About MDCC
The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq (CMM) became involved in the Debert archaeological sites in 1989 when Dr. Donald M. Julien, Executive Director of CMM, was notified of newly-discovered artifacts in the Belmont area. Realizing the importance of the sites and seeing the destruction caused by all-terrain vehicles, Dr. Julien began to work towards the protection of these very important sites. Ultimately these efforts led to the vision for the Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre.
The Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre (MDCC) project is a charitable, not-for-profit First Nations organization, mandated by all thirteen Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs. The project is administered through The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq, a First Nation tribal council. The Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre became incorporated as a society in 2001, and gained charitable status as an organization in 2002.
In 2002, the Mi’kmawey Debert Elders’ Advisory Council was convened by Dr. Julien: this council represents Mi’kmaw communities across Nova Scotia and they have been critical in guiding the development and vision of the project.
Since this time, the project has been through an extensive planning process including the 2003 Elders’ Programmatic Statement (Connecting with Our Past), a 2005 Feasibility Study (includes fundraising feasibility), a 2007 Plan for Visitor Experiences, a 2009 Master Site Plan (includes a sustainable design strategy and security analysis), and a 2010 Functional Programme. Paralleling these individual planning elements are a number of other long-term planning processes including curatorial research at museums in Canada and the United States, environmental and archaeological assessment, and a significant endowment campaign.
MDCC Board of Directors
Dr. Donald M. Julien, C.M., O.N.S., DCL, DHumLElder in Residence
The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq
don@cmmns.com
Former Executive Director of The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq for the past 19 years, Dr. Julien is also a Mi’kmaw historian and human rights advocate. With over 40 years researching and documenting Mi’kmaw history, Donald shares his knowledge and experiences through speaking engagements, university lectures and research papers. Donald is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia, which were granted for his work promoting Mi’kmaw history, language and culture. He has also been awarded two honorary degrees from Acadia University and Mount Saint Vincent University.
Donald is a peace time veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces and has served in the United Nations on a peacekeeping tour in Cyprus. He continues work with the Canadian Armed forces in a community advisory role for the RCMP Aboriginal Advisory Group, as well as the Auditor General on Aboriginal matters. He sits on the Advisory Board for Admiral of the Canadian Navy, and he was appointed Honorary Lt. Colonel in 2011. Don and his wife Diane live in Truro, proud parents of four children, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Donald Julien is the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre.
Angeline Gillis, B.A., LL.B.CMM Executive Director
The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq
agillis@cmmns.com
Angeline Gillis, B.A., LL.B., was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia and was raised in East Bay, N.S. and is a member of the Eskasoni First Nation. She is the daughter of Fred Gillis and Donna Stevens, granddaughter of the late Andrew J. Stevens, former Keptin of the Sante’ Mawi’omi.
Angie earned her undergraduate degree from Dalhousie University in 2005 and her LL.B from the Schulich School of Law (formerly Dalhousie Law School) in 2009. After completing her articling with Boyne Clarke Barristers and Solicitors, she was called to the Bar in June 2010, having performed her affirmation in both English and Mi’kmaq.
Angie is the Executive Directors at The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq. In addition to her work with the CMM. Within this role, she provides oversight and guidance to all CMM’s departments, over a hundred staff, numerous files, projects, and services offered to eight (8) Mi’kmaw communities in Mainland Nova Scotia. She is also a member of the Canadian Bar Association, Halifax’s Estate Planning Counsel, and is commissioned as a Notary Public. Angeline Gillis is a member of the Board of Directors for the Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre.
Jim HepworthDirector of Community Programs and Corporate Services
The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq
Jim Hepworth has over 10 years experience working for First Nations Communities within the Atlantic Region in the field of community and economic development. He has been with The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq (CMM) since 1995. Before being selected for his position as Director of Community Programs and Corporate Services, Jim was Economic Development Officer at The CMM. As Senior Director, Jim is responsible for the operation of all programs and services with Tripartite Secretariat and Liaison, Education, Health, MMDC, and Economic Development. Prior to his employment at The CMM he worked at the Canada Employment Centre and Statistics Canada.
Jim holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in Human Resource Management and Economics from Saint Mary’s University. Jim is a Certified Human Resources Professional with the Canadian Counsel of Human Resources. Jim Hepworth is the co-chair of the Steering committee of the Tripartite Forum. Jim Hepworth is a member of the Board of Directors for the Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre.
Former MDCC Board Members
Lynn KnockwoodDirector of Common Services
The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq
Lynn Knockwood has over 22 years experience working for First Nations communities in the field of finance. Lynn has been with The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq (CMM) since 1992. She has held positions as Finance Clerk and Financial Service Manager at CMM. Prior to her employment at CMM she worked with Mi’kma’ki Development Corporation Housing Services. Lynn holds a Certificate in Business, and has attended many professional development courses pertaining to her field.
