As a Mi’kmaq person, I look forward to Treaty Day every Oct. 1 in Halifax. It’s the one opportunity when I get to see everyone I know in one place. I guess that’s the spirit of the annual celebration – it’s a time to renew friendships.
Treaty Day celebrations began as a simple gathering 19 years ago, when then Grand Chief Donald Marshall Sr. declared Oct. 1 Mi’kmaq Treaty Day. His declaration came on the heels of a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision in 1985 which ruled that Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy people have a right to hunt for food under the Treaty of 1752.
The case involved a man from my home community of Indian Brook. James Simon was charged with illegally hunting out of season. He pleaded not guilty and used the Treaty of 1752 to defend himself against the charges. He argued that provisions of the treaty, signed between his ancestors and the British Crown, guaranteed his right to hunt for food. On Nov. 21, 1985, the Supreme Court agreed with him and acquitted him of the charges.
That ruling came down on my 17th birthday. I remember seeing a copy of the decision lying on the kitchen table as I got ready for birthday cake with my family. I was a typical teenager and didn’t really pay attention to the document. I merely skimmed through it. I wouldn’t realize the significance of that court ruling until many years later.
One clause of the Treaty of 1752 states: ” … that the said Indians shall upon the First Day of October Yearly, so long as they shall Continue in Friendship, Receive Presents of Blankets, Tobacco, some Powder & Shot, and the said Indians promise once every year, upon the first of October, to come by themselves or their Delegates and Receive the said Presents and Renew their Friendship and Submissions.”
That was the clause the late Grand Chief Donald Marshall Sr. zeroed in on when he declared Oct.1 as Mi’kmaq Treaty Day in Nova Scotia and held the first celebration in 1986.
In the beginning, a few Mi’kmaq people gathered to mark the day. Nova Scotia government leaders were also invited, but for their own reasons, they never attended Treaty Day celebrations. It wasn’t until the early 1990s when the Nova Scotia government began to participate.
I’ll admit I didn’t know much about the treaties my ancestors signed with the British. The treaty-making process wasn’t part of any history class I took in high school. In fact, if it wasn’t for Treaty Day activities, I still wouldn’t know much about the peace and friendship treaties.
At each celebration I attended, I learned a little more about the treaties the Mi’kmaq signed with the British and, more important, why those treaties were signed in the first place – which was to pave the way for European settlement in this region. The treaties became the rules for the Mi’kmaq and British to co-exist in the region now called the Maritime provinces. In those treaties, Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy people were given guarantees that they could continue to hunt, fish and trade as usual for as long as both peoples co-existed.
As the annual celebration grew over the years, so did my pride in being Mi’kmaq. This little gathering at the Mi’kmaq Friendship Centre turned into a day-long event which now includes a mass at St. Mary’s Basilica and a veterans’ downtown march to Grand Parade Square, where the Mi’kmaq nation’s flag is raised. Since the Nova Scotia government has got involved, the celebration now spills into the legislature, where gifts are exchanged between Mi’kmaq leaders and elected MLAs.
I know there are some people who believe the treaties my ancestors signed are ancient documents that should remain in the past, and not be interpreted in a modern context. But for me, those treaties are still living documents, like Canada’s Constitution, that always need to be interpreted in a modern-day context. I think those peace and friendship treaties belong to all Nova Scotians, aboriginal or not. They’re a part of Nova Scotia’s history.
This annual gathering gives me a chance to meet up with old friends and acquaintances I haven’t seen in a while. I also get to say hi to the many people I interview for my day job in television news. But more important, I get a renewed sense of pride in who I am as a Mi’kmaq person.
I’m sure that’s what the late Grand Chief Donald Marshall Sr. intended when he chose to revive this annual gathering.
Maureen Googoo is a Mi’kmaq journalist living and working in Halifax.
