Acadian Museum

06/13/2026

This morning Traveling With Denella Ri’chard: America 250. show, which will feature Lafayette, Philadelphia and Boston, will air at 11:30AM on KATC TV. Later, It will be shown throughout the nation on over 100 television stations and probably on Netflix. Our museum chairman, Warren Perrin, will appear in Lafayette’s segment discussing the Acadians’ role in inspiring and helping to win the Revolutionary War.

The Lafayette, Louisiana segment from the nationally broadcast television series hosted by Denella Ri’chard, who is a native of Opelousas, Louisiana, will highlight the region’s Acadian heritage, Revolutionary War-era connections (men joined the Spanish Militia which was victorious over the British in four battles) and the diverse cultural influences that helped shape both Louisiana and the United States.

During the research for her special television event, host Denella Ri'chard uncovered a story that changed the way she views American history -- and her place within it.

06/08/2026

05/28/2026

Saturday, May 30, at 1 pm CDT, our chairman, Warren Perrin, will be giving a PowerPoint presentation to the Terrebonne Genealogical and Historical Society at the Terrebonne Parish Library, 151 Library Drive in Houma, LA.

In this talk, he will be explaining his efforts to bring about the Queen’s Royal Proclamation of 2003. In her proclamation, Queen Elizabeth II acknowledged for the first time the wrongs committed in the name of the English Crown during the Acadian deportation of 1755. The proclamation established July 28 of each year as “a day of commemoration of the Great Upheaval.”

The Acadian Museum, located in the heart of Cajun country, commemorates and honors the Acadian heritage and Cajun people of South Louisiana. Here you can find

05/28/2026

Tomorrow afternoon, Friday May 29, 2 pm, at the Acadian Museum in Erath, LA, we will host a ceremony inducting two outstanding musicians into the Order of Living Legends so please come by the museum if you are in the area tomorrow.

Our newest Legends are Wade Benson Landry and his wife Teresa. Wade is a native of Vermilion Parish who recently moved back to his roots in South Louisiana. Teresa is "a Missouri Cajun" from Laredo, MO, NE of the Kansas City area.

Wade Benson Landry toured the world with some of the greatest performers like George Jones, Tammy Wynette, and Jimmy C. Newman. Landry's impressive awards, among many others, include:

2000 - Fiddle Player of the Year by the Branson All American Entertainment Awards.

2015- Inducted into the Old Time Fiddler’s Hall of Fame by the National Traditional Country Music Association

2017- Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Traditional Country Music Association

2017- Fiddle Player of the Year by the Branson Terry Music Awards.

Several Branson All American Entertainment Awards Nominations for Fiddle Player and Mandolin Player of the Year .

Please come by and join us to honor these new Legends. Admission to the event is totally free.

04/22/2026

When 6,000 Acadians were first deported from Nova Scotia in 1755, many more escaped through the woods and formed a resistance that lasted for several years, then traveled to Louisiana with Beausoleil to start a New Acadia on the banks of the Teche. This book tells the whole story from the point-of-view of the Bernard family, but it could easily be the tale of your own Acadian ancestors, many of whom were friends and neighbors of the Bernards. Click below for more details ...

TESTIMONIAL: "Your work is a tight, tidy piece of our history, wonderfully readable, to be savored not only by your relations for generations to come, but also by all lovers of the thing called 'Acadian.'" —Steven A. Cormier, historian and author of acadiansingray.com FROM THE AUTHOR I wrote this ...

04/04/2026

Want to keep up with the latest in news about Acadian and Cajun history, culture, and monthly events? Use the button below to subscribe to our newsletter.

News about Acadian/Cajun history, genealogy, culture, and key events. Click to read Acadian Museum of South Louisiana, by Acadian Museum of Louisiana, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

03/29/2026

A great Cajun tradition...

02/11/2026

Long-time followers of the museum may recall that we launched our own YouTube Channel in October 2022. Since that debut, the channel has been quite successful with a total of 192,722 "views" or visitors to-date, who have spent a total of 22,000 hours watching our 150+ videos. We now have 1,886 subscribers, surpassing our original goal by 90%. The site is averaging about 80 views per day, from people all over the world. Our most-watched video is the one with the late D. L. Menard, singing at a party on Lake Peigneur, near Delcambre, LA (pictured below).

The channel was originally created by museum newsletter editor Ryan Bernard, but most thanks go to Kermit Bouillion, who did the hard work of cleaning up the digital versions of many old VHS tapes we had in our collection, and uploading most of the 150+ video files to YouTube, a very time-consuming process.

For those interested, the video channel is located here:
https://www.youtube.com/

And here is a link to our most popular video (D. L. Menard) which has now been viewed over 73,000 times:
https://youtu.be/9EHP2TV8Y4A

11/07/2025

A new monument honors the Acadian Odyssey...