News from Acadie du Nord to Louisiane

May 1, 2026

In the summer of 2025, incredible scholars from the Université de Moncton were very much on my mind – the loss of Antonine Maillet and further consideration of the collective work of Stephen White, Paul Delaney, and Ronnie-Gilles LeBlanc. Sadly, the season would not end before the Acadian world lost Dr. White to heart complications on August 13^th, at the age of 78. Back in 2019 he had confided to me that the doctors were predicting that he could expect serious issues within five years. Every serious Acadian researcher has consulted his genealogical dictionary and its revisions and were looking forward to yet another volume in the future. Many made the journey to Moncton to chat with him or to view documents housed in the Centre d’études acadiennes. He has left many disciples to carry on in New Brunswick and in the States, and, for me, he will always be remembered as a patient, meticulous, and caring person.

Fortunately, symposia, festivals, regularly scheduled congresses in the Maritimes, and gatherings in Louisiana still nurture those of Acadian-Cajun heritage. If enthusiasts cannot be physically present in Acadie or Louisiane, I recommend becoming a supporter of Warren Perrin’s colorful and informative monthly newsletter, La Parole, from Erath, Louisiana. Highlight, copy, and paste: https://www.acadianmuseum.com/newsletter. Warren and his three editors Bruce, Mario, and Ryan have the knowledge and deep connections to keep readers up to date about visitors, news, the latest publications, personalities, their video archives, and the like. My friend is former head of CODOFIL, author, lawyer, and an ardent promoter of the local and Canadian scene. His Musée Acadien, located in an old bank building in Erath, is a veritable treasure trove of artifacts and is projected to expand to Lafayette and to the Richard enterprise at Jefferson Island, a salt dome in Iberia Parish. The Perrin family farm in nearly Henry has been recently converted to a guest house and is a pleasant retreat amidst the cane and rice, with easy access to Abbeville, Delcambre, Erath, New Iberia, St. Martinville, and of course, Lafayette. Its party barn can accommodate family reunions and presently houses some souvenirs from Warren’s youth and items belonging to the late musical icon D. L. Menard.

This past October, the regional Grand Réveil Acadien and the annual Festivals Acadiens et Créoles in Lafayette’s Girard Park both took place in the same time frame. The weather was dry and comfortably warm, as was the reception. Never a dull moment to enjoy the best of Cajun musicians over an entire weekend, and indulge in food, local history, and the arts as locals and visitors gathered to acknowledge their heritage with typical joie de vivre.

With the dual celebration, festivities kicked off in Lafayette on Friday the 10^th with a daylong symposium entitled “Cinquante Ans de Réveille: Et Asteur Quoi?” at the Hilliard Museum and continued with an evening featuring the cutting of the boudin, remarks by local dignitaries and Laurent Bili, the current French ambassador to the United States, and music by the legendary (and quite ubiquitous this year) Zachary Richard. With creative planning and a car at one’s disposal, fans and families then had the choice of dividing Saturday between Abbeville’s Magdalen Square and the city park next to the U-L campus, which now was in full glory with food vendors and cooking demonstrations, two main stages, venues named Jam Ça and Salle de Danse, a satellite Atelier in an open, intimate tent on the Hilliard lawn, a crafts show, and green space for energetic youngsters. As in 2022, Abbeville was hosting the opening day of the Grand Réveil under its majestic downtown oaks, with a focus on student dancers and aspiring beginning fiddlers, its renowned Giant Omelette chefs, free seafood gumbo, exhibitors, musician Jourdan Thibodeaux, and local resources. By mid-afternoon, many there then trekked over to Lafayette for the second round of music, which lasted throughout the evening, with a variety of workshops and numerous crowd-pleasing performers including personal favorites Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie, Balfa Toujours, the Dopsie Family, and Horace Trahan – the latter a shy teenager when I first saw him called to the Liberty Theater stage in Eunice in November 1993.

