Co-editors’ Note

Abstract

Co-editors’ Note Erin Morton and Peter L. Twohig THE SPRING 2023 ISSUE IS THE FIRST FULLY DIGITAL EDITION OF ACADIENSIS. We face a changing world when it comes to publishing and moving towards more accessible, digital, and open access formats. From a political perspective, the goal of Acadiensis has always been to publish the finest scholarship on the Atlantic region, while making space for new analytical paths. For more than 50 years, Acadiensis has continued to reach new audiences. We open this issue with a research article that examines Acadian histories of enslaving people of African descent. Colby Gaudet examines two prominent Acadian community leaders alongside well-known Loyalist enslavers in the early 18th century, offering an important perspective into the interconnected networks of Acadian and British Empire slavery. William R. Miles and Michael E. Vance’s research article focuses on settler colonialism and British soldier settlement following the War of 1812 along the Annapolis Road, a land route connecting Halifax to Annapolis Royal. The authors demonstrate how these “soldier settlers” contributed to the further disruption of Mi’kmaw communities in the interior of Nova Scotia. Katherine Crooks’s research article analyzes Mina Hubbard’s Labrador expedition to illustrate how her important standing as a traveller and witness to the north was shaped both through her empirical observations and her writing. Crooks demonstrates that this was a “two-part” process that was shaped through her gender and writing aspirations, but also through her negotiation of racial, physical, and moral issues. Ronald Rudin’s research article brings us into the mid-20th century to look at the survival mechanisms of poor Anglo and Acadian families navigating the New Brunswick Fishermen’s Disaster Fund. Using the 1959 Escuminac Disaster as a case study, Rudin shows the paternalistic interest that sharpened linguistic and religious divisions within the impacted communities. Finally, Susan Parker’s research article uses contemporary shifts in Canadian museology to examine the increased inclusion of Black and Indigenous histories in Nova Scotia museums while expanding into public history debates over colonial commemorations. [End Page 4] Hannah Lane’s review essay examines two recent books on life writing in the region–Ruth Compton Brouwer’s All Things in Common: A Canadian Family and Its Island Utopia and Michael Boudreau and Bonnie Huskins’s Just the Usual Work: The Social Worlds of Ida Martin, Working-Class Diarist. Daryl Leeworthy’s review essay looks at the history of deindustrialization in the region against broader scholarship by examining Steven High’s One Job Town: Work, Belonging and Betrayal in Northern Ontario and Lachlan MacKinnon’s Closing Sysco: Industrial Decline in Atlantic Canada’s Steel City. As co-editors, we were deeply saddened by the passing of Peter Kent and Elizabeth McGahan, both of whom were important scholars. As longstanding members of the Editorial Board, they made crucial contributions to shaping Acadiensis over the years, including Peter’s longtime role as board secretary and Beth’s many rigorous reviews of articles. We offer our sincere condolences to Beth and Peter’s families and close friends and colleagues. Our editorial team is committed to providing our readership with content in multiple languages including the Indigenous languages of the territory we live and research in. Moving forward, we hope to use our new digital format to increase our French-language content as well as to bring in Indigenous-language content through inviting submissions (in the orthography of their choice) from Mi’kmaw, Peskotomuhkati, W last kwey/Wolastoqey, Innu, and Inuit authors from this region. If these Indigenous authors write in English or French, Acadiensis will either have their pieces translated into their Indigenous language or translate a 200-word extended abstract into their Indigenous language. In this issue, while we do not offer content in these languages, we are happy to report that we are currently working on the translation of two W last kwey/Wolastoqey abstracts, which should be appearing, along with the longer work in English, in the upcoming Autumn issue. This is an important part of our ongoing obligation to live in peace and friendship in Wabanaki territory, where our journal offices are located, and where we must constantly recommit ourselves to telling the...