A new exhibit featuring Mi’kmaw artifacts is set to open in Halifax ahead of the North American Indigenous Games.
Kesite’tasikl, which means cherished in Mi’kmaw, is set to show off a number of collections including 6,000-year-old tools, basketry, wood flowers, and quillwork.
Roger Lewis of the Sipekne’katik First Nation and curator of the exhibit at the Nova Scotia Museum, says people will see Mi’kmaw ingenuity. “The early technologies, skills and cultural intelligences of Mi’kmaw people in the past and not only see those, this collection represents those cultural intelligence that progress up to contemporary time,” he says.
“I would challenge anybody today to try to make anyone of these tools.”
Some of the artifacts in the exhibit are private – donated to the museum. Lewis says sharing the collections is important to the Mi’kmaw community.
One noteable display is a wood table – the only known piece of Mi’kmaw furniture from Tufts Cove that survived the Halifax explosion in 1917. “I think it’s relevant and important, it’s the only surviving piece of furniture or art material from that otherwise destroyed community,” says Lewis.
Another display includes pieces from Mi’kmaw wood carver Louis Jeremy, who is known as the first folk artist.
The exhibit will be in place until the end of November. APTN News will have coverage of the North American Indigenous Games from July 15 to 23.