Celebrating culture, heritage
Potlotek First Nation marks occasion with shoreline cleanup
POTLOTEK — Brian Marshall and his children, four-year-old Enzo and threeyear-old Maya, joined their community under a clear blue afternoon sky on Monday to clean up the shoreline of the Bras d'Or Lake and celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day.
Marshall said the community would usually have a large celebration to mark the day, but he was happy just to take part in whatever his community was doing for the day. He picked up cans and bottles on the beach while his children splashed in the water nearby.
The cleanup, hosted by Potlotek Fisheries, was organized by Gwenn Brake and her friend Noelle Doucette, who applied for funding from the federal government to host a clean up of the area, which is part of the UNESCO Bras d'Or Lakes Bioshere, a protected estuary ecosystem that allows cold and warm
and warm water species to thrive within a few kilometres of each other, and the Trans Canada Trail, a crosscountry trail launched in 1992 that spans 24,000 kilometres and honours Canada's shared history by retracing many of the routes followed by Indigenous peoples and early settlers.
Brake said the cleanup seemed like a good way to bring people together safely while following public health guidelines.
"What better way to celebrate the day than an outdoor gathering and you're taking care of your community and the environment," she said.
"Today is about family and community and giving back, and just enjoying the outdoors and the environment, as we are supposed to be peacekeepers and caretakers of the environment, the water, so this is our way of bringing that back."
Oksana Marshall said she thinks about all of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls across the country and the children's bodies being found at the sites of former residential schools on National Indigenous Peoples Day, and said the day means everything to her.
"It's a day to honour all of those women and children and to raise awareness. I try to teach my niece as much as possible about our people and learn more about our language," she said.
Marshall and her sevenyear-old niece, Maxine Marshall spent the afternoon cleaning up trash along the shore near the wharf in Potlotek, across the water from Chapel Island, where the Saint Anne's Mission takes place each year.
The island is the historic meeting place for the seven Mi'kmaw district chiefs from across Mi'kma'ki. That system evolved to be the Grand Council of the Mi'kmaw, the traditional government, and the island continues to be an important meeting place for the Mi'kmaw, with two meetings of the Grand Council there a year and a gathering of thousands each summer to celebrate the Feast of Saint Anne. In 2005, the island was designated a national historic site.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chapel Island Mission was cancelled last summer, and will not happen again this year. The many shacks that serve as summer homes for L'nuk from across Mi'kma'ki sit empty along with the Roman Catholic
church, built in the mid-18th century.
This year marks the 25th annual recognition of the diverse cultures and heritage of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. National Indigenous Peoples Day, originally called National Aboriginal Day, was announced by then Governor General of Canada, Roméo LeBlanc and later renamed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017. The day was chosen for its significance as the summer solstice, the longest day of the year and celebrated by many Indigenous cultures as a time of renewal.