the Peabody museum, encouraged Cynthia Mar- tin to bring them back and share them with her Mi’kmaw community of Millbrook. From these images, Catherine Martin (Mill-
brook First Nation), Elder Murdena Marshall (Eska- soni First Nation), Donald Julien (Millbrook First Nation), Tim Bernard (Millbrook First Nation) and Rosenmeier created an exhibition that toured var- ious venues, including the Nova Scotia Museum and the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. These photos were also featured in a book the con- federacy and Peabody museum co-published called “Mikwite’lmanej Mikmaqi’k: Let Us Remember the Old Mi’kmaq.” The desire to protect the Mi’kmaw ancestral
sites that had been excavated sparked an even larger idea: Donald Julian, who was then the exec- utive director of the confederacy, proposed that the Mi’kmaw Nation could have its own museum where images of their communities such as the Johnson collection and Mi’kmaw items could be displayed. The confederacy soon began planning the Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre to be built near the former excavation sites and reached out to NMAI to ask if they could bring the Mi’kmaw items in those collections home on a long-term loan.
A Language of Doing One idea the center will reflect is that language pro- vides a gateway to Mi’kmaw ways of knowing and being that is central to sharing Mi’kmaw history and interpretation. In addition to oral storytelling, before European contact, they used other forms of communication. Mi’kmaw petroglyphs can still be found carved into stone in the town of Bedford near
In this image, Christopher and Mary Josephine Morris are playing “waltes,” a game of chance in which six dice are tossed as a wooden bowl is slammed on the ground or a table.
Left to right: While NMAI Conservator Caitlin Mahony (left); NMAI fellow Stephanie Guidera and MDCC colleague Curatorial Associate Kamden Nicholas look on, MDCC Curatorial Associate for Education Basil Johnson (center) demonstrates how to toss the dice during waltes, a game he looked forward to seeing in the collection. “I played it as a young child,” he recalled.
This waltes set is complete with not only the wood bowl and bone dice but also the wood sticks used to keep score.
“Waltes” set, collected by Frederick Johnson, 1930, Millbrook First Nation, Nova Scotia. 17/6518
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION WINTER 2022 29
TOP: PHOTO BY FREDERICK JOHNSON, 1930, ESKASONI, NOVA SCOTIA. NMAI N19927; BOTTOM: PHOTOS BY NMAI STAFF (2)
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