The Acadian Heritage and Culture Foundation Inc. and the Famille Beausoleil Association announce a new fundraising effort to support the New Acadia Project.
The New Acadia Project (NAP) is an archaeological and historical initiative lau nched in 2013, that aims to locate and study Nouvelle Acadie – the original 1765 settlements of the first large group of Acadian exiles in Louisiana. Their descendants today comprise over 500,000 Cajuns in Louisiana and throughout the world.
NAP is spearheaded by University of Louisiana at Lafayette archaeologist Dr. Mark Rees. Dr. Rees and his students conducted the 2003 Amand Broussard archaeology research project near Loreauville, Louisiana, where Acadian artifacts dating from the 1780s were unearthed. Amand Broussard was the son of Acadian hero and leader Joseph Broussard who was called Beausoleil.
The ultimate goal is to obtain recognition by UNESCO that Acadiana’s Cajun culture is deemed to be a part of the World Heritage Site–and have it linked to Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia,from where the Cajuns’ ancestors sought refuge from the ethnic cleansing begun by the British in 1755.