Liverpool marks National Indigenous Peoples Day with dancing, drumming, traditional crafts, food

A woman with shoulder-length dark hair and glasses wearing a red dress stands in a field, with young people in traditional Mi'kmaw costumes dancing in the background.

Kim Jackson, president of the Nova Scotia Native Council Zone 9, organized the National Indigenous Peoples Day event in Liverpool on Friday. (Rick Conrad)

People from indigenous communities across Canada celebrated National Indigenous Peoples Day on Friday.

In Liverpool, the Nova Scotia Native Council Zone 9 organized an event at Great Oak Park near the Hank Snow Home Town Museum on Friday afternoon and evening.

People from around Queens County turned out for the cultural celebration featuring dancing, drumming, a vendors market with Mi’kmaw artisans and some traditional foods.

QCCR spoke to Kim Jackson of Milton, president of the Nova Scotia Native Council Zone 9, and other people at the event.

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Clean power for Keji campers

A man stands in front of a row of solar panels

Site Supervisor Jonathan Sheppard at Kejimkujik’s solar array. Photo Parks Canada

Power consumption at Kejimkujik is now as green as its renowned forests.

Since May, the national park and historic site has been generating enough power onsite using solar panels to meet the needs of campers in Jeremy’s Bay campground.

Site Supervisor at Kejimkujik, Jonathan Sheppard says this makes Keji the first park in Canada to go net-zero.

“The power that’s actually consumed by visitors and the number of visitors we have here is actually a hard category of greenhouse gas emissions to reduce because it’s up to individual choices and equipment and gear and stuff,” said Sheppard. “So, the principal for this one, for offsetting it, allows us to generate an equivalent amount of power so that when visitors come here, they know that their experience is powered by the sun and basically it’s a net-zero camping experience.”

Power is not stored at Keji but is sold to Nova Scotia Power and purchased back, creating a net-zero exchange.

Generating over 12,000Kw per month, the 100Kw solar array is made up of 272 photo-voltaic panels and covers a 40 x 60 metre area.

The array is located in a clearing near the front of the park out of view of visitors on the site of a former weather station.

An array of solar panels viewed from above

Kejimkujik solar array viewed from above. Photo Parks Canada

Sheppard says the location was chosen after consultation with Mi’kmaq partners.

“They were involved in the archaeology around this project. We did that collaboratively,” said Sheppard. “They were very supportive of the benefits of this project but because we’re also a national historic site that’s designated so because of the Mi’kmaq cultural landscape, they were also interested in making sure that when you came into the park you didn’t see a big piece of infrastructure.”

The solar project was funded through an almost $600,000 Government of Canada investment to support greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts and clean technology.

Sheppard estimates at the rate the array is producing power, that investment will be paid off in 20 years.

And perhaps most importantly, over their projected 35-year lifespan, the panels will be responsible for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by over 3,300 tonnes, the equivalent of taking 1035 cars off the road.

Sheppard says since the pandemic people have sought connection with the outdoors and it’s important to make that experience as enjoyable and green as possible.

“There’s a direct link between the visitor’s experience here in the campground and the knowledge that their experience is powered entirely by the sun,” said Sheppard. “That, for us, provides a really neat connection between a visitor understanding their visit in the context of the larger picture, not only of protecting a national park but the work to mitigate against climate change as well, while they’re here.”

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Construction at Keli Seaside creates opportunity for cooperation between park and Mi’kmaq community

A wooden framed screen lays next to a square hole in the ground

One of the test holes at Kejimkujik Seaside. Photo Ed Halverson

Parks Canada and the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia are working together to preserve Mi’kmaq heritage before renovations begin at Kejimkujik Seaside Park.

The park has been closed since October 20 to repair infrastructure damage as a result of Hurricane Dorian.

Some trails will be repaired, and others rerouted.

Parks Canada and the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia, as represented by Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office (KMKNO) along with Boreas Heritage Consultants have planned all aspects of the archaeological dig together to ensure the Mi’kmaq perspective is at the forefront.

KMKNO staff archaeologist Kait MacLean says it’s important to preserve and protect Mi’kmaq heritage.

“One of the ways that we can protect Mi’kmaq heritage is to locate it. We know that Mi’kmaq people were here, we know that Mi’kmaq people would have used this landscape. Being able to protect that heritage before infrastructure goes in is really important to us. The work that we’re doing with Parks Canada allows us to have that Mi’kmaq perspective into how the work is planned and how it is undertaken,” said MacLean.