In 2005, she was appointed to the senior management team as the Director of Common Services bringing her talents in financial management and intuitive administrative style to the position. In 2010, The Aboriginal Financial Officers Association (AFOA) of Canada was pleased to announce Lynn Anne Knockwood as a recipient to receive the AFOA/Xerox Excellence in Aboriginal Leadership Award – community/regional category – for her many years of dedication and leadership in finance. Lynn Knockwood is the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for the Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre.
MDCC Staff
Tim BernardMDCC Executive Director
Mi'kmawey Debert Cultural Centre
tim@cmmns.com
Tim Bernard is well known beyond his own community of Millbrook as the Manager/Editor of the Mi’kmaq Maliseet Nations News and Eastern Woodland Print Communications. Employed by The Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq (CMM) as a Land Claims Researcher from 1988 to 1994, he gained extensive historical knowledge under the direction of Dr. Donald Julien.
Tim is the Mi’kmaw co-chair of the Culture and History working committee of the Tripartite Forum as well as a member of the History Month. Through these and other avenues, Tim’s direction affects communities across Nova Scotia. He has set forth and achieved realistic and meaningful outcomes through these avenues, advancing knowledge and appreciation for place names, language growth and retention, cultural resources for educators and the importance of the stories of Elders and others in the communities.
He has served on the task force of the Nova Scotia Heritage Strategy and is regularly involved with overall heritage and tourism sector development. Tim Bernard is a member of the Board of Directors for the Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre.
Leah Morine Rosenmeier, Ph.D.Research and Interpretation Specialist
Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre
leah@cmmns.com
Leah Morine Rosenmeier (Ph.D.) is the MDCC Research and Interpretation Specialist. Her duties include overall project planning as well as research and interpretation. With more than 20 years of experience in the museum field, she helps to bridge the project to academia and to museum practice. Throughout her career Leah has been dedicated to community education and development through cultural activities and research tackling difficult issues such as repatriation as well as more creative endeavors such as exhibition development and educational outreach. Her favorite projects include the Mi’kmaw photo project—Mikwite’lmanej Mi’kmaqi’k: Let Us Remember the Old Mi’kmaq, co-creating Anguti’s Amulet and the related community-based Inuit archaeology project in Makkovik, Labrador, and, of course, Mi’kmawey Debert. She lives in Truro with her husband Randall and their four children.
Sharon FarrellCollections Manager
Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre
sharonf@cmmns.com
Sharon Farrell (B.A.) is from St. Alban’s, Bay d’Espoir, Newfoundland and is a member of the Miawpukek First Nation. Sharon plays a major role tracking all curatorial data and integrating such data into research and interpretation outcomes. While her formal duties involve the development and management of the curatorial data for the project, she can be found assisting with a range of IT, writing and editing tasks for the project. Trained in archaeology at Memorial University, she moved to Nova Scotia in 2005 to work on the geology and archaeology of the Debert-Belmont archaeological sites. Being involved with the MDCC project allows Sharon to feel connected to her Mi’kmaw identity and to bridge past generations of her family.
Gerald GloadeProgram Development Officer
Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre
gerald@cmmns.com
Gerald Gloade is an artist and educator who is currently the Program Development Officer for the Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre. Gerald started his career working as a graphic designer for the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources’ Communications and Education Branch more than 25 years ago. The focus of his work with the Province moved from forestry education and graphic art to sharing his culture and history in the landscape and environment of Mi’kma’ki with audiences of all ages. As an artist, educator and Mi’kmaw storyteller, Gerald guides the development of visitor and educational programs for the centre. His stories and interpretations of the Kluskap legends in particular have captured many audiences. Gerald is a key member of the curatorial group, growing our understandings of collections, places, people, practices and events for the future Centre. Gerald was brought up and lives in the community of Millbrook with his wife Natalie and their two sons, Gerald D. and Kyle.
Geordy MarshallMi'kmaw Language Specialist
Mi'kmawey Debert Cultural Centre
geordy.marshall@cmmns.com
Geordy Marshall is from Eskasoni First Nation in Unama’ki. His first language is Mi’kmaw, and he is the Mi’kmaw Language Specialist for Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre. Geordy was raised with the influence of the late Kji Keptin Alex Denny and his Late Grandparents Malian and Joe B Marshall, he also learned a lot from the Late Murdena Marshall, and with their combined efforts, Geordy worked his whole life serving the needs of his community and people. In 2016, Geordy Marshall and the Late Sherise Paul collaborated to establish a Pride Organization in Eskasoni, and established the first Pride Festival in Eskasoni that year. Later on, Geordy went on to become a chef to establish technical guidance for his passion for learning Mi’kmaw ways of cooking and eating, and using netukulimk as the backbone of his existence, and how he engages with the world around him.
Geordy Marshall is currently working on the language needs for exhibits and the future centre, striving to reconcile the Mi’kmaw Language by uncovering truths of the origin of word parts, and discovering new things like regional accents, ancient words without apparently known word parts, and discovering the truth of the philosophy of the language used, based on the knowledge passed on to him by his predecessors. Geordy doesn’t claim to be a language expert, but is very passionate about working on the language, and will do so for the rest of his life.