Sunday’s fare began with a bilingual mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, followed by a tintamarre that formed on the church parking lot. Family banners and Acadiana flags flying, the traditional, enthusiastic, noisy procession, with Ambassador Bili’s participation, made its way with police escort to the downtown area   . As before, focus then returned to another full day at Girard Park. Warren Perrin, Noah Arceneaux (San Diego State University), and I were all interviewed separately for KRVS, the University of Louisiana’s uniquely original PBS radio station.  Thanks to Kenneth Granger and Cheryl Devall, the station’s general manager, for allowing us to share our experiences for several minutes!

The music festival’s final day included a 100^th birthday anniversary salute to Clifton Chenier, the incomparable Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys and the Savoy Family, and a host of distinguished zydeco and Cajun musicians too numerous to name. The heat of the day, dust, and huge crowds led my wife and me to the smaller venue at the Hilliard, where we enjoyed the welcome shade while being entertained by Zachary Richard’s stories and solos and a Creole La La session featuring Donna Angelle, Cedric Watson and others. By eight in the evening, another successful Festivals was in the books, surely to be added to Barry Ancelet’s next edition of One Generation at a Time.

Being a federal holiday, Monday the 13^th was Loreauville’s turn to gather locals and tourists on the banks of the Bayou Teche to showcase speakers, its Acadian monument, and its unique relationship to the birth of Acadian settlement in the 1760s and the sugar industry. Kudos to John Hebert and our friend Donald Arceneaux for their presentations in the old firehouse! Since Loreauville is near the city of New Iberia, stopping for pie and coffee at the Cane River Pecan Company Pie Bar – provided a welcome respite before attending a Broussard potluck that evening at the Perrin farm!

On Tuesday, the entire grounds of Lafayette’s Vermilionville complex were open for Family Day, with representative Acadian families manning several houses, obligatory music and food, and a newly-modified version of Warren and Mary Perrin’s skit on the Birth of Acadian Culture. I was most happy to portray Claude Broussard in the skit and then give a half-hour presentation to a receptive audience in the ‘church’ on the importance of Maryland Acadians in the development of Louisiana. A day in Acadian costume is always a joy!

The following day, October 15, my wife and I attended the Guidry-Hébert-Breaux reunion at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Scott. Since 2015, we have enthusiastically attended all the Guidry gatherings in Van Buren (Maine), Henderson and Rayne (LA), Summerside (Prince Edward Island), and St-Alphonse (Nova Scotia) at the invitation of Marty Guidry, president of the Guidry-Petitpas association, who has worked and travelled extensively for years to promote Acadian history and genealogy a little everywhere in North America. Marty possesses a friendly demeanor, super organization skills, and self-confidence in involving people of all ages and trades. He just seems to know everyone or has documented in print in his Générations Newsletter every noted (or notorious) Guidry of consequence!

The multifamily reunion was well attended. The hall was perfect for presentations by members of the reunion committee and Liz Martin, a delicious luncheon (jambalaya, white beans, cracklins, boudin, and contributed side dishes), entertaining music by Al Roger and Louisiana Pride, and well deserved honors shed on centenarian Shirley Guidry and new inductees to the Guidry-Petitpas Family Circle of Distinction.

The quick car trip back from Scott to Lafayette helped us arrive in time for a late-afternoon presentation by William Dailey at the restored J. Arthur Roy House, just across Johnston Street at U-L.  Home to the Center for Louisiana Studies, it has, by far, the best book sales area in the city for Louisiana-themed publications and an affable Assistant Director for Research, John “Pudd” Sharp, with whom we conversed further at the center the next morning before making some purchases.

October 16, we spent our last afternoon in Acadiana celebrating St. Martinville, once again taking advantage of a community jambalaya and visiting with old friends. Local artists were busy at work and entertainment was provided by musicians in the street behind St. Martin Church. Sadly, the Acadian Memorial there is only open on special occasions as this because of the town’s financial priorities. Its inspiring indoor mural by Robert Dafford, the wall commemorating the names of early Acadian settlers to Louisiana, and the garden along the Teche have welcomed us several times in the past and do not deserve to be limited in their access.

