Melissa and Todd Labrador sit in front of the beginnings of a birch bark canoe. Photo Ed Halverson

Todd Labrador is taking his canoe building on the road.

The Queens-County based artisan and builder has set up shop at the Lunenburg School of the Arts for the next month to construct a 16-foot birch-bark lake canoe.

Labrador says part of what inspires him to build is passing on knowledge to others.

“We can build it in the privacy in the backyard and nobody gets to learn anything except whoever’s there at the time. But if we go out in public and build it in front of people and allow them to come in and ask questions and watch the process, come back every other day and see how we progress, that way we get to share with everyone, what we do. That’s important to me,” said Labrador.

He and his family harvest the materials themselves often spending days scouring the woods for pliable birch bark and digging for spruce roots.

Labrador uses many traditional techniques to build his canoes but welcomes some modern tools into his methods.

“If great-grandfather, who was born in 1874, died in 1961, if he had a nail, boy, he would use it. And I know if he had a band saw, he would’ve used that too.”

His daughter, Indigenous Guardian and artist, Melissa Labrador is helping with the build.

While their family’s roots are in the Wildcat Reservation in Queens, Melissa says they have a Lunenburg connection.

The Labrador family was known to have a home near the harbour close to where the fall hall currently sits.

“It’s really neat to be able to return to an area that our family occupied and create something here that probably hasn’t been done for a very long time,” said Melissa Labrador.

Her father has built several canoes over the past few years.

Some have gone into private collections; others have been acquired by museums or Indigenous communities.

Todd Labrador says each canoe always finds a home.

“Usually what we do is we build them. We don’t think about where they go. The joy for us is to build them,” said Labrador. “It’s my hobby, my passion and we paddle them as long as we can but eventually someone comes along and says we’d like to have that for our museum or cultural centre.”

The public is welcome to watch the Labrador family build the canoe at the Lunenburg School of the Arts Monday through Friday between 11:00am and 3:00pm.

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Melissa Labrador with one of her paintings on display at the Astor Theatre. Photo Ed Halverson

An Art exhibit at The Astor Theatre hopes to educate visitors about the need to connect with our natural environment.

Artist and Indigenous Guardian Melissa Labrador calls the show “N’in L’nu”.

“So it’s N’in L’nu which [means] I’m L’nu. L’nu is who we are as Mi’kmaq people and then I did North, South, East and West because regardless of where I am on the earth, I am who I am and that doesn’t change,’ said Labrador.

A self-taught painter whose work is inspired by her relationship with Mother Earth, Labrador said, “A lot of my art focuses on that connection. It incorporates stories and traditions of my ancestors, my family, my people and also things that are important that we pay mind to as our climate is changing and the world that world that we know is changing everyday.”

Labrador says she tries to balance the negative messages of climate change with the positive experience of getting out and connecting of nature.

Some of the paintings on display at the Astor Theatre as part of Melissa Labrador’s N’in L’nu art show. Photo Ed Halverson

Many of the figures in this show are inspired by the petroglyphs found in Kejimkujik and images of whales and stars also feature heavily in the collection.

So much of what is happening in artist’s life goes into their work and Labrador tries to ensure when a piece of art finds its forever home the owner has the best impression.

“With everything that I create, I try to have a positive message there,” said Labrador, “So when the person or persons are taking that piece with them, they will feel that positive energy that went into creating that.”

Labrador’s N’in L’nu art show is on display at the Astor Theatre until the end of August.

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Iain Rankin sworn-in as premier of Nova Scotia. Photo Government of Nova Scotia

The province officially has a new premier.

Iain Rankin became the 29^th premier of Nova Scotia Tuesday.

Rankin and 16 of his caucus colleagues were sworn-in to their cabinet posts by Lt. Governor Arthur J. LeBlanc.

The event, held at the Halifax Convention Centre began with a smudging ceremony conducted by Queens County residents Todd and Melissa Labrador.

