Antonine Maillet, considered the foremost voice in literature for Acadian people, delivered an impassioned speech Friday at the Confederation of the Arts. Mallet is the recipient of the 2016 Symons Medal. The Symons Medal and Lecture on the State of Canadian Confederation provides a national platform for a distinguished Canadian to discuss the current state and future prospects of Confederation.
Right out of the gate, acclaimed Acadian author, Antonine Maillet, questioned her inclusion among the holders of the Symons Medal, one of Canada’s most prestigious honours.
“How come I’ve been raised up onto a pedestal previously occupied by a royal highness, many heads of government, a chief judge of the Supreme Court and various global visionaries,’’ she asked of the audience that took in her thought-provoking lecture, delivered with wit, charm and engrossing anecdotes, entitled Canada From Sea to Sea…To Sea at the Confederation Centre of the Arts Friday.
Continuing along the self-deprecating theme, she quipped: “Raised up to the same level as the great ones who have preceded me on this podium – even though I’m not even five feet tall. Whose bright idea was that?’’
Maillet, noted broadcaster and scholar, proceeded to build a strong case for her, a woman viewed as a global ambassador for Acadians, being selected to join other notable Canadians.
First, she identified herself as a minority — on several fronts.
As an Atlantic Canadian – she hails from Bouctouche, N.B. – she is a “kind of minority,’’ or at least a minority in Canada, she noted.
Artists like her, she said, are invisible minorities of sorts.
And women, while simply in numbers form a majority, still assume minority status, she contended.
“As Acadian, a woman and a writer, I combine, without ever intending to do so, a number of the important differences within our multi-faceted country,’’ she observed.
And as a writer – arguably the foremost voice in literature for Acadian people – Maillet gave life, context and gripping humanity to her ancestors.
Her hometown in New Brunswick boasts Le Pays de La Sagouine, a theme park based on her award-winning La Sagouine (1971). The attraction celebrates the uniqueness of the Acadian dialect and history, and brings tens of thousands of tourists annually to a town of 2,500 people.
The historic events of le Grand Dérangement, also known as the Great Expulsion, are monumental in Maillet’s writing.
In 1979, she won France’s most coveted literary award, the Prix Goncourt, for her novel, Pélagie-la-Charette, where her book sold more than one million copies.
She does not shy away from the remarkable distinction of being the first ever North American to win France’s highest literary honour.
“And the first Canadian to win the Prix Goncourt is…an Acadian woman,’’ she rightfully boasted.
“And that, ladies and gentleman, is how a writer, even when speaking freely before an audience as open and attentive as you are, can close the loop and come back to the topic of her Acadian ancestry, without skipping a beat.’’
Maillet also relished in recalling a conversation she had with the late Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
She wanted to inquire about Trudeau’s inspiration to be the first national leader to speak the words Acadie and Acadians in the House of Commons.
She peered into Trudeau’s eyes and asked him if he was aware of the impact of his referencing Acadie.
No, he informed, he did not recall having said it.
“He must have assumed I would be disappointed,’’ she noted.
“On the contrary, I rejoiced and openly declared that his avowal was of the utmost importance to me: if he had forgotten about it, then it could not have come from his heart or mind alone, but from the depths of his being, the depository of a larger, vaster memory that collects and safeguards the collective memory of time immemorial and universal cultures.’’
Maillet told her audience she leaves to politicians the task of building new tomorrows and reconfiguring the world anew.
“In return, I ask that they acknowledge the right of those who create our future myths to express in sound, light, images and words their vision of a more just, harmonious and noble world,’’ she said.
“Tonight Canada honours a woman, an Acadian and a voice. A first. A major first. And so I hereby grant myself the right to dream on behalf of all three.’’
