Our History, Our Stories: Personal Narratives and Urban Aboriginal History in Prince Edward Island

Our History, Our Stories: Personal Narratives and Urban Aboriginal History in Prince Edward Island 01 02 eArly HistOry: mi’kmAq The orIgInal InhaBITanTs of Prince Edward Island One of the foundations of traditional Mi’kmaq spir- were the Mi’kmaq, who called the island Epekwitk which ituality is the belief that all of creation is imbued with a means “resting on the waves”. [...] 02 Our History, Our Stories: Personal Narratives and Urban Aboriginal History in Prince Edward Island 03 Pre-cOlOniAl HistOry IT Is esTImaTed that the Mi’kmaq population in Atlan- The British gained control over the territory during tic Canada was roughly 15,000 before the arrival of the the mid-18th century and, in 1758, deported thousands of Europeans.[ 8 ] Due to living on the coast of the Atla. [...] The Mi’kmaq “Left without space they could legally claim found that the French showed more respect for their Chiefs as their own, the dispossessed Mi’kmaq had and social values than the British, and by the 18th century become squatters on their own land and many of the Mi’kmaq Chiefs were participating in annual gift giving with the French.[ 10 ] The Mi’kmaq and the French poachers of their own ga. [...] even though the children of the sister and the children The creation of the Indian Act and its discriminatory of the brother all have one status Indian parent and one provisions has directly contributed to the increase in the non-Indian parent.[ 19 ] numbers of Aboriginal persons moving off-reserve and to cities. [...] The nearest was the Indian Residential School utter failure to provide Aboriginal people the commu- in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, and although the Lennox nity-based educational opportunities for which it was Island reserve did have a day school, over the course of its responsible, and also the subtlety of its coercive power.”[ 27 ] operation, the Shubenacadie school had dozens of island The inter-.