Roots of Reconciliation
Foundations
Treaties
Renewal and Reconciliation

T7: Honouring Netukulimk: A Poster Project

Overview

Using maps, images, quotes and descriptions, learners will compare land loss and community change during the early Treaty-Making period (1700–1750) and the beginning of the Treaty Denial period (1850–1900). Learners will create two collages reflecting those changes over time. They will consider mobility restriction, habitat damage (moose and caribou extirpation), disease, assimilation pressure, legal prohibitions, coerced movements, trains, urban markets, community-protected areas, oral traditions, and petitions.

Learners will...

  • Encounter changes brought on by British colonialism and European settlement in Mi’kma’kik.
  • Understand that ways of life were not always reconcilable.
  • See that different populations experienced the past differently.
  • Understand that multiple factors made the Treaty Denial period difficult for the Mi’kmaq, including environmental (habitat destructions), biological (disease), legal (land-holding mechanisms), and cultural (assimilation pressures and racism) factors.
  • See that the Mi’kmaq accommodated these changes through various strategies including urban markets, trains, and new innovations.
  • Understand that oral history, family, and cultural practices sustained and strengthened individuals, families and communities.
  • Understand that 18th century treaty promises and negotiations were kept alive through oral histories during the Treaty Denial period.

Focus

It will help learners to start with a general discussion about Mi’kmaw culture and practice. For additional information, see the general introduction to this resource as well as the following section introductions in the Foundations level: Mi’kma’kik, Family, Community, Culture, and Leadership.

Working in two large groups, learners will create two collages (full size bristol board or chart paper): one of c. 1700–1750 and another of c. 1850–1900. Each learner is given one statement, map or image (suggestions provided) and is asked to interpret the information through their own drawing. Each individual drawing is then placed on the group collage to create a collaborative image. For example, one learner might get a fact about moose in 1700 and draw a picture of plentiful moose. Another learner might have an excerpt from an historical document noting an outbreak of smallpox, for which they would then draw some individuals with a fever to be included in the image. Printing and cutting out images is an alternative strategy.

Printable Learning
Experience (pdf)

PE!

It is important that learners have a clear understanding of the following content:

  • The Mi’kmaq as the indigenous people of Nova Scotia and the Atlantic region.
  • Mi’kma’kik as the ancestral homeland of the Mi’kmaq.
  • Understand the concepts of netukulimk and msɨt no’kmaq. (See LE F4)
  • The family as the heart of Mi’kmaw culture and practice. (See Family, Culture, Community introduction)
  • Mi’kmaw core cultural values. (See LE F8)
  • The oral traditions inherent in Mi’kmaw culture and practice. (See LE F10)
  • That the Treaty Denial period is defined by British governance and culture denying the treaty agreements and by an overwhelming colonial experience of environmental and cultural disruption.

LE Materials

COMING SOON!

Additional Resources

See the introductions to the Treaty-Making, Treaty Denial and Family, Culture, Community sections, as well as the general introduction to the resource.