Sackville Blog 5
How do I depict a group of settlers that lived here in the 17th and 18th century? Representing the Acadians proved to be quite challenging. I couldn’t find images that would tell the story of Acadians and depict their existence in the Tantramar area. There are some paintings by some artists, but not actual photographs.
There are many written accounts of how the Acadians built dykes and made aboiteaux to reclaimed land,but not many actual photos depicting the same. I found information about their lifestyle but hardly any images to correspond with the written accounts.
I used maps to show where the Acadians had settled in the Tantramar area. Here is one of the maps I used.By the way, transferring the image of a map was rather tricky. I wanted it to be crisp enough so the words would be legible. After a few attempts, it transferred reasonably well.
The original map wasprovided by Mr. Bernard LeBlanc, the retired curator of Musée Acadien in Moncton.
There is another mapwhich acknowledges the presence of Acadians in the Tantramar area. It is nextto the present-day Carriage House Museum. I took a photo of it. Here is thatmap transferred on a ceramic tile along with the original.
Here is the original photo.
To show how the Acadian farmers built dykes and reclaimed land, I created my own painting of the dyked area as well as used an image of the dyke in Memramcook from the video produced by the students of Ecole Abby Landry.
Here's the original image.
Some of the images came from Village Historique Acadien. If you were to visit this place, you will see people dressed in period costumes engaged in the daily activities as they would have roughly 300 years ago. Here’s an image of Acadian farmers using horses to plough their fields.
Here's the original image.
Image Source: Photo gallery (52 of 64) of Village historique acadien
https://www.villagehistoriqueacadien.com/histoire#photos
As you take the virtual tour, you will be able to click on the images and know where they came from.
