Dugua de Mons Port-Royal 1605-1613 Art Exhibit June 14-18

Sally O’Grady, and Christine Igot looking forward to the Dugua de Mons Port-Royal Art Exhibit from June 14-18. photo: Jason Malloy

Organizers of the initial Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons, Day in Annapolis Royal are building on last year’s success.

“We had such amazing event,” said Christine Igot, past president of the town’s twinning committee. “I did not want to lose that momentum.”

A series of events are planned for, and leading up to, June 18 – the day the region will celebrate Dugua, a merchant explorer who financed the French expeditions of Port Royal in 1604 and 1605. He had received a fur trade monopoly on the condition he would take settlers to l'Acadie. Port Royal became the first permanent European settlement north of Florida.

Habitation, Port Royal. Photo: Parks Canada

While Dugua de Mons is responsible for the French language coming to North America, most people are more familiar with Samuel de Champlain and Mathieu de Costa as Dugua only spent 16 months here before returning to France to defend the monopoly. But he promoted the French coming to North America for the rest of his life.

“The objective of Dugua de Mons Day is to have Dugua de Mons better known,” Igot explained from downtown Annapolis Royal.

“Even people from here are not necessarily familiar with the importance of Dugua de Mons. And Canadian historians that I have researched, that I have read about, say that without Dugua de Mons, there would have been no Champlain.”

The Town of Annapolis Royal, Municipality of the County of Annapolis and Parks Canada are partnering on the Dugua celebrations.

During the planning stages for this year’s event, Igot put out a call for ideas of what could be done to mark the day.

A pilot art exhibit, hosted by the Municipality of the County of Annapolis, will be held at the Lower Granville Community Hall, across the road from the Habitation, from June 14 to 18.

“I am very, very grateful to Sally (O’Grady) for coming up with the brilliant idea,” Igot said.

Dugua de Mons

Igot and O’Grady said county officials were very receptive when they presented the idea to them.

“I think it’s important that we remember all aspects of our history and Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons, played a very significant role in the French settlement of various parts of Canada in the 17th century,” Warden Alex Morrison said. “By recognizing him, inherently we recognize all of the people who came from abroad and who have settled here in Nova Scotia.”

Officials from Annapolis Royal and Royan, France, Dugua’s birthplace, have been conducting regular visits to each other’s community for nearly 30 years. O’Grady has been involved from the start.

The Dugua de Mons PortRoyal 1605-1613 exhibit curator said the contemporary art exhibit includes a collection of items reflective of the French, the Mi’kmaq and the Habitation.

“We’re focusing on the people, the place and that time frame,” she said.

It will consist of things like books, maps and paintings, including one of Dugua on loan from the lieutenant-governor’s residence in Halifax. It will also include a large poster of the 2005 stamp of the Habitation on loan from the Annapolis Royal post office.

“The whole hall is going to be filled with interesting objects,” Igot said. “There will be things that are in people’s private collections that the general population doesn’t get to see.”

With the permission from Parks Canada, O’Grady is also co-ordinating artists creating art at the Habitation during the week. The Habitation was built in 1605 and burned by the English in 1613. The federal government reconstructed it in 1939.

“That Habitation, that replica fort, is one of the most incredible sites,” O’Grady said. “It really is a gem.”

She said by having the exhibit at the Lower Granville hall, organizers hope people will visit the Habitation while in the area.

On the dykes. Photo: Andrew Tolson

“We want it, as an exhibit, to highlight that piece of geography and that piece of history.”

On June 18, Igot will do a slideshow presentation while Parks Canada interpreter Pierre Longtin will be dressed as Dugua de Mons at the Habitation.

from the journalism of Jason Malloy, Annapolis Valley Register