Notes from Exile: On Being Acadian

Margaret Conrad is a professor of history at Acadia University. She is
the author of Intimate Relations: Family and Community in Planter Nova
Scotia, 1759–1800, and Making Adjustments: Change and Continuity in
Planter Nova Scotia, 1759–1800 and the co

An urban anthropologist by training, a public servant by necessity, and
a writer by choice, Clive Doucet uses the Acadian reunion of 1994 as a
springboard for reflections on the Acadian experience and his own
“hybrid” identity as the child of an Acadian father and an
“English-English” (from London) mother. The result is a heartfelt
memoir that raises timely questions about the construction of individual
and collective identities as well as the relative merits of the
“village world” of his Acadian grandparents in Grand Йtang, Nova
Scotia, and the “global village” of the late 20th century.

There is little doubt where Doucet’s sympathies lie. While the world
of cut-throat competition and winner-takes-all holds little charm for
him, the inclusive, peaceful, caring society of oppressed peoples such
as the Acadians offers him hope and comfort. Doucet’s “exile” is
therefore twofold: from his Acadian culture, which is changing even as
he tries to capture it, and from a rapidly developing global culture
that “has no home and no love except the law of the lowest price.”

Perhaps because we are both the same age (middle-aged) and share a
common perspective on the neo-liberal world (disillusionment), I enjoyed
reading this memoir immensely. As a historian, however, I was somewhat
disturbed by the author’s carelessness in matters of detail (for
example, Port Royal was founded in 1605 not 1604 and Barbara LeBlanc was
not the park superintendent at Grand Pré when he interviewed her) and
his idealization of the past, which has demons of its own, even in
Acadie. But clearly, like many authors of high moral vision, Doucet is
not about to let facts interfere with the truth. And the truths are
conveyed here with the humanity, generosity, and self-deprecating humor
that are still the hallmarks of the Acadian way of engaging the world.