Moncton artist hears her late mother's voice in photo exhibit of Acadian women

The idea for her latest project came to Stella d'Entremont in the middle of the night.

The Moncton photographer and storyteller wanted to explore the lives of Acadian women from her mother's generation and "give them a voice."

"It was a way of getting to know who my mom really was," she said.

"My mom passed away when I was only 34 and I didn't really know who she was like really what drove her? What triggered her? What was her experience growing up?"

WATCH | Hearing stories from the 'silent generation':

Giving a voice to a 'silent generation'

8 months ago

Duration 2:50

Moncton photographer Stella dEntremont spoke to 36 Acadian and Cajun women born between 1925 and 1945 in the Maritimes and Louisiana.

D'Entremont, a baby boomer, said she never quite understood the generation that came before her, known as the silent generation.

"As I was getting older, I was getting more and more curious as to who she was."

D'Entremont put a notice on social media that she wanted to photograph and interview women born between 1925 and 1945, and she is now sharing what she saw through her camera lens.

Her exhibit, Voices of the Silent Generation, is on display at the Muse acadien at the University of Moncton until April 28.

A very different time

D'Entremont sat down with 36 Acadian and Cajun women across the Maritimes and Louisiana and began every conversation by asking them to share their earliest memory. At the end, she asked what role religion plays in their lives now.

Their answers surprised her.

"Each individual, they kind of told my mom's story. Slowly I was getting to know who my mother was," she said. "It really warmed my heart."

D'Entremont's mother was born in Pubnico, N.S. She left school after Grade 5 to work as a cashier at the local general store. At the age of 15, sheworked at a fish plant. She married and had eight children.

Her mother's story is included in the exhibit and d'Entremont describes her as "a devout Catholic." She said the interviews she did with other women often overlapped with her mother's story especially when they described the importance and control of priests in their communities.

"They didn't have the liberty to do what they wanted to do," she said."They were so controlled by the clergy."

Many of the women told her similar stories of dropping out of school to work at fish plants and helpingto support their large families. They were raised to be mothers and housewives. Some also shared how priests even influenced what went on in their bedrooms after they were married.

"If some of these ladies weren't pregnant year after year, it wouldn't be abnormal for the priests from the community to go and visit them and ask why she's not getting pregnant to make sure they weren't stopping the family from growing."

Book important record of Acadian women

After completing the photo exhibit, d'Entremont wanted the stories she had gathered to live on for future generations.

She has also published a bilingual book, also called Voices of the Silent Generation.

Historian Maurice Basque calls d'Entremont's work "really, really interesting" and said the fact that most women of that generation were "not in the public space" makes it unique.

"It gives us new material because of the originality of the questions that were asked and the answers that were given," he said.

Like d'Entremont, Basque believes the stories show how women of the silent generation contributed to "modern Acadie."

"I picked that group of individuals to give them a voice for at least once in their life," d'Entremont said.