Roots of Reconciliation
Foundations
Treaties
Renewal and Reconciliation

F11: Sharing Communities

Overview

In this activity learners will see how communities interacted with one another and how the values of tpi’tnewey, and family-based Mi’kmawey supported Mi’kmaw culture and economy for millennia. Assigned to a particular Mi’kmaw community (from the historical record), learners will experience one event or another (weather events, birth of children, hunting expeditions) as a member of a historic village. As historic villagers, goods and people will move to address the concerns of the events demonstrating the dynamics of tpi’tnewey and communal ownership.

Learners will...

  • Understand how tpi’tnewey strengthened relationships among Mi’kmaw villages in the 18th century as well as before and after this time period.
  • Appreciate the resiliency that is inherent in relationships founded through tpi’tnewey.
  • Understand through their experience the size and nature of historic Mi’kmaw villages.
  • Understand (generally) how decision-making and leadership functioned for historic Mi’kmaw villages.
  • Become familiar with up to 7 historic Mi’kmaw villages and their locations and hunting areas.
  • Establish a base understanding of pre-contact dynamics, which will be important to later LEs addressing the consequences of Treaty Denial.

Focus

In this activity, dynamics of tpi’tnewey among the Mi’kmaw villages (as recorded in English and French historical records) at Minas, Chignecto, Cap Breton, Port Royal, Le Have, Chebenacadie, and Antigoniche are demonstrated. Learners are divided into seven groups, one group for each community. Each group should read the description of their village and locate it on the map (included). Each group receives an envelope with an event in it; these events are fictionalized, but based on real events from the historic record. The events will cause either people or resources to move among the villages as represented by activity pieces (images of families or goods) included in their envelopes.

Educators will organize the events based on time, using the Activity Key (See supplementary materials). The events recorded on the Activity Key are set in temporal sequence and one event on the Key corresponds to one event for each of the villages. As you will see, each event on the Activity Key will create a consequence for a village causing them to move themselves or goods as represented in their envelope. By the end of the activity each village will have experienced an event and its consequences.

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.
  • Primary Mi’kmaw values such as tpi’tnewey, consensus, asa ki’l, humour, etc. (See LE F8, Family, Culture, Community introduction)
  • Educators may want to review the meanings of communal ownership and tpi’tnewey. (See Family, Culture, Community introduction)

LE Materials

COMING SOON!