Kouchibouguac: Removal, Resistance, and Remembrance at a Canadian National Park
© 2016
In 1969, the federal and New Brunswick governments created Kouchibouguac National Park on the province’s east coast. The park’s creation required the relocation of more than 1200 people who lived within its boundaries. Government officials claimed the mass eviction was necessary both to allow visitors to view “nature” without the intrusion of a human presence and to improve the lives of the former inhabitants. But unprecedented resistance by the mostly Acadian residents, many of whom described their expulsion from the park as a “second deportation,” led Parks Canada to end its practice of forcible removal. One resister, Jackie Vautour, remains a squatter on his land to this day.
In Kouchibouguac, Ronald Rudin draws on extensive archival research, interviews with more than thirty of the displaced families, and a wide range of Acadian cultural creations to tell the story of the park’s establishment, the resistance of its residents, and the memory of that experience.
Product Details
- World Rights
- Page Count: 400 pages
- Illustrations: 41
- Dimensions: 6.0in x 0.9in x 9.0in
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Reviews
“Kouchibouguac is an excellent book, not only as a resource, but as enlightening reading for anyone with a social conscience. Ronald Rudin is to be applauded for his intensive and extensive research and his obvious concern for getting the Kouchibouguac story told properly and lucidly.”
James M. Fisher
The Miramichi Reader, August 24, 2016‘This is an important book that tells a story, we think we know, in a new and different way… A significant contribution to the regional and national history of Canada.’
Tina Loo
Acadiensis September 2016‘Historians, civil servants, students, and general public will find it a stimulating and valuable interpretation of the time and events.’
Sheila Andrew
Canadian Historical Review vol 97:04:2016"The research in Kouchibouguac is meticulous. Rudin's excellent and innovative study integrates not only documentary sources but also interviews, theatrical portrayals, and his own engagement with the changing landscape."
John Reid, Department of History, Saint Mary's University"In Kouchibouguac,Ronald Rudin tells the compelling story of the state-led relocation of Kent County residents in New Brunswick to make way for the Kouchibouguac National Park in the 1970s, the ways in which some residents' resisted removal, and, finally, how the memory and commemoration of this sad high modernist tale has changed over the past forty years. Rudin tells the expropriates' stories sensitively, painting a compelling picture of their communities and survival strategies and of the impact of relocation."
James Kenny, Department of History, Royal Military College of Canada -
Author Information
Ronald Rudin is a professor in the Department of History and co-director of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University. His most recent book, Remembering and Forgetting in Acadie, received both the US National Council on Public History Book Award and the Public History Prize of the Canadian Historical Association.
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Table of contents
Prologue: On the Road Again
Part I: Removal
Chapter 1: People Before the Park
Chapter 2: Planning Without People
Chapter 3: Removal and Rehabilitation
Part II: Resistance
Chapter 4: Gone Fishing
Chapter 5: The Acadian Freedom Fighter
Part III: Remembrance
Chapter 6: Art for a Cause
Chapter 7: Reconciliation
Epilogue: Chez Comeau
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Prizes
2018 National Council on Public History Book Award
- Commended in 2018
Canadian Oral History Association Prize awarded by the Canadian Historical Association - Winner in 2017
Clio Atlantic Region Prize awarded by the Canadian Historical Association - Winner in 2017
Prix de l’Assemblée nationale of the Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique français - Winner in 2017
Sir John A. Macdonald Prize awarded by the Canadian Historical Association - Short-listed in 2017 -
Subjects and Courses
