Es-ed-eiik/Shediac
Watercourse that goes deep into the land
Artists
Diana Leblanc
Cynthia Sewell
Shediac
Shediac : Es-ed-eiik meaning river who is deeply sinking into the lands.
The town of Shediac used to be called La Batture.
Shediac or Chedaïque also included all the places around the bay, from Grand Digue to Barachois. The mouth of two rivers, the Shediac and the Scoudouc, are forming the bay of Shediac.
Two steps away from Cocagne.
At one time, the most important Mi’kmaq camp in the south-east.
Place of exportation and exploitation of the Acadian workforce: the wood, the farm products, the potato sorters and lobster in can.
The industrialization is moving in with the locomotives who arrive in 1854, the Hercule and the Samson. By using rail and water with the railway, the sea port, the dock of the Queen and the one of Pointe-du-chêne. With the steamboats, Shediac-Charlottetown, and the fathers of the confederation on the Queen Victoria in 1864. Later on, will come the airmail service with seaplane.
Stuck between the Anglophone elite merchants of Shediac Cape and the Pointe-du-chêne, La Batture is having a hard time.
So many white mass without missionaries, so many white nights of our heroic mothers.
But we’re also having fun with the horse races on the frozen bay the day after New Year.
In 1911, against 350 Anglophones, we have 1100 Acadians who pay two taxes for the schools, the public and the Catholic. It took a lot of lobster tails.
The chiac, form of resistance becomes the way to survive.
The Acadian star is darkened by centuries of English dominance but slowly coming back to the azure.
Vacation place, superb charm, friendly beaches in the surroundings.
In the heat lightning, we imagine planes from Italy in Mussolini’s time.
If we prick up one’s ears, we can hear the Acadian nightingale Anna Malenfant.
If we stare wide-eyed, we can catch a glimpse of the great patriot, Pascal Poirier.
If we sniff a bit, the breeze from the ocean tells the story of this worldwide lobster capital.
Because the name of Cocagne in Amerindian language means: we’re always coming back home - this includes Shediac -, we understand the need to go back where everything started.
Diana Leblanc
Moncton, N.B.
Diana Leblanc is originally from Rogersville, New Brunswick. She currently lives in the Moncton area. She holds a bachelor's degree in visual arts from the Université de Moncton and works as a technician in the visual arts department of the Université de Moncton.
Diana Leblanc has participated in many activities in the field of ceramic sculpture. In 2000, she was named artist of the year in visual arts for the exhibition Présence 27. She created the monumental sculpture Make Room for Me for the Women's Monument in Moncton for the World March of Women in 2000. The work is located at the Chocolate River Music Conservatory in Dieppe. She has also participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada and the United States.
Through her artistic approach, she is interested in the human being in relation to what surrounds him. Her exploration allows her to understand the strength and weakness of the human being. The faces and bodies sometimes show a tragic life experience.
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The work she created for the exhibition Irreducible racines is inspired by the Mi'kmaq origin of the name "Shediac".
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For the realization of this work, she was inspired by the importance of the importance of transportation on the rivers by canoe, when the Mi'kmaq surely reached out to the to the Acadians to ensure their survival. This work evolves around the pain and suffering of a certain past, one past, one unconsciously clinging to the other.
Cynthia Sewell
First Nation
Pabineau, N.B.
Cynthia Sewell is a First Nations artist from Pabineau, New Brunswick. She works for the New Brunswick Arts Board as a representative of Mi'kmaq artists.
She has been an artist since 1980. Her favourite material is wood and she also works on projects that include embroidery using porcelain beads and wood beads.
She was guided in the creation of this work by Jean Bourgeau Jr. of Saint-Jean Port-Joli, Quebec.
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The work she created for the exhibition Irreducible racines is inspired by the Mi'kmaq origin of the name "Shediac".