Here we are in membertou first nation!
[cheering & applauding]
Membertou, novia scotia,
In the northeast of cape breton, in sydney,
Home to a mi'kmaq community
Who fished here long before the
Growth of sydney's steel industry...
An industry that once produced 50%
Of all canadian steel.
But it's the mi'kmaq of membertou's story
That I find riveting.
[laughing]
The community here...
Wasn't always here.
100 years ago, the membertou nation
Was forcibly relocated from the kings road
Reserve on the shoreline,
And it is a sordid story.
It's a confusing one.
Why did particular people fight tooth and nail for
Decades to move you up the hill
Barely even a kilometre?
As the crow flies...
The crow probably wouldn't even bother flying.
[laughing]
The crow probably'd just as soon walk.
[laughing]
When you grow up in a small town in newfoundland,
You see that people have a sense of humour
About hard times.
Check, check.
I turned that into a career and hit the road.
[mc] mr. Jonny harris!
Now I'm on a mission to find the funny in the places
You'd least expect it,
Canada's struggling small towns,
Towns that are against the ropes but hanging in there,
Still laughing in the face of adversity.
This is membertou first nation.
♪
The story of how membertou got moved is...
A shady one.
Politically and legally,
Things moved into a swampy area.
Also, literally, the community was
Moved into a swampy area.
[laughing]
After the mi'kmaq people were forcibly relocated
And moved up the hill,
People say the community lost not only its land,
But its way of life.
-Nice to meet you. -Yeah, very nice to meet you.
I had a chat with chief terry paul.
[cheering & applauding]
All the mi'kmaqs pretty well lived by the,
By the waters throughout the atlantic.
And this is where we were.
But there was a movement...
For us to be removed from there,
From the kings road reserve.
Chief terry told me about a particular guy
In the late 1800s, this wealthy lawyer
Turned member of parliament, joseph gillies.
He was a neighbour of ours on kings road,
And he lobbied for many years for,
For us to be removed.
This guy would manipulate law and go through
All this effort for what was ultimately a very small
Piece of land, less than three acres, I think.
He was successful.
Finally, we were moved to here 1925.
40 years.
By the time the mi'kmaq people were
Eventually relocated up the hill,
Gillies had already relocated 6 feet under.
[laughing]
90% of our living was in or near the water,
You know, mostly to, ah...
To fish.
That was part of our life there.
Back in the day, while much of sydney was finding
Employment from the steel factory, he said...
At that time,
The relationships weren't good at all.
We couldn't get jobs in town.
Only very menial ones,
Like daily housekeeping for the women, and...
It was all of pretty well like $5 a week.
Besides the work that the men did, and that's...
Was mostly making products like
Axe handles and pick handles.
With this move,
People were promised houses and farmland,
And instead what you got was decades
Of isolation and neglect.
He said you couldn't get a taxi to come into membertou.
You couldn't get a pizza delivered.
A lot of discrimination.
The police wouldn't come up here.
Cops wouldn't come here
Unless they were serving a warrant.
I think they should have at least worked out a deal.
Like if you can't get a pizza,
At least you should be served-
You're warned in 30 minutes or less or...
Free.
[laughing]
When I was in my early stages of being chief,
Looking at our financial situation at the time,
We find ourselves with a million dollars in the hole.
We sat down and said, we're going to really need
To make a conscious change in how we do things.
Just before all hope was lost,
Just before membertou faded into 'remember to'...
[laughing]
Chief terry assembled a highly skilled team of...
Educated community members.
We brought a number of people back, you know,
The ones that got educated really well and went to work
For government and law and teaching and social work.
One was dan christmas, former band manager,
Who was working with the provincial government.
Another was a bay street lawyer,
Burn christmas.
So, already chief terry, like a kid with freshly
Divorced parents, had two generous christmases.
[laughing]
He brought in people like darlene paul and
John gerrard paul from health canada.
So, you not only had two christmases,
You had two pauls.
Darlene being the first, and john paul the second.
[laughing]
So we had people like that come back and work for us,
Less pay and a lot of hope.
They wanted to give back to the community.
