• Names frame the call to remember 
• Nova Scotia teen band feeling at home 
• Families have their day at Acadian Village
• Scott/Memramcook Twinning
• Acadian Genetics Symposium

Highlights of the Congr?s Mondial Acadien Louisiane -- 1999 for Wednesday include:

A enactment of a traditional ''Courir du Mardi Gras'' and choir music in Church Point; a lecture by Carole
Peters and a presentation by famed genealogist Stephen White of the Center for Acadian Studies at the
University of Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, a joining of the Mi'kmaq and Houma Indians of Canada
and Louisiana respectively, all at the Acadian Memorial in St. Martinville; the hosting of the families of
Benoit, Bertrand, Daigle and Pitre at Acadian Village in Lafayette; and a musical presentation of Louisiana song in French at the Opelousas Museum and interpretive center.
 
 

SCOTT -- Probably for the first time in this century, more French than English was spoken in this small
city just west of Lafayette. That was because people from France and Canada en masse came to
celebrate the one-day ''Fetons Congr?s a Scott,'' literally meaning ''Let's celebrate the (Louisiana World)
Congress (of Acadians -1999) in Scott.''

The mayors of Memramcook, New Brunswick, Canada; St. Aubin, France, and, of course, Scott Mayor
Hazel Dugas Myers were on hand for the celebration of the ''Congr?s Mondial Acadien Louisiane-1999''
in a joyous ensemble of the cities representing cousins from three geographically distant countries.

Memramcook was twinned with Scott in 1996. The city was twinned with St. Aubin in 1989. Myers
delivered a proclamation that read in part: ''The City of Scott is appreciative of our twinning cities and look forward to many years of camaraderie among all and is honored to have representatives of our twinning cities here.'' 

Mayor Jean-Louis Dospital of St. Aubin set the real tone of the event when, glancing at his Memramcook
counterpart, said all ''the cousins'' were together that day in that place.

He also praised the ''incredible hospitality'' of the descendants of Acadian refugees expelled from Acadie, now comprised of the Maritime Provinces of Canada, who settled in Louisiana. He said such ''cultural contact'' amounted to ''a different country'' comprised of blood ties and a common heritage which had survived 245 years of oppression on both sides of the Atlantic and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

Memramcook Mayor Bernard LeBlanc elaborated on the same theme in a prepared statement and during
a private interview shortly after the ceremony launching the celebration in the City Council chamber. He
said the twinnings of the three cities were part of creating a ''global village'' of Acadians and actually
redefined the word ''twinnings'' which he found in a dictionary as meaning the joining of cultural and
tourism interests.

''But the Acadians of the north and the 'Cadiens (Cajuns) of the south have something more in common,'' he said. ''What is common between us ... is that we have common ancestors.''

''What we find in the Cajuns today in Louisiana,'' he said, ''is that they are happy people and full of vitality. They are super- people. That is what we look for in them and that is what we find.''

He said as a result of these cultural and personal exchanges there is finally developing a kind of ''mythical kingdom'' of Acadians worldwide, augmented by modern technology that allows for direct and nearly instantaneous communication via computers. 

''This is just the beginning,'' he said, ''of our long voyage toward togetherness.''

The applause from the gathered French, Canadian and Louisiana descendants of Acadians was
thunderous.