Peace & Friendship

JUNE 09, 2024
Charlotte Bernard, a respected Nova Scotian Elder, was hosted at the home of Susan Pond and Tom Jones to talk about the Peace and Friendship Treaties. She started the meeting explaining that smudging, a sacred ceremony is used for cleansing body, mind, soul and heart. We were smudged with handfuls of the four sacred herbs tobacco, sage, sweet grass and cedar.

Charlotte spoke about the rights and obligations recorded in the Treaties and what impact they have on current problems, some due to former misinterpretation of the language or the disregard of the treaty laws, by the Canadian Government. She talked about the Indian Act which includes the Indian status, life on and off reserve.

Charlotte remembered her family background and history, the residential school in Shubenacadie where part of her family had been forced to go and the subsequent traumas in her family. As a young adult she struggled with severe health issues and drug addiction due to the inability of her family to talk about their traumas. She shared her experience of healing and how she became a nurse at the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre in Halifax.