SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. - He was sitting in a dark field. A couple of friends were talking around a campfire when the huge figure appeared.
Walking up to the fire, the visitor carried a spear and a tomahawk.
Lifting them both overhead the visitor threw the weapons down into the fire.
When the friends looked, they saw a cracked medicine wheel where the fire used to be and the spear and tomahawk had broken apart.
Gilbert Sark awoke from his dream, but he couldn’t shake the feeling it had meaning.
He spoke about it with an elder.
“What does that dream mean? Is it just a dream?” Sark asked.
“Oh no, it’s not just a dream,” said the elder. “Every race from here to the other side of the world is a tribe and there’s not one of them that can say that they’re pure anymore, because they’re all entwined.”
Now a Mi’kmaq elder himself, Sark shared his the experience with the students of Summerside Intermediate School this week after one asked the story behind his tattoo.
A cracked and broken medicine wheel adornes his left forearm in memory of the dream and the lesson it taught him.
“We’re all one, and it’s about time we start seeing that.”
“We’re all one, and it’s about time we start seeing that.”
-Gilbert Sark
Sark and Elder Alma MacDougall shared some of the Mi’kmaq culture with students at the school’s diversity month activities.
This week is Mi’kamq Week, and SIS students filled the gym to hear drumming and songs from Hey Cuzzin.
Adriannah Reeves, 11, had come from Lennox Island to dance the fancy shawl. Her regalia was a colourful shawl fringed with rainbow-hued ribbons and a matching ankle-length skirt. Beaded fur-trimmed moccasins completed the ceremonial clothes.
Adriannah said dancing for her people made her feel “awesome” and “proud.”
'You must earn it'
Mary-Beth Robichaud performed in her jingle dress regalia. A multi-coloured dress was adorned with dozens of metal cones that tinkled musically with every step the young dancer took.
An eagle feather was tucked into a beaded headdress and she carried a fan made of eagle feathers.
Robichaud didn’t mention it, but Elder MacDougall made sure to explain the significance of the adornments.
“You just don’t get an eagle fan, you just don’t get an eagle feather. You must earn it.”
Once the dancing was done, the elder carefully set the fan on its case on the floor to be the centerpiece of the next demonstration.
MacDougall took volunteers from the audience and arranged them in a circle, four at a time. Each group circled around the last and the elder identified them each: children, mothers, elders, two-spirited and warriors. Eventually, there were four spokes of five students, each holding the shoulder of the person in front.
“It’s called a family circle. It talks about what a family would have looked like in a community,” said MacDougall.
The purpose was to show who would wrap around a child.
Then MacDougall took all but the children away and gathered them into their separate groups until all the adults were looking in at the children.
“How does it feel?” she asked.
“Less protected,” said one student.
“That’s how it was when we were taken away to residential schools,” she said. “You’re not able to look after each other the way you did before.”
“We had a structure. We had our own structures and it was so important for our people.”
“We had a lot of things happen in our history that were imposed by the governments. So we have a lot of horrible history in Canada. To me, it’s our job to teach the young ones what happened to our people so it never happens again.”
Dispelling misconceptions
MacDougall works with the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of P.E.I. and hosts sensitivity training around the Island.
Tammy MacDonald and Adam Joyce, also from the Mi’kmaq Confederacy, were in the school lobby at lunch time to offer information and hopefully dispel misconceptions about indigenous people on the Island.
“I love getting out into the schools so people can see and understand what we do. The Mi’kmaq have been here for over 12,000 years. We love to share the knowledge and you’d be surprised how many people don’t understand the length of time the Mi’kmaq have been here,” said MacDonald, the historian and director of research and outreach for the Confederacy.
Events like the one at SIS raise awareness which leads to understanding, said Joyce, the school transitions coordinator at the Confederacy.
“It’s always good to understand a part of our history. It explains a lot about today,” he said.
