclusive, with publicity making it plain that family gatherings did not have to be only for Acadian families that came originally to the Nova Scotia area, but they could be French-Canadian descendants with Quebec roots or even families with no French connections at all.
Funny thing on the way home from all that culture and historical pride, however. In a news story in the Jan. 20 issue of the Bangor Daily News, NuFocus Strategic Group Ltd. of New Brunswick highlights the 21,000 “outside” visitors who brought in $28.4 million in “new”money to the region.
Yes, I get their point. When people invest money, time and effort in a mammoth effort, they don’t want to just sell the results to each other. They do seek lots of new customers with new money to help make the whole deal successful.
They want customers like me, who will bring my Bangor money and buy T-shirts and challenge coins and a World Acadian Congress necklace, and who will shop at convenience stores and gas stations and grocery stores and events.
Nothing wrong with that. But the locals don’t count because they’re local? The people who were a major draw for the visitors are secondary? Area residents in northern Maine who grew up being punished if they spoke French in school are less than the monolingual tourists who come for a few days or a week?
I would argue just the opposite. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law sent all four of their children to college in Maine, and all four live and work and pay taxes in Maine — three of them in the St. John Valley.
The parents and three kids all opened their households to Saucier relatives during the World Acadian Congress — and fed them, and fed them, and fed them — allowing these relatives and children to then go spend their “new” money on the activities and products available to us valuable outsiders.
As for the numbers, it’s nice to know that 21,000 visitors from elsewhere joined the tens of thousands of local people during the family reunions and the variety of activities such as concerts, barbecues and the Tintamarre parade.
But it doesn’t take a mathematician to know that the number of reunions was a lot higher than 120. I enjoyed riding around the Valley and seeing the little fences painted blue, white and red with the Acadian star on the field of blue to represent the Acadian flag.
Many of the homes with these decorations also displayed a sign boasting a surname that was not one of the reunion names. And yet, one would see 10 or 20 or 30 vehicles or more parked nearby on one day or another. I think that’s what you call a reunion.
Our branch of the Saucier family also used reunion time as an opportunity to schedule a 50th anniversary celebration for Claudette and Wilfred Saucier, an activity that included many people who were not the same people we saw at other events.
When local people are counted, the World Acadian Congress is said to have drawn 60,000 participants. That’s more like it.
The fact is that family reunions are not only a function of “who.” They usually also contain a vital component of “where.” Look at old maps of the St. Lawrence River and the St. John River, and what do you see? Long, narrow plots of land that gave numerous settlers access to the river.
“Local” is important, and the World Acadian Congress demonstrates that every five years when its committee chooses a place — a location — for the family reunions and all the other activities. The 2019 World Acadian Congress will be held in southwestern New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
If “local” didn’t matter, it would certainly be simpler to just have the Congress in New Orleans each time, some large city that already knows all the ins and outs of huge gatherings.
You don’t have to be Acadian or French-Canadian to get this, obviously.
As the World Acadian Congress was winding down last August, Bangor Daily News reporter Julia Bayly wrote a wonderful article on Aug. 21.
Here is one of my favorite parts of the article by her:
“Going simply by the sheer number of family reunions going on — more than 120 — and the quantity of out-of-state license plates I saw these past couple of weeks, I’m betting the impact will be significant.
But those are just numbers. As far as I’m concerned, the impact that counts is the one hosts and visitors made on each other.
And there is little doubt those were favorable and lasting.
In just going about day-to-day business since Aug. 8, it was impossible to not run into someone “from away,” and suddenly you had a new friend from Louisiana, Nova Scotia or Europe.
It was the stuff from which great memories are made.”
I should add that Julia Bayly’s Jan. 20 article included many favorable comments by World Acadian Congress officials.
For i nformation on researching family history in Maine, see Genealogy Resources under Family Ties at bangordailynews.com/browse/family-ties. Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402, or email familyti@bangordailynews.com.