He said, "I couldn't offer them a lot of money,
So what I offered them was a lot of hope."
And that's how the chief got the band back together.
[laughing]
With that, we were able to get
Much more organized, you know, administratively,
And put a really good plan together.
Membertou made huge moves in the fishery,
Real estate, tourism.
Where once this was an area where taxi drivers and
Cops wouldn't enter, now there is
Daily commuter traffic from people from sydney
Coming into membertou to go to work.
In the 50s, the 60s, and 70s, 80s...
Even into the mid 90s, where our
Unemployment rate was no less than 90%.
The economic turnaround has been
Nothing short of miraculous.
Today we're more like 80% employed,
And it's growing and it's getting better.
I read one newspaper that called it
"the membertou miracle".
And I'm dying to make a series about it.
I want to make a mini-series.
It's going to be a co-production cbc,
Aptn, and hallmark.
It's gonna be called
"the miracle of membertou's two christmases".
[laughing & applauding]
The membertou miracle is not just building big
And big buildings.
The band provides training and seed money
For people in membertou who want to
Stay home and mind their own business.
[laughing]
I met a woman whose sewing is showing that
This opportunity is everything it seems.
Owner of muggies creations, margaret tuplin.
[cheering & applauding]
Margaret makes ribbon skirts.
Ribbon skirts are an iconic indigenous fashion.
Skirts, many years ago, they wore them.
But after that, it kind of died off.
Just around 20 years now it's just taken off.
Everybody wants a skirt.
Everybody wants to wear a skirt for...
Everyday use, or school or proms or business,
Going to business meetings.
She said each skirt is a reflection of
The person who wears it.
I have people come in when they order.
They'll pick their ribbons' colours
And sometimes it takes days.
It's what's in their heart, and nothing is ever same.
I've never come across the same skirt.
I'm going to get her to do a shirt for me,
Where I can participate with her to pick ribbons that
Match my sports participation ribbons at home.
[laughing]
For me, personally,
I don't suggest anybody going over the knees,
You know, mini-skirts or anything like that.
I'm into modesty.
Margaret said for her, modesty is part of
Her design, so no hems above the knee.
Which is fine for me- listen, I've been on
Murdoch mysteries so long,
A little bit of ankle will get me going, that's...
[laughing]
The way the wigwam is...
That's how the skirt is, and it's a home.
The shape of a long skirt, she said that's
Representative of a wigwam.
That represents a home.
A place of protection.
It protects and shelters
And nurtures people inside.
Mind you, you should know the difference between a
Wigwam and a skirt before you pop your head into one.
[laughing]
Last year margaret launched this business.
We have entrepreneur centre, you know,
And that's part of it with membertou,
Teaching the people to...
Learn about business.
She sat me behind the sewing machine,
And I gave it a go.
Don't push it.
It'll go on its own, just guide it, yeah.
[machine whirring]
-I'm so bad. -[laughing]
Oh, sorry, I sew bad.
Margaret's stitch style, it's a wavy pattern.
It's like the ocean.
And of course, that's representative of
Her mi'kmaq heritage.
My stitching, it looked funny next to hers.
But maybe my stitching is representative of me,
Kind of funny, but is barely holding things together.
[laughing]
♪
If you're inspired by traditional medicines,
I met your muse.
I did the membertou mi'kmaq medicine walk
With david meuse.
[cheering & applauding]
Our medicine walk is a three-hour experience.
It has five senses in it.
So there's all- you have taste, touch, smell, music.
You're interactive.
[indigenous singing & drumming]
This medicine walk, it's inspired by practices and
Traditional medicines of mi'kmaq people for
Thousands of years.
And tourists have come from all over the world.
In recent years, we had them from australia,
New zealand... Switzerland, poland.
Lots of americans come up.
They can use all the health care they can get.
[laughing]
[indigenous singing]
He showed me the alder tree.
If you ever get a headache...
You can use the tupsi.
In english, it's alder.
Now if you had a migraine, you do a little offering,
Then you could wrap that little stick around your head.
It'll take your migraine away.
