The Historic Site of the Fortress of Louisbourg, at Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia (Canada), is the largest reconstruction -from archaeological excavations- in North America. The excavations, begun in 1961, provided the necessary information that today allows to contemplate 32 buildings and a quarter of the fortifications, rebuilt according to the remains found and to historical records of the archives. This fortified town facing the Atlantic Ocean, and surrounded by marshes and forests, it was rebuilt at a midpoint of its brief history, on the year 1744. Its walls with moats, the governor's palace, the houses of distinguished bourgeois, taverns, warehouses, barracks, bakery, cellars, shops and all types of housing of the rest of its inhabitants, give the enclave an extraordinary attraction, given the size of the establishment. All this makes Louisbourg today a destination of undoubted interest for lovers of historical heritage. In all its corners there is a bustled population characterized with period costumes, which also gives it the added value of interaction with the visitor.

It is possible to participate in various activities and also enjoy the suggestive 18th-century menus in its taverns. It is mainly due to this interaction that motivated our desire to be part of this experience. In Louisbourg the characters that are represented are real: businessmen, artisans, soldiers of the garrison, officials, fishermen, adventurers or indigenous people: the Mi'kmaq Nation. All of them interact with the visitors showing in a clever way the plurality and miscegenation of cultures, which given the conditions of life in which we find ourselves, in the year of the Lord of 1744, are worthy of consideration. But was lacking in this context the presence of a peculiar sound; listening in its streets or taverns a language that today is strange for most of the 150,000 visitors who come every year to Louisbourg, and yet in different times of the 18th century, the use of that language came to be spoken by the 20% of its population. We refer to Euskara, the language of the Basques.

Louisbourg was a strategic enclave for the balance of forces of the two powers that had arrogated to themselves the right to own those lands -above the natives of the place, the Mi'kmaq- and that therefore they disputed that immensity of trees and water: the French crown and the English crown. We know from eighteenth-century documents that the Basques had a significant presence in Louisbourg, and yet this was not considered on the entire project of the staging by the Parks Canada team on the place.

The project with Parks Canada and Unama'ki College-University of Cape Breton, will allow from June 2019, to hear again the Basque language in Louisbourg. Basque students integrated into the Parks Canada team will work on the ground, in the houses of the Basques, interpreting their characters in all the areas in which they would have been occupied. The visitors will listen to the Basque language, songs and music. The Basque culture will have a spectacular showcase in Louisbourg - in close collaboration with our friends Mi'kmaq - to show itself to the world, in a project that is already extraordinary. Each season, for 10 weeks (400-800 hours), there will be a Basque presence in the Parks Canada team, with their 18th century costumes, with musical instruments recreated from original period pieces, with the smallest detail taken care of. They will also teach, songs, dances, music or any aspect that is required of them about the history and traditions of the Basque people.