Official Tourist Guide 2025-2026

Îles de la Madeleine Overview – Profile of the Region

A bit of history

Exploring Les Îles Micmac Indians poetically named the archipelago “Menagoesenog”, a word that means “islands brushed by the waves”. Well before the arrival of the first Euro peans, Indians were coming to the Islands to fish and to hunt for seals and walruses. In June 1534, Jacques Cartier entered in his diary the first written report about the Islands, “Les Araynes” (from Latin “arena”, meaning “sand”). He named the first islands he came upon “Isles de Margaulx“ (today Rocher aux Oiseaux) and Île Brion. In 1629, Samuel de Champlain wrote on a map, “La Magdeleine”, near the area of Île du Havre Aubert. It has also been said that the archipelago perhaps only got its name Îles de la Madeleine in 1663 from François Doublet, Honfleur native and Les Îles concession holder, who wanted to honour his wife Madeleine Fontaine in doing so. Under the French regime, Les Îles passed through several hands without any sustainable development or actual colonization. The land of the Acadians… In 1755, the destiny of the Acadian people took a tragic turn. It was the beginning of the “Grand Dérangement” (the Exile) and the Acadian population was deported

all across the continent. Between 1761 and 1765, some who managed to escape the deportation came to the Îles de la Madeleine, where all commerce was controlled by Richard Gridley, including the walrus hunt and the Islands’ fisheries. In 1792, following the French Revolution, other Acadian families originally from Miquelon joined them under the leadership of Reverend Jean-Batiste Allain, to whom we owe the earliest preserved register. The colonization of Îles de la Madeleine truly began with them. Under British control in 1763, the Islands were annexed to Newfoundland, until 1774 when the Quebec Act annexed them to Quebec. Isaac Coffin was granted the Iles de la Madeleine in 1798, and he forced the Madelinots to pay rent on lands that they had cleared with their own hands and occupied for more than 25 years. This feudal domination, along with the merchants’ exploitation of the fishermen, created a climate of misery and injustice, which explains the Islanders’ continued emigration to new lands. Emigrating Madelinots founded several villages on Quebec’s North Shore: Blanc-Sablon (1854), Havre Saint-Pierre, Natashquan (1855), and Sept-Iles (1872). It was only in 1895 that a Québec law allowed Made linots to buy back their lands from the concession holder. From then on, free from colonial hassles, they

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