Votre honneur, Ladies and Gentlemen :
Like drama, personal journeys are defined by time and space. My own journey began on the shores of Pictou Harbour, in the very anglophone hamlet of Loch Broom. I would never have thought to call my village "Lac Brume," poetic as that might have been.
Time brought me to another shore, the edge of the Cumberland Basin and the space north of the Missaquash – ou Mésagouèche – known as the Tantramar Marshes where, in the words of an anonymous student poet who wrote in the Mount Allison Argosy in 1935, "Arsenault, Boudreau, Legere, LeBlanc, / Built the dykes and made them strong."
Ma ville chevauche de nombreuses routes migratoires – celles des milliers d'oiseaux qui passent chaque année, la Transcanadienne, le chemin de fer, les avions qui sillonnent notre ciel sans arrêt, les ondes de Radio-Canada Internaional qui parle au monde, et les tracés de tant de départs – et de dispersions.
Beaucoup sont partis. Quelques-uns sont restés. And some returned, to find their roots, and their voice. Like the actor-student who discovered, when she showed her grandfather the script for Charivari, Sounds of the Tantramar, that her family's name had been changed to White from LeBlanc.
"J'écoute le silence qui suit le sifflement du train," a character confides in the same play. One voice can celebrate silence, but it takes many to make a Tintamarre. I can only accept this award on behalf of all those who have, with me, celebrated our many journeys in word, gesture, song and dialogue, over so many years.
Le Nouveau-Brunswick est un espace aux contours doux qui privilégie le dialogue et le rapprochement. Our solitudes are, in fact, neighbourhoods, so close and yet si près les uns des autres, où les versants de Dorchester donnent sur ceux de Pré d'en Haut, où Shemogue et Cap Pelé s'embrassent et fondent, comme nos langues et nos vies, l'un dans l'autre.
Notre dialogue est riche. Our dialogue celebrates respect and inclusivity. Notre dialogue est un devoir, pas seulement un droit. Defined by its most courageous defenders, tels Louis Robichaud, Richard Hatfield et Dialogue Nouveau-Brunswick, il esquisse le bien-être des citoyennes et citoyens de demain.
Thank you. Merci à toutes et à tous.
Alex Fancy
Remise du Prix dialogue du lieutenant-gouverneur / Presentation of the Lieutenant-Governor's Dialogue Award
Fredericton, 15/06/05