On Oct. 7, at Government House, Eileen Chiasson-Pendergast became the 11th Acadian to receive the Order of Prince Edward Island. Established in 1996, it is the highest honour our province bestows on its citizens, and it is awarded to no more than three Islanders each year.
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As the voice of the Acadian and Francophone community, SAF’Île is deeply proud to see one of its members recognized at this level for her contribution to protecting and promoting our language and culture. But beyond our pride, this recognition deserves a moment’s reflection on what it truly means.
Eileen has spent more than half a century keeping the French language alive on this Island. A teacher, author, performer and builder, she belonged to the generation that watched school centralization in the late 1960s close the small French-language schools of our rural communities. Many might have given up. She chose to act: going door to door, holding public meetings, and persevering for years to bring French back into our schools, and later to build a French first-language school and a community centre in West Prince.
What stands out in Eileen’s story is not only what she accomplished; it is the conviction that guided her: you do not ask permission to exist in your own language. You speak it, you sing it, you pass it on.
Through this well-deserved recognition, the province is also sending a powerful message, affirming a truth our community has defended for generations: Acadian and Francophone language and culture are an integral part of Prince Edward Island’s identity.
So as we celebrate Eileen Chiasson-Pendergast, let us also celebrate what she represents: proof that a determined community, supported by its institutions and by its province, can build a future in its own language.
Congratulations, Eileen. You remind us all of what a single person, carried by a community, can accomplish.
Charles Duguay,
President, Société acadienne et francophone de l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard
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