Archaeologies of Acadia: From Homeland to Diaspora

From the 1630s to 1755, French Acadian families prospered in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. These communities created agricultural settlements such as Port Royal, Grand-Pré and Beaubassin. However, the Grand Dérangement (1755-1762) saw the deportation by New Englanders of thousands of French settlers to the American British colonies, Louisiana, France, England and other regions on the Atlantic seaboard. Over the past 30 years, archaeologists have shed light on the material culture, architecture, land use, and foodways of the Acadian settlers, yet much of this work is confined to grey literature and has not been mobilized by writers of history. Archaeological sites associated with the diasporic Acadians have been explored in far fewer numbers, which has left gaps in our understanding of important processes of creolization, alienation, racialization, and resilience. This session invites researchers to share the results of their investigations into pre-Deportation and diasporic Acadie.