He also showed me some st. John's wort.
In the pharmaceutical world, they would make a pill
Form or people would make a tea.
So, we're not really supposed to kill the flower.
You close your eyes and put your hands over it, jonny.
He said if you pick the flower, once the flower dies,
It loses its healing properties.
You don't take this medicine, you kind of absorb the energy.
I read something about st. John's wort
Affecting how your skin absorbs uv rays.
When I started a sort of spiritual,
Holistic approach to life, I was taking it.
And every time I got out of my tanning bed,
I was just itchy.
[laughing]
We walked a little further and,
Dave told me about yellow birch, mnnoqon.
Mnnoqon in our language means yellow birch,
And that's the material they used to make
Our hockey sticks back in those times.
These yellow birch hockey sticks are
Not just great for hockey.
This was an aphrodisiac, so you have it in your hands
All day, all you want to go home and...
-Oh, is that right? -Yeah.
So, you're like absorbing- from holding the-
Absorbing that so, by the time you got home,
You're sure as hell excited.
Dave said no joke, when they first started
Using the yellow birch hockey sticks,
He said the birth rate went up.
I guess a yellow birch hockey stick will help you
Slip one past the goalie.
[laughing]
[applauding]
It was great being out with dave and
Learning some of this stuff,
And learning some of the names.
I always find it interesting the difference between
How indigenous people name things and
How europeans do.
We didn't have a word for that plant in our language.
We created it because our language is descriptive.
St. John's wort is a good example of that, right?
"gawajamanoxi".
"gawajamanoxi" means depression plant.
As opposed to europeans call it st. John's wort.
I guess to honour st. John.
I don't really know if anybody's feeling honoured
Being named for any kind of wort.
[laughing]
"st. John, which one is he again?"
"the baptist." "no, I can't place it."
"it's the st. John's wort guy."
"oh, yeah, right, the wort guy."
[laughing & applauding]
[laughing] I'm jonny.
[barking]
This next guy will teach you that when inspiration strikes,
You might as well roll the dice and give it a burl.
I met with elder, danny paul.
[cheering & applauding]
Danny is known across membertou for
Making the game waltes.
What's the origin? Where did it come from?
That's a good question, there's no...
History that I have, that I've learned about
From anybody about where it originated.
You had played it before?
Yeah, I played it before, and...
I always knew about the game because
We grew up with it, right?
Yeah.
Waltes is an ancient mi'kmaq game.
It's played with 6 flat dice and a wooden bowl.
Danny told me he was out on a moose hunting trip.
Nature called, and I had to go in the bush.
And I went in and seen this burl on the tree.
And I said, jeez, I can make waltes, I think.
Even though he'd never made a waltes board,
He knew that it had to be made specifically from
The burl of a tree.
About a year later, I went back,
And I cut the tree down and cut the burl off.
I let the burl sit for two years here,
Let it dry right out,
And then I sliced it and started making the games.
I can relate to that a lot. I mean, not the
Moose hunting or the cutting the burl or anything,
But having a great idea while I'm talking a leak,
And then... -[laughing]
...Actually doing something with it three years later.
That's like, that's my career.
[laughing]
How come it has to be the burl of the tree?
'cause, see all the grain in here?
How it goes all different directions?
So that when it gets pounded, it won't split.
With the burl, the grain, it just sort of swirls.
I thought it looked a bit like starry night,
Like van gogh.
This is better than van gogh.
Better than van gogh.
-It's made by nature. -Yeah.
The dice are flat.
Start off the game usually...
Like this...
-And then drop the dice. -Okay.
And then you just move the dice like that.
You almost got a point.
How do you get a point?
Five one way, either way.
Oh, okay.
And then you get a point,
You get a certain amount of sticks.
There you go.
Once you accumulate so many sticks,
You trade them for an old man's stick and
Three old lady sticks.
[indigenous name] the old man.
This is [indigenous name]
The old lady.
He told me that, and I was confused,
And then I got upset because my gym teacher,
Whenever I wore gym shorts,
He would call me 'lady sticks'.
[laughing]
The rules, I don't know really even if
I should be the one explaining.
