P.E.I.'s Rachelle Gauthier finalist in national storytelling contest

Hidden in plain view.

That's how Rachelle Gauthier describes her Acadian heritage in a moving video she recorded as part of a national contestsponsored by theSocial Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

The purpose of the contest, according to the SSHRC website, is to show in three minutes on videoor in 300 words, how research funded by the councilis "making a difference in the lives of Canadians."

Gauthier is an Island school principal who is now working on her PhD at the University ofMoncton,researchingtheexperience ofAcadians whocome from English homes butstudy in French at school.

In the video, she speaks lovingly of her grandfather in Rustico, P.E.I.,who, when she was 12yearsold, told her, "Never forget your French."

At the time, Gauthier said, she never gave much thought to language or heritage and her grandfather died just a few months after speaking those words to her.

"As a 12-year-old, I didn't stop to ask him why he thought it was important that I never forget my French," she said.

"So I never really got to ask him."

Gauthier said it wasn't until she was older, a working teacher in her 20s, whenher identity and heritage grabbed her attention.

She was asked by her master's thesis supervisor, UPEI's Fiona Walton, "Who are you? Tell me about yourself."

That sparked a research project that continues to this day, as Gauthier explores what it means to be French within the context of Island culture, something she knew very little about growing up in a predominantly anglophone home inSummerside.

"I learned a lot about my own family ... I can trace our family on P.E.I. back to the very early Acadians," she said.

Part of her researchis to help students who have French heritage but no longer speak the language. Gauthier says more and more of these children areopting for the French language school system and she hopes her work will help them "to maybe reconnect somehow with the language of their ancestors."

The next stage of the contest is in Calgary in May.

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