Unbeknownst to us, she is a beloved musical maritime oral historian, singer songwriter in Canada. We have so much to tell about her, but we'll begin with the song, "Evangeline" on her Album, "No Place Like Home". (The Acadians are known as Cajuns down here in South Louisiana)
She wrote all the songs on this CD and the introduction to her "Evangeline", she writes:
"The story of the plight of the Acadian People, from their initial presence in Nova Scotia at the beginning of the 1600's, through their expulsion in 1755, and the impact they had and still have on our country, in the story of their immortal heroine: Evangline. Today she is alive and well in the thriving Acadien community along Nova Scotia's Evangeline Trail."
(I, Peggy, tried putting the accent marks over the "E's" in the word Evangeline and in the other words in the song, to denote the French pronounciation, but alas, am not that computer savvy.)
The words to her song are so beautiful:
"Evangeline
It was a time that stretched a hundred years
It was a place watered by your tears
And in the end, when your people were all gone
You live on, Evangeline, you live on
Chorus: Evangeline is in the wind
She's in the rising tide 'round Cape Blomidon
She's in the mountains high and the Valley deep within
Evangeline, Evangeline
There on the fruitful land of Acadie
You lived in peace away from tyranny
But far away a treaty was designed
To undermine Evangeline, undermine
England and France were gambling with your lives
In seventeen hundred fifty-five
And so the die was cast and France had lost
But at what cost, Evangeline, at what cost?
(chorus)
For generations you'd been on your own
You wouldn't bow to France or England's throne
So they expelled your people, everyone
Leaving none, Evangeline, leaving none
Three hundred years your spirit's been denied
Because of power and prejudice and pride
You were the first distinct society
Of Acadie, Evangeline, Acadie
Acadie has lived four hundred years
It is a place fertile from your tears
Until the end we'll proudly sing your song
You'll live on, Evangeline, You'll live on!
(Chorus in Acadien Translation):
Evangeline est dans le vent
Elle est au large des cotes du Cap-Blomidon
Sure les monts tres haut et au fond des vallons
Evangeline est dans le vent
She's in the mountains high and the Valley deep within
Evangeline, Evangeline"
Rosalee continues on her album, "Growing up in Nova Scotia gave me a rich historical heritage. Every wayward Maritimer's heart beats as Evangeline's, ever longing for home. I loved my trips along Nova Scotia's Evangeline Trail to the heart of Acadie; Grand Pre, Samuel de Champlain's Port Royal and majestic Blomidon Mountain.
For our Millenium Project, my brother, Herb, sister Lark and I bought our ancestral home on the other side of the Bay of Fundy. Our progenitor, Lawrence Peppard, built his homestead in 1774 on land that had been cultivated and nurtured for 150 years by the Acadian people before they were brutally expelled in 1755. I thought of my 7th great-grandmother, Mary, digging in her kitchen garden and finding eveidence of her Acadian predecessor and how I would have felt in her place. I reread Longfellow's epic poem, 'Evangeline' and continued research, finding 'Atlantic Hearth' by M. Byers & M. McBurney and 'The Acadians of Nova Scotia Past and present' by S. Ross & A. Deveau inspiring, until 'Evangline came to me one day..."
To see the video of her singing this tribute, followed by Cappy and Rosalee discussing the plight of Evangeline, click on youtube link below. (I'm so very proud of this one.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Il1Q56aNJE&list=UUe6CkaSkPG0EXROyp-xQkjw&index=1&feature=plcp
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