Acadians land in St. Martinville – again!

The 10th annual Acadian Memorial Heritage Festival and Wooden Boat Congrès March 15 was everything that could be expected and more. The clouds cooled down the day for the roughly 2,000 participants who took part in cultural activities, a re-enactment, dancing, shopping, eating, French theater, boating, children`s activities and more.

A reenactment of the arrival of the Acadians at the Poste des Attakapas was the highlight of the day. With the Babineaux and Gravois families in the place of honor, the Acadians came up the Bayou Teche accompanied by Père Donald Akers. The French Commandant “Declouet” welcomed them followed by an amusing blessing by Père Akers.

After disembarking, they were officially welcomed ashore by members of the Attakapas Ishak, Attakapas Eagles and Attakapas Opelousas Prairie tribes. They were then escorted back to the festival grounds with a parade of Acadian family banners.

The rest of the day was a wonderful mélange of special moments and activities for just about everyone. The putt putt boating community came out en masse and shared their expertise on boating with everyone, and even offered rides on the boats to those who asked.

Bernadette Daigle from Ontario, Canada, was delighted to discover her Louisiana cousins. She was thrilled to speak French, to ride in one of the putt putt boats and to find a Daigle cousin who had all of the genealogy information.

All of the native tribes shared cultural artifacts and stories, and the Attakapas Opelousas Prairie performed some of their native dances and invited everyone to join in. Earlène Broussard, Director of Théâtre Cadien had a great time teaching and the group had a great time learning les danses rondes, traditional Acadian dances.

Cheri Armentor, who did the children`s puppet show, came and spent the entire day with her daughter Sammie. And they didn`t miss a single event, including the table française, with Mavis Frugé.

La Compagnie de la Franche Troupe de la Marine, colonial French troops in North America, were impressive in their costumes and demonstrations of canons and other things. Interestingly enough, when the Acadians arrived at the Poste des Attakapas in 1765, Louisiana had become a Spanish territory but the French military were still active.

Longfellow Evangeline State Historic Site shared furs and other artifacts from what life was like on the bayou.

Choupique, a band out of Baton Rouge and Gonzales, played traditional Cajun, zydeco and swamp pop.

Not only did folks get to watch Randy Ménard, Ray Trahan, Camille Blanchard and other cooks preparing gumbo, cracklin, jambalaya, fried catfish and boudin, they got a chance to try it out also! Yum! Yum!

And add to all of that, a quilting demonstration, arts and crafts for sale, videos, egg pâquer-ing, the Acadian Memorial and the Cultural Heritage Center at time full to the brim, lots of volunteers, it was a very sweet and satisfying day!

Congratulations to members of the Acadian Memorial Foundation, who put on the Festival! And in particular to Marty Guidry, Festival Chairman, and Janie Bulliard. A big thanks to the City of St. Martinville and the St. Martin Parish Tourist Commission! And to our sponsors – Community Coffee, Phil Haney, D.A., and Le Talley-Ho! And of course to all of our volunteers who make this festival possible!

A l’année prochaine! Till next year!