In addition to his responsibilities as premier of the province, Rankin will also serve as president of the Executive Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Regulatory Affairs and Service Effectiveness. He is Minister of the Department of L’Nu Affairs, formally the Office of Aboriginal Affairs among others.

Deputy premier Kelly Regan will maintain her role as Minister of Community Services with responsibility for the Advisory Council on the Status of Women. She also takes on the Department of Seniors.

Rankin’s opponents to become Liberal leader Labi Kousoulis and Randy Delorey will also feature prominently in his new cabinet. Kousoulis will assume the position of Minister of Finance and Treasury Board and Minister of Inclusive Economic Growth, which is the new name for the Department of Business.

Former Health Minister Delorey is now Attorney General and Minister of Justice and Minister of Labour Relations.

Former Education Minister Zach Churchill will now assume the health portfolio.

Derek Mombourquette is the new Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development and Chuck Porter is now Minister of Lands and Forestry and Energy and Mines.

There will be some new faces around the cabinet table as well as Kings South MLA Keith Irving was appointed Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Ben Jessome, the MLA for Hammonds Plains-Lucasville, becomes Minister of the Public Service Commission, and Brendan Maguire, MLA for Halifax Atlantic, takes over at Municipal Affairs.

Premier Rankin used his first public opportunity to rally Nova Scotians to build a better province.

“All of you, not just the women and men that are serving in cabinet today have a role in building our future. Whether a union member, a business owner, a volunteer, retiree, still working, any age, you are part of building that future. It’s not just government. This is your province. This is your opportunity. This is our time to break through in Nova Scotia, so let’s get to work.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Melissa Labrador and her father Todd look on as her daughter Nakuset performs. Photo credit: Ed Halverson

A change in protected status for two wilderness areas in Queens will come with a change in name.

The province has announced 1,257 hectares (ha) of woodlands and lakeshore at McGowan Lake, in Queens and Annapolis counties, within the Medway River watershed will be protected and renamed Katewe’katik, (pronounced GAH-du-weg-a-dig) which means “place of the eels”.

Located in the interior of Western Nova Scotia, Pu’tlaqne’katik (pronounced BOOD-lagk-neg-a-dig) protects three unconnected parcels of land in the Pleasant River watershed totalling around 3,000 hectares. It includes Shingle Lake and Pleasant River along with many waterways used by the Mi’kmaq for centuries.

Indigenous guardian Melissa Labrador who lives in the nearby Wildcat First Nation said protecting these lands is significant for the Mi’kmaq.

“The land defines who we are as Mi’kmaq people. We’re surrounded by ocean, we have the amazing, what they refer to as the Acadian forest, what I refer to as the Mi’kmaq forest, all this plays an important role on who we are as a Mi’kmaq people because it shapes us and it shaped our people through history,” said Labrador.

The government of Nova Scotia has committed to protecting 13 percent of land in the province. Those lands include Nova Scotia’s existing 74 wilderness areas, 92 nature reserves and the 11 provincial parks. This announcement brings the total protected land to 12.83 percent.

This protection was made possible with support from Environment and Climate Change Canada through the Canada Nature Fund, contributions by private landowners, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Nova Scotia Nature Trust in consultation with the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs and the public.

Now that the protected designation is in place, Labrador is relieved the type of activities permitted to take place on the land is severely limited.

“It can’t be staked for mining. It won’t suddenly appear on a forest harvest plan. A road won’t be punched through them. Cottages won’t suddenly appear on places that may have gravesites. And obviously a golf course isn’t going to, you know like things happened in Owl’s Head. So they’re protected,”” said Labrador.

She said protecting these areas close to her home allows her to pass on and safeguard the history of her people.

“Because of the designation of protection I’m able to tell more stories about the petroglyph sites that are located there, share more about those and so on,” said Labrador. “There’s always a risk of people doing damage to the area but there are things in place now to protect that.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson