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     suffering of the people, nor a tribute to 
     
     those who survived to rebuild the present 
     
     day Acadian community — their language, 
     
     culture and religion still intact, as 
     
     promised them in 1763 by the Treaty of 
     
     Paris. 
     
    
   
   
    
     People speak of lands made holy by the 
     
     blood of martyrs, but I believe that lands 
     
     can also be made sacred by the suffering 
     
     of innocent people, such as we have done 
     
     in dedicating monuments in France to 
     
     Canadian soldiers who served there, 
     
     among those who died. When I visit Port- 
     
     la—Joye/Fort Amherst I feel a sense of 
     
     reverence in the silence of the place, 
     
     made all the more profound by the lack of 
     
     visitors. It is the most important historical 
     
     site in Atlantic Canada, being the seat of 
     
     two earliest governments as well as the 
     
     site of an expulsion of thousands of 
     
     innocents, and yet it is larger ignored. It 
     
     is ignored because we have not known 
     
     what to make of it. The Acadian people 
     
     have now lived for two hundred and 
     
     forty-three years with the memory of the 
     
     expulsion, much of that time spent in 
     
     cautious dread of the English majority, 
     
     asking mostly to be left alone. For our 
     
     part, our governments undertook to make 
     
     them English. Until only recently, in 
     
     terms of lsland history, their school books 
     
     were in English, their curriculum was an 
     
     English curriculum, and classes were to 
     
     be conducted in English. The services of 
     
     their govemment were conducted entirely 
     
     in English and little accommodation was 
     
     made for those who could not understand 
     
     the language. We have not understood 
     
     their persistence in remaining French. 
     
    
   
   
    
     For many reasons, I have long thought 
     
     that the National Historie Site should be 
     
     turned over to an Acadian organization 
     
     for management, under contract with 
     
     Parks Canada. The Acadian people 
     
    
   
   
    
     LA PETITE SOUVENANCE 
     
    
   
   
    
     should be welcomed back to Port-la—Joye 
     
     in time for their major celebration in 
     
     2004, not t0 commemorate the expulsion 
     
     but rather to celebrate their return and 
     
     prideful survival arnong us. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Port-la—Joye/Fort Arnherst should be a 
     
     major attraction for visitors, not only for 
     
     its surpassing beauty but also because 
     
     there is no better setting for telling people 
     
     the history of our province, and why it is 
     
     a province. Some years ago we were 
     
     invited to prepare a management plan for 
     
     the site, which was set aside at the time 
     
     because of the federal government’s 
     
     total and over—riding commitment to 
     
     accountancy rather than program 
     
     development. I believe it is now time for 
     
     the plan t0 be dusted off, and who would 
     
     have a better cause to do it than an 
     
     Acadian organization through a 
     
     management contract with the 
     
     Govemment of Canada. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     john Eldon Green is a 
     
     descendant of refugees 
     
     from the American 
     
     Revolution who settled on 
     
     PEI, on lands cleared by 
     
     French pioneers.