A 10-person team from Boreas Heritage consultants is digging test holes at five metre intervals along the proposed trails to ensure nothing of significance is being disturbed.

Two women stand against a fence with wilderness behind them

Archaeologists Rebecca Dunham and Kait MacLean at Keji Seaside. Photo Ed Halverson

Parks Canada Terrestrial Archaeologist Rebecca Dunham says construction crews won’t have to wait too long to begin their work.

“Things are moving along pretty quickly. Probably will be another couple of weeks. If something is found though, things change. They’ll be more tested required and that may prolong the actual testing timeline a bit. It will be a few weeks anyway,” said Dunham. “The construction crews will move along as the archaeology is completed. It will be a progressive process.”

MacLean says by working together, Parks Canada and the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia have ended up with what she calls, better archaeology.

“Through this process we’ve found sites in areas where Parks [Canada] previously wouldn’t have necessarily thought were high risk areas or would’ve necessarily looked,” said MacLean. “I think that’s a real positive outcome of this, is that we’ve been able to see real achievements from it. We have found sites that previously would’ve been unrecorded. I think that’s a great success.”

Crews will continue to work on the trails through the end of the year.

Keji Seaside is expected to reopen in January.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Artist taps into nature and her own roots for latest art show

A woman stand besides a painting

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.

Paintings hang on a gallery wall

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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New protected lands acknowledge history with Mi’kmaq names

Melissa Labrador and her father Todd look on as her daughter Nakuset performs.

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

 

Mi’kmaq canoe maker launches his largest build yet

Three generations of the Labrador family paddle the newly finished canoe

Three generations of the Labrador family paddle the newly finished canoe. Photo credit: Ed Halverson

A gathering of friends and selected media were on hand to watch a master Mi’kmaq canoe builder launch his biggest vessel to date.

Todd Labrador spent the summer at Kejimkujik National Park crafting a 21 and a half foot long birch bark canoe along with his daughter Melissa, her husband Corbin Hart and grandchildren Nakuset and Tepkunaset.

Labrador said the high-sided canoe is three feet wide, and even at 21 feet long, doesn’t come close to those his ancestors built, some of which reached up to 30 feet in length.

“You know they would’ve paddled across the Bay of Fundy, along the Atlantic coast to Prince Edward Island and to Newfoundland in birch bark canoes,” said Labrador.

The canoe has no seats but is built to fit five adults sitting or kneeling low, which helps to keep it stable.

“If you put lots of weight in a canoe it also makes it very stable,” said Labrador. “So this canoe, you know, I always say it will take the mother, the father, the grandparents, the children and a moose.”

It’s that ability to transport a large number of people and supplies along the regions many waterways that made the birch bark canoe the equivalent of the modern day station wagon.

Labrador family members daughter Melissa, grandchildren Tepkunaset and Nakuset and Todd with canoe.

Labrador family members daughter Melissa, grandchildren Tepkunaset and Nakuset and Todd with canoe. Photo credit: Ed Halverson

Building a canoe of this size was a learning experience for Labrador.

While he still used traditional materials such as birch bark, spruce root and cedar, most of which are sourced locally, he needed to learn how to apply heat in just the right way to make the thicker bark bend the way he needed.

Before he took up the craft, Labrador said it was over a hundred years since the last birch bark canoe was made in Kejimkujik.

He has built a dozen canoes ranging in size from two feet up to seven feet. Many of those are in museums or on display on First Nations. He is not sure yet where this canoe will make its home.

“We always say in the end the canoe will end up where it’s meant to be. But I’m going to paddle this canoe as often as I can and eventually it may end up in a museum or a First Nations community,” said Labrador. “That would be really nice if it did, where more people can enjoy it and see what their ancestors did. Maybe bring some good energy into the community that it goes into.”

He has a close connection to Kejimkujik national park having grown up about 20 minutes away on the Wildcat First Nation.

Todd Labrador and his grandson Tepkunaset smudge the canoe before launch

Todd Labrador and his grandson Tepkunaset smudge the canoe before launch. Photo credit: Ed Halverson

“It’s very special. It’s always a very powerful, spiritual feeling when you paddle a birch bark canoe. But to paddle it here where my ancestors were, actually my family for generations going back, they lived here. They would’ve been on the same beach that we’re standing on today. It’s very, very powerful and special,” said Labrador.

He is pleased to be able to share the experience of building canoes with his family so they can continue to carry on the tradition.

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