On the 17^th, the highway called us to begin our long return trip to Maryland even though festivities of the Grand Réveil would continue for two more days, in Broussard and in Church Point.

Lafayette has been named one of the happiest cities in the States. Its restaurant choices, musical opportunities, shopping, and accommodations are plentiful. Not to be missed are the shrimp po’boys and other fare at the Old Tyme Grocery and the opportunity to eat ice cream at the always popular Borden’s on Johnston Street.  Festivals, music clubs, and bars enliven the region throughout the year.

Each trip to Louisiana has come with new acquaintances and new adventures. Just before settling down in Lafayette for several days, we had revisited St. Gabriel and St. James Cabanocey, two of those areas settled by Maryland Acadians in the mid-1760s. At the former, providence helped us cross paths with Davi Martin, who proudly runs the Marguerite (aka Chatsworth Plantation) with Connie Harris, on LA Route 74, just a stone’s throw from the old and new St. Gabriel Church. While on the parking lot of the new church, Davi passed by in his truck and invited us to tour the Marguerite, an 18^th century bed and breakfast and its grounds which serve to host weekend markets, wedding receptions, parties, and the like. A builder by trade, Davi encouraged us to examine every nook of the historic two-story building and left us two hours later with a document in Spanish, pertaining to a land transaction in 1799. Thrilled by his reception, we took the document back to Maryland and carefully examined it. The Marguerite was quite possibly constructed as late as 1791 by Simon Joseph Dupuis on land first assigned to Marie Babin née Landry, the widow of Pierre, who had been in exile at Port Tobacco (MD) and whose son Ignace’s lot was adjacent to her upriver.

Soon after our return from the long car trip down south, I entered into phone and email conversations with two devoted St. Gabriel researchers, Sid Gray and David Broussard. Sid was greatly influenced in his career by Fred B. Kniffen, a cultural geographer at LSU; David is a furniture conservator. Obviously, both have a deep love and understanding of older buildings. With the aid of essays and personal observations, my knowledge of the district historically known as Iberville increased manyfold. We talked over the construction of St. Gabriel that took place from 1774 to 1776 and all that has transpired to this day. St. Gabriel is the oldest existing church in the Lower Mississippi Valley, and it is worth repeating that it was there that the records of St-Charles-des-Mines, Grand-Pré, 1707 to 1748, were dutifully turned over to authorities after being safely kept a dozen years in Maryland exile.  

I would be remiss not to mention several other familiar faces who have welcomed Lynn and me in our travels over the years: Randy Menard, Ray and Brenda Trahan, Earlene Broussard, Jolene Adam, Rev. Jason Vidrine, Allie Guidry, Jeff and Rachel Killingsworth, to mention a few.  And warm thanks to Dylan Killingsworth, Pudd Sharp, and Somerset Greer (U-L Press), with the hope of seeing you again at another Acadian festival.

Although it is still a few years distant, this is a most appropriate time to remind everyone of the next Congrès Mondial Acadien in August 2029 in the Baie-des-Chaleurs region of Québec and New Brunswick (Bonaventure, Campbellton, Dalhousie, Bathurst) and the next Grand Réveil that will take place in Louisiana in 2030 or 2031. Lafayette’s Festivals Acadiens et Créoles in the fall or the Festival International in April are annual celebrations worth planning for well in advance. It was just announced that, In October 2026, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage will partner with the Lafayette music festival to focus on America’s major anniversary with the theme “Revolution and Evolution: Celebrating 250 Years of Cultural Fusion on the Bayou.” According to my feed on Nolanewswire, expect an additional stage under the name Scène ’76, an expanded pre-festival symposium, and “initiatives that deepen public engagement with the region’s music, history, and material culture.”