I mean, even danny said he's not 100% on the rules.
He said, "listen, I make the game, not the rules."
[laughing]
But the most interesting thing danny told me,
He said the jesuits took real issue
With the game of waltes.
The ways of our people were not conducive to
The ways of the catholic church.
So, when the jesuits saw this game being played,
And then the game was over, and they noticed
People putting water in the bowl.
Some of the elders were seers.
There was a seer who was able to manipulate
The water in the bowl together.
And they'd move the water, and from that,
They could see visions.
Then look into the future, and look as to where...
Ideal hunting grounds would be,
The location of missing person...
Ah, the location of enemies, and stuff like that, eh?
The jesuits wouldn't stand for it.
The jesuits they said that's witchcraft, right.
That's devil worship.
Since the jesuits couldn't stop them
From playing the game, they drilled a hole in
The middle of the bowl so it wouldn't hold water.
-Oh! -Yeah.
Which I think, maybe,
I don't know if it's a bit hypocritical.
I mean, for these people who were trying to sell you a
Story on a virgin who got pregnant and now
You're going to say this doesn't hold water?
[laughing & applauding]
Tonight, we made a meal out of the membertou miracle and
How it made money for the local economy.
But elders in this community have been making meal
Out of dough for ages.
And, they're showing the kids how it's done.
I met up with janine christmas.
[cheering & applauding]
I met up with janine over at the 55 plus centre
Where she helps run a program where they get
The elders of the community and
The youth of the community together.
Our elders, they wanted to step in and
Teach our youth how to do stuff.
And, this is a product of that.
My name's dave marshall, and today I'm going to
Demonstrate how to cook lusknikn.
Lusknikn is a mi'kmaq style of bannock.
Nova scotia means new scotland.
Scottish people brought over bannock.
Lusknikn is kind of a derivative of that.
Like bannock and a scone or something like that?
It meets it in the middle.
It's like if a bannock and a scone got married,
Lusknikn would be it.
I pictured a couple hundred years ago,
Out in the woods, a couple of
Mi'kmaq hunters and a couple of scottish hunters
Sharing a campfire, and the mi'kmaq guys are
Frying up some dough.
And one of the scottish guys is like,
"you know what you should do with that?
You should stuff it inside of a sheep's bladder."
[laughing]
And the mi'kmaq guys are like, "oh my god,
What did he just say?" [groaning]
And then the other scottish guy, he's like,
"well, or you could just make it a bit like a scone."
And they're like, "yeah, let's do that."
[laughing]
Here's our finished product.
[cheering & applauding]
♪
The finished product, it was delicious.
Mm!
You could have it all kinds of different ways.
There was one woman there who said
Her family baked it with eels.
I started to wonder, like, oh,
If you could put eel in it, I wonder,
Could you put, like, an all-beef patty in it?
And then I thought, like, could you put two
Patties in it and some special sauce?
And then you could call it the big mi'kmaq mac.
[laughing]
[applauding]
♪
It's pretty cool that the old can teach the young and,
It's something that this community I think
Has done very well.
You've got big buildings and big business,
But you can't walk ten feet without learning
Something about mi'kmaq culture.
This is a place where you can take a walk
Among plants that are healing.
And if the seeds are sowing a feeling.
Sew a ribbon on your skirt and give us a twirl.
Or learn how to bake your own bread,
Or try your hand instead with a maple bowl
Handmade from a burl.
From the courts an eviction was served.
You were pulled off kings road reserve
And given swamp land.
But instead of stagnation,
Just look around, the proof's empirical.
The people pulled off a miracle.
And that's how they'll remember
Membertou nation.
Thanks for coming out, everybody, you've been great!
Thanks so much!
[cheering & applauding]
♪
Honest to god, it was so funny.
I haven't laughed so much.
[laughing]
♪
Laughter is the best medicine.
♪
The historical component was really important.
To know where we came from and
Understand what, you know...
What we've done to become what we are today.
♪
Mi'kmaq big mac. [laughing]
♪
Maybe he said it first, but I'm gonna make it first.
♪