Robert Dafford, a Lafayette native and resident, is one of the most prolific muralists in America having painted over 400 works of public art across the United States, Canada, France, Belgium, and England. Dafford has painted twenty large scale canvasses depicting the Expulsion of the Acadians from Acadie (now Nova Scotia) in 1765 leading to their settlement in Louisiana, where they are now known as Cajuns. Reproductions of his award-winning art have been featured in textbooks, film and video productions, as well as the Smithsonian, National Geographic, Southern Living, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and many more periodicals.

On this episode of Discover Lafayette, Dafford shares how his travels abroad as a young man in the Navy led him to appreciate the unique culture offered here in Lafayette and what we now call “Acadiana,” and how it led him to visually create the story of the Acadians for a greater public understanding.