Mi’kmaq Traditional Knowledge: Eels and the Bras d’Or Lakes

The relationship of Mi'kmaq to the eel

http://smallscales.ca/2014/05/21/mikmaq-traditional-knowledge-eels-and-the-bras-dor-lakes/

"In order to understand how Mi'kmaq posses such knowledge, it is important to understand the relationship of Mi'kmaq to the eel. This relationship is one of reverence and holds as special place in Mi'kmaq spirituality.  Eels and all living and non-living objects posses a spirit. The eel in particular was offered to Klooscap, the Creator for a successful hunt and as thanks. The eel was not wasted or over-exploited. The Mi'kmaq practiced "take what was needed" ethic. Eels were reserved for ceremonies and feasts and are important during mid-winter feasts as an offering for surviving another harsh winter."

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Most Commonly Spoken Language in Canada Other than English or French by Province/

Hello, Bonjour, Kwe!

http://heritagelanguages.sk.ca/photos/view/104832

Check out this map of the most commonly spoken languages in Canada (other than English or French by province/territory.) There are some places in Canada where the dominant language (besides Eng or Fr) is in fact aboriginal. Mi'kmaq, Innu, Inuktitut and Tlicho (Dogrib) are all represented. Let's do all we can to encourage these and other Indigenous languages. (Visit the link for the full map.)

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Mi'kmaq Schools Benefit From APTN and MusiCounts | Mi'kmaw Kina'matnewey

Funds to support music for Mi'kmaw students

http://kinu.ca/news/mikmaq-schools-benefit-aptn-and-musicounts

Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), in partnership with MusiCounts, is helping to keep music alive in two Mi'kmaw Kina'matnewey community schools. This afternoon MusiCounts and APTN presented Eskasoni Elementary and Middle school with a $10,000 Band Aid Grant in the form of 19 new instruments.

"We're incredibly excited," said Lisa Munroe, the school's music teacher and band program director. "Most students now are renting their instruments, and there are many more that would like to join the band program, but cannot afford the rental. This grant allows more students to participate in band, and to practice their instruments year-round."

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Truth and Reconciliation | The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright

An interview with Justice Murray Sinclair on the TRC

http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/features/2014/05/01/truth-and-reconciliation/

"There is no easy way of talking about this part of Canada's legacy. For more than a century, we sent children as young as five to residential schools - 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children who had no control over their lives, and whose parents were required by law to send them away. Children were housed in gender-segregated dorms in schools, isolated from their families.  They were often victimized by the Christian clergy who ran the schools."

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Program brings Mi’kmaq culture to life for Grade 5 students

"Sharing culture with young people is important."

http://www.thewesternstar.com/News/Local/2014-04-29/article-3705121/Program-brings-Mi%26rsquo%3Bkmaq-culture-to-life-for-Grade-5-students/1

"Grade 5 students in Corner Brook have been studying aboriginal history and culture as part of their social studies program, but the lessons aren't just coming from a textbook.  For the past six weeks, members of the local Mi'kmaq community have been going into Humber Elementary and Sacred Heart sharing their culture and history with the students."

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First Nations Peoples of British Columbia - Map

The rich diversity of the First Nations Peoples of BC

http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/abed/map.htm

"This map is designed to illustrate the rich diversity of the First Nations Peoples of British Columbia. Like all maps, it is a rendition - a best attempt at reflecting a current reality, recognizing that "the map is not the territory"... The boundaries between territories are deliberately shown as blending into one another, in recognition of the complex territorial relationships involved."

Map is downloadable.

This site also lists names of the First Nations Peoples of BC as they are generally known today (with a phonetic guide to common pronunciation), and a reference to names they were given by explorers to the regions.

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Indigenous Foundations - UBC

Explore topics that relate to Aboriginal peoples

http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/

"Welcome to Indigenous Foundations, an information resource on key topics relating to the histories, politics, and cultures of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. This website was developed to support students in their studies, and to provide instructors, researchers and the broader public with a place to begin exploring topics that relate to Aboriginal peoples, cultures, and histories. Indigenous Foundations was developed by the First Nations Studies Program at the University of British Columbia, located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people."

Culture:

http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/culture.html

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Wade Davis: Dreams from endangered cultures

Why we must celebrate indigenous culture

http://www.ted.com/talks/wade_davis_on_endangered_cultures/

"All of these peoples teach us that there are other ways of being, other ways of thinking, other ways of orienting yourself in the Earth. And this is an idea, if you think about it, can only fill you with hope. .... And you might think of this cultural web of life as being an ethnosphere, and you might define the ethnosphere as being the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness. The ethnosphere is humanity's great legacy. It's the symbol of all that we are and all that we can be as an astonishingly inquisitive species."

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Aboriginal Clam Gardens

An ancient form of aquaculture

http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/2014/04/05/2014-04-05-2/

Listen to the Podcast.

"An ancient form of aquaculture practiced on the West Coast proves to be quite productive. Clam gardens are beach-terraces that were constructed by First Nations on the West Coast over many hundred of years before European contact, in a deceptively simple form of aquaculture. Dr. Anne Salomon, a marine ecologist from Simon Fraser University, and her group, investigated just how productive these clam gardens were."

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Don Amero - We are One

Great Song, Great Message

Visit his site and buy his music!

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