The small First Nation of 125 members developed the adventure as a way to re-establish the
Maliseet traditions and language that have been lost for too long.
A motion to support the repatriation of a birch bark
Maliseet canoe was unanimously passed at this years Assembly of First Nations (AFN) annual general assembly.
Bernard, a member of the Madawaska
Maliseet First Nation in New Brunswick, has proved he has the stuff to be around for a long time.
But that media report was the first time the
Maliseet people of the area came to know about the return of this "akwiten" that was built by their ancestors almost 200 years ago.
He and an indefinite number of other members of various
Maliseet and Mi'kmaq communities formed a break-away group in 1996 that they call the Wulustuk Grand Council and which Ennis says is a return to the consensus-style government Indians had before European contact.
Or Sandra Lovelace, a
Maliseet woman (now a Senator) who took her case to the United Nations in 1979 and helped lead a march of Indigenous women from the Tobique reserve from Kahnestake to Ottawa--110 miles to protest the 110 years of sex discrimination under the act.
These age-old indigenous designs have their origin in petroglyph art and sgraffito decoration on bark, as traditionally produced by the
Maliseet of New Brunswick and Quebec, the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island, and the Gaspe peninsula of Quebec, and other neighboring Wabanaki groups.
America):
Maliseet, Passamaquoddy; Abenaki, Penobscot; Caddo; Plains Ojibwa; Arapaho; Blackfoot; Crow; Gros Ventre; Sarsi; Arikara; Wichita; Pawnee; Cheyenne; Teton; Winnebago; Omaha, Ponka; Iowa; Swampy Cree (Eastern); Ojibwa (Eastern); Montagnais; Naskapi; Swampy Cree (Western); Northern Ojibwa; Santee; Five Nations Iroquois; Fox, Sauk, Kikapoo; Assiniboine; Plains Cree; Menomini; Ojibwa (Western);
I grew up in the Madawaska
Maliseet First Nation in New Brunswick.
* Bill 10, An Act to Amend the Education Act, introduced by Green Party Leader David Coon, mandates that the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development must approve programs and services which respond to the unique needs of Mi'kmaq and
Maliseet children and foster an understanding of aboriginal history and culture among all pupils.