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Exhibit summary by the Musée des Papes in Grande-Anse, New Brunswick, Canada

ÉDITH B. PINET: AN ACADIAN PENINSULA MIDWIFE

Édith Branch-Pinet was born on June 20, 1904 in Burnsville, a village in northern New Brunswick.

At the age of 20, she started working toward achieving her dream by enrolling in nursing in Saint-Jean-d'Iberville, Quebec to obtain her nursing diploma in 1928. Her role as a midwife was one of her main occupations. Her smile, her availability, her gentleness and her understanding comforted many sick people. She developed her own remedies for home care. She was a perceptive person who took the time to listen to everyone who went to see her.

Although she was a very busy woman, she managed to instill in her daughters a love for her career. There were five nurses in her family.

In 1979, she was awarded the Order of Canada. In 1982, the NFB showed the film "Une sagesse ordinaire," which tells of her life and work. She was then named an Honourary Citizen of the town of Paquetville. In 1985, she received an honorary doctorate in Nursing from the Université de Moncton in New Brunswick. In May 1986, the Paquetville nursing home was named after her. On May 4, 1988, she was made a Chevalier in the Ordre de la francophonie et du dialogue des cultures [order of the Francophonie and cultural dialogue] of the Association internationale des parlementaires de langue française [international association of French-speaking members of Parliament].

Her greatest contribution was in the field of health: she delivered more than 3,000 babies.

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Édith B. Pinet
4 January 2003
Trudel, NB, Canada
AUDIO ATTACHMENT


Credits:
Lester Young

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Nurse Pinet was an exceptional midwife; she was always very wise. Through her devotion to others, this woman from the Acadian Peninsula, one of our own, became an extraordinary woman.

Nurse Pinet was a forward-thinking woman; she dared to say aloud what other women only thought of saying and doing. She had found in her Christian faith and in her family life all the things she needed to develop a strong and well-rounded personality. She had a natural wisdom about her, based on common sense, and she wanted to live life to the fullest.

Thanks to this wisdom, nurse Pinet did many good things. She earned the respect and gratitude of the people living on the Acadian Peninsula. She brought new hope to more than one person facing hardship in life. She healed many sick people. She assisted in and guided the birth of more than 3,000 human beings.

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First house
20 June 1904
Burnsville, NB, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


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Édith Branch-Pinet was born on June 20, 1904, in Burnsville, a village in northern New Brunswick that is now part of the Acadian Peninsula.

Who would have thought that she would become such an illustrious figure in her region?

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Second church in Paquetville
1920
Paquetville, NB, Canada
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She was baptized in the St. Augustin Church in Paquetville.

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Édith Butler
9 February 2003
Paquetville, NB, Canada
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Internationally renowned Acadian singer Édith Butler was baptized in the same church.

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Angus Branch and Victoire Cormier
1940
Saint John, NB, Canada
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Her father, Angus Branch, was originally from Big River, in the Bathurst region, and her mother, Victoire Cormier, from Caraquet, another region in northern New Brunswick.

Exogamy, mixed marriage between people of different cultures or religions, proved to be a factor in the assimilation of francophones. English was the spoken language. As the years went by, her father converted to Catholicism. Her family considers this a love story, because her mother would never have married a non-Catholic.

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The Branch family
22 May 1933
Burnsville, NB, Canada

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She came from a family of 11 children: three boys and eight girls.

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Religious family
1933
Tracadie, NB, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT