How a bond 'crucial to life' was forged between the Mi'kmaq and Acadians

A friendship forged in the unforgiving Maritime winters is being celebrated this weekend at Grand-Pr2017, which marks 400 years of co-operation between Acadians and the Mi'kmaq.

"The French and the Mi'kmaq had a very, very peaceful relationship. It went well for many years," Leland Surette, a Mtisspiritual leader and member of the Kespu'Kwitk Mtis Council, told CBC's Information Morning.

"However, in the last few years it's kind of gotten lukewarm and we were looking to rekindle that, to bring that back where it was before."

Surette spokeat an event Fridaythat tracedthe Mi'kmaq and Acadian connection beginning in 1604.

Survival lessons

It was then that Chief Membertou greeted Samuel de Champlain as French families arrived in what would become Nova Scotia.

That first winter was a difficult one andmany died of scurvy, but by the following yearthe newcomers hadlearned some keys to surviving in the harsh climate.

The Mi'kmaqtaught the French settlers thatdrinking pine needle tea gives you all the vitamin C you need, and that yarrow can help reduce fevers.

In turn, a herb called plantainmade its way to Nova Scotia hidden in the wool ofsheep,and was used todraw out infections and as a much-needed salve for mosquito bites.

"Some of those things were very crucial to life," said Surette.

Words were also shared between the two cultures, with the Mi'kmaq language derivingmore than350 words directly fromFrench,said Surette.

"When you change someone's language, you really know how deep something has been affected, so you can see that the coming together of these two people changed the language. It did go very deep," he said.

Not about 'conquering each other'

Ronald Bourgeois,Acadian cultural co-ordinator, said the bond between Acadians and the Mi'kmaq was so strong partly because both groups faced persecution.

"What's different with this relationship is it wasn't one of conquering each other. It was one of shared experiences," he said.

Over the years,"we shared our blood, we shared our lives, we shared the land," saidBourgeois, whorecalls how his father would talk about the Mi'kmaqwith reverence.

"[My family]knew the woods like the Mi'kmaqknew the woods and we respected the land and all of those things, right. I think it's fundamental," he said.

During the Expulsion of the Acadiansin the mid-1700s, many Mi'kmaq communities sheltered Acadian familiesin New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

A more peaceful future

Thisclimate of friendship and respectstarted to change when the English arrived, according toMi'kmaq elder DanPaul, who has an honourary degree from UniversitSainte-Anne, the only francophone university in Nova Scotia.

English settlers had a very different approach to the land and Indigenous people and that"was simply to conquer and brutalize, I guess, that's the best description," said Paul.

He saidwe can learn a lot from the relationship of respect and tolerance that was fostered between Acadians and theMi'kmaq.

"If France had prevailed in this area, I would imagine that somewhere along the line Mi'kmaq and Acadians would have formed some kind of distinct country and went into the future quite peacefully and happily together," he said.