Participation in the Canadian Archaeological Association Meeting 2015

The Canadian Archaeological Association Annual Meeting was held in St. John’s, NL this spring—an event that allows professional and amateur archaeologists, as well as the general public, to come together to share different perspectives and subjects in Canadian archaeology and beyond. The Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre project was invited to join a session concerning the relationship between the world of archaeology and First Nations, chaired by Stephen Loring of the Smithsonian Institution and Chelsee Arbour of Memorial University. Entitled “How we talk about the past. Differences in seeing, knowing and telling about indigenous heritage and history as viewed from Nitassinan and Mi’kma’ki,” the session included perspectives from Richard Nuna (Innu Nation) and Margaret Fireman (Cree Nation of Chisasibi).

The MDCC project presented a skit, “How long is this going to take? A discussion” as a way to share our experience in bridging archaeological thought and process with the teachings of the Elders’ Advisory Council and the Mi’kmaw Nation as a whole. Faced with ongoing assumptions about relatedness through time, the scarcity of funding for community-based projects, we are often left with the question “how long is this going to take?”

https://canadianarchaeology.com/caa