The ancestors of today's Mi'kmaq knew the land intimately, its seasons, its animals, its plants and it's mineral sources. From these they created a successful lifestyle charged with physical and spirtual richness. From early tools to early clothing to early weaving, all of this knowledge of their own technologies allowed the Mi'kmaq to survive the different climate and enviroment changes over the past 10,000-13,500 years. 

Language is the heart of a people's heritage. If you lose your language you lose the most vital part of your culture. This is why all of the exhibits in the Glooscap Heritage Centre are bilingual (Mi'kmaq + English). At our centre you can engage with an audio interactive wall panel that will teach you the Mi'kmaw Alphabet and how to say "Hello" and "Good-bye".

   
As early as the eighteenth centrury, Mi'kmaw saw that their artwork found a ready made martket for European settlers. The Mi'kmaq would create boxes and containers out of birchbark and apply porcupine quills to the bark, flattend to the surface to create ellaborate designs. They would dye the quills using natural elements such as berries and minerals.


In the seventeenth centrury, French adventurers drew attention to the beautiful lace like designs that Mi'kmaw women painted on leather. Such designs would continue to be used on Mi'kmaw garments, but since wool and linen had now replaced leather, designs once done by paint had to now be done with glass beads.

Ash splint baskets are a signature item that the Mi'kmaq have become renowned for. Mikmaw craftsmen chose Black Ash as the favoured material for baskets. The Mi'kmaq made a wide range of baskets made from splints, for a variety of reasons. Baskets for work, whimisies and ornate basketry were all comommonly made by the Mi'kmaq rather it was for functionality, selling or trading.

Much as we use plastic today, the ancestral Mi'kmaq used bark from the White Birch. They made everything from birchbark canoes and wigwams, to containers, moose-calls, fishing torches and rain gear. Mi'kmaw craftsmen made a wide variety of items from other trees as well. White and Black Ash, Rock Maple, Red Spruce and Black Spruce, the Mi'kmaq would also use soft woods as well. Pine, Spruce, Hemlock and Fir were commonly used for items such as a baby carrier.

This fourteen-foot birchbark canoe was built by Todd Labrador and his daughter Melissa Labrador-Posey of the Wildcat Reserve in Queens County, Nova Scotia in 2005. It was made using traditional construction techniques and materials. White birch, cedar, spruce and ash along with black spruce roots.

A petroglyph is a carving or inscription made on a rock. In Nova Scotia there are a number of places where Mi'kmaw petroglyphs can be found. A boulder moved here from Dartmouth area, has an inscription dating back to 1876 from Joseph C. Cope (1859-1951).

November 11th, 2010 on Rememberance Day the Glooscap Heritage Centre unveiled our Mi'kmaq Veterans Wall of Honour which is our newest edition to our wall panels featured at our centre. The wall panel also provides a gala of Mi'kmaq Veterans from Nova Scotia.

From the early days of contact Europeans recognized that the Mi'kmaw were particularly skilled artisans with a fine eye for design. Over the following centuries the Mi'kmaw readily adopted new materials, techniques and styles, incorporating these elements into their own creations. Today, Mi'kmaq artists, artisans and craftspeople work in a variety of media. The legacy of creativity continues, incorporating new materials, diverse techniques and various state-of-the-art technologies. Contemporary works range from traditional splint basketry to poetry to digitalized photography, paintings, hand carved sculptures and many more forms of art.