Ross NervigCommunications Officer
Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre
ross.nervig@cmmns.com
With 15 years of experience in writing, Ross has worked in creative and challenging roles in marketing and communications, particularly within nonprofit organizations, the social sector, and higher education. At organizations like the Center for Victims of Torture, Revolver.MN, and Avenues for Homeless Youth, Ross developed communication strategies and content, coordinated donor and stakeholder engagements, and collaborated on fundraising events. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans. He lives in Truro, Nova Scotia with his wife and son.
Kamden NicholasCuratorial Associate: Collections
Mi'kmawey Debert Cultural Centre
kamden.nicholas@cmmns.com
Kamden Nicholas is Mi’kmawey Debert’s Curatorial Associate working in Collections.
Kamden is from Pictou Landing First Nation and Coxheath, Cape Breton equally.
Currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree from Memorial University with a major in Archaeology, Kamden has worked in archaeology and anthropology since 2010. Kamden’s experiences have taken her from excavating a military powder magazine within the Parks Canada boundaries of the Fortress of Louisbourg to caring for archaeological resources at the ancestral site of Pasi’tue’k.
Kamden will be working closely with the curatorial team at Mi’kmawey Debert and will play a key role in the development of collections at the Centre as well as helping to bring collections back home to Mi’kma’ki.
Mercedes PetersSharing our Stories Coordinator
Mi'kmawey Debert Cultural Centre
mercedes.peters@cmmns.com
Mercedes Peters was born in Menahkwesk in Wolastokuk and is a band member of Glooscap First Nation. With a love for storytelling and a passion for public education, she has spent the last ten years dedicated to sharing and learning Mi’kmaw history with others through many different initiatives. She is currently working on her PhD in History through the University of British Columbia, and her dissertation, rooted in Mi’kmaw ways of thinking about and doing history, focuses on Mi’kmaw and Wolastoqey women’s grassroots activism and community care work from the 1970s through to the early 2000s.
As the Sharing Our Stories Coordinator, Mercedes will be working closely with the MDCC team on sharing Mi’kmaw worldviews, language and history with learners of all ages, as well as educators across Nova Scotia and beyond. Before starting at MDCC, Mercedes was a researcher and oral historian at the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre in Vancouver, BC, where she helped in supporting residential school survivors and their communities in telling their stories and identifying research needs in ways that put their voices, goals, and healing first.
Sheila Pierro-TremblayMi’kmawey Debert Administrator
Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre
sheila@cmmns.com
Sheila Pierro-Tremblay is the Project Administrator for the MDCC project. Her far-reaching duties include managing the logistics for all aspects of the MDCC, with special attention to the Mi’kmawey Debert Elders’ Advisory Council. A Mi’kmaw speaker she assists the project regularly with translations and understanding cultural concepts within the language. Sheila graduated from Success Business College with her Travel and Tourism Diploma in June 2002. Her previous experience as a Front Desk Agent, a Certified Heritage Interpreter and Certified Visitor Information Travel Councilor has been valuable to the planning process of the Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre project. Sheila lives in the Millbrook First Nation with her husband Elvis.
Ashley SutherlandCuratorial Associate-Digital Assets
Mi'kmawey Debert Cultural Centre
Ashley.Sutherland@cmmns.com
Ashley Sutherland was born and raised in Colchester County, Nova Scotia. She has been working at rural community museums in various capacities for nearly a decade. Much of this work has involved documenting, organizing, and digitizing collections. Ashley holds a Masters in Art History with a Curatorial/Museum Studies concentration from Carleton University. She completed a year-long practicum with the National Gallery of Canada before returning to Mi’kma’ki and working at the Nova Scotia Museum on the Mi’kmaw Cultural Landscapes project and the Halifax Explosion: Collison in the Narrows exhibit. She also received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) from Memorial University. One of her primary focuses was photographic and print media. During this time, she also studied art history and architecture abroad. Prior to joining the team at Mi’kmawey Debert, Ashley spent four and a half years working at the Colchester Historeum in Truro, Nova Scotia. She completed several collections projects during her time there. She is also a keen researcher and writer. In her spare time, Ashley enjoys camping, foraging, fishing, and anything to do with the outdoors. One of Ashley’s favorite hobbies is collecting rocks and minerals and documenting her finds. Ashley is a board member of the Cliffs of Fundy Geopark.
Donna WellardFund Development Manager
Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre
dwellard@cmmns.com
Donna Wellard is originally from Blackpool, England but has family roots in Colchester County. Her mother comes from the Onslow/Belmont area and her grandfather served as an “original” North Nova Scotia Highlander during WWII. As the Fund Development Manager for Mi’kmawey Debert, Donna will facilitate private sector fundraising for the future Centre. Donna began her career in fundraising and marketing roles in the arts sector and has worked with a number of organizations on funding campaigns and initiatives. She holds a post-graduate Diploma in Arts Administration from the University of Roehampton in London, UK and is an alumna of the Cultural Development Leadership and Income Manager Programs at the University of Waterloo. With over 25 years’ experience helping local and national organizations achieve their mission, Donna is excited to play her part in building the vision for this incredible legacy project.
sharing our stories