The Musée des Acadiens des Pubnicos - Pubnico, NS

In the next few posts, we’ll be taking you on a virtual tour of the eight locations that make up The Acadian Passport. Here in Nova Scotia, we all learn the story of the Acadian Deportation in school. This summer, we learned there was a whole lot more to the story of the Acadians, both before and after the Deportation. See all posts in this series below.

The Musée des Acadiens des Pubnicos is quite literally a living museum that will take you back through the history of an Acadien settlement that even predates Grand Pré. Located in an old homestead in West Pubnico, the museum provides a multi sensory experience of Acadian life over the past 400 years.

There are, of course, plenty of things to see in the display cases, such as the aboiteau found in Pubnico that was once part of the local dyke system. There are also plenty of historical artifacts to be seen but not touched, from the octants and sextants for sea navigation to the tools used for building the homes like the one that houses the museum.

For those of us who learn through our hands, the museum holds regular quilting sessions done in the traditional style. Children have an opportunity to manipulate the model dykes to create their own irrigation systems.

The museum has interpretive guides to tell you about the origins of the artefacts as well as the history of the region. The guides are all from the area, with surnames like d’Entremont and d’Eon, so this history is their history. Because of that, they are able to give tours in both English and the unique dialect of French found in the Pubnicos.

Behind the museum is a garden that features exclusively plants that were available to the Acadien settlers in 1653. There are rows of carrots and cabbage and beets, bushes of gooseberries and raspberries, as well as lavender, roses and nasturtiums. Be sure to finish your tour of the museum by tasting the delicious candied rose petals!

Many of the museum’s visitors are people from near and far who are looking to trace their family roots. American visitors who have never met another d’Entremont before have been moved to tears to find so many of their distant kin in one place.

Thanks to the foundation of genealogical work laid down by pere Clarence d’Entremont the museum houses extensive and painstakingly-kept records of the names of over 85,000 people with Acadien heritage.

Learn more about The Musée des Acadiens des Pubnicos in the video below:

Location:
898 Highway 335
West Pubnico, Yarmouth County, NS

Website: http://www.museeacadien.ca/

Acadian Passport Series:
Historical Acadian Village of Nova Scotia – Lower West Pubnico
Musee Acadiene des Pubnico – Lower West Pubnico

We visited Musée des Acadiens des Pubnicos as part of The Acadian Passport. The Acadian Passport has hired us to produce videos to help showcase this unique Nova Scotian cultural experience. Opinions in this post are our own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhmdWoNhsvM