I received a note from an Acadian friend Ghislain Savoie. He reports:
"My brother Jean-Claude, who lives in NB, sent me a message today informing me that the Government of Nova Scotia announced that the Belle-Isle area in Nova Scotia was now protected. Our Acadian ancestors, the Savoies, Thériaults, Gaudets, Doucets, and others were the first settlers of this village which was one of the largest in the colony of Port Royal. Jean-Claude sponsors archaeological excavations of the homes of some of the Acadians in Belleisle. These excavations which are conducted by archaeologist Marc Lavoie, Professor at the University of Ste-Anne in Church Point, Nova Scotia, are discussed in the Radio Canada article which follows. At right is the aerial photo that I took of the Belleisle Marsh area in 2004. (Click on the photo to expand.)
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The following article was translated in english. The link of the original article in french is:
The Minister of Acadian Affairs, Graham Steele, made the announcement Friday evening at the opening of the Annual General Meeting of the Acadian Federation of Nova Scotia.
The marshes of Belle Isle are one of the first places where the Acadians settled in Acadia of the Maritimes.
In the 17th century, thirty Acadian families owned farms where they had drained the marshes with dikes.
According to archaeologist Marc Lavoie, Belle Isle has special significance because no one ever moved into the marsh after the Deportation. He explained that apart from the Acadians, no one knew how to maintain the dikes and their 'aboiteaux'.
The archaeologist, who made excavations in the marshes of Belle Isle for several years, says that "the marshes of Belle Isle is where the largest Acadian village was located in the cradle of Acadia."
Furthermore, a quarter of the marsh of Belle Isle is now protected thanks to the efforts of Robert and Diane Surette. They discovered, after buying land in these marshes that it was the land of their ancestors.
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