‘Come with us’: Mi’kmaw community blesses land for new cultural hub

Mi’kmaw culture and tradition flooded a vacant lot with a renewed sense of energy, as dozens of people gathered to witness the blessing of the land that will be the future home of the new Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre.

“This is something that’s long overdue,” Chief Deborah Robinson of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs said.

The plot of the land on the far south-end of Gottingen Street used to belong to the Red Cross building.

READ MORE: Here’s what Halifax’s new Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre might look like

Regional Council agreed to sell the vacant lot to the friendship centre and while the details of the report were confidential, it’s known that the land was sold at market value.

Additional funding still needs to be raised to bring the vision for the new centre to life and will require contributions from both provincial and federal levels of government.

“We’re hoping that we can try and line up all of the funding by February, we’re pushing it, really, really pushing it. However, I have great faith that this can be done,” Pam Glode-Desrochers said, the executive director of the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre.

There are 125 friendship centres across Canada, their primary roles are to provide Indigenous people living in urban areas with services ranging from social programming to culture and events.

The Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre first opened its doors in Halifax.

“I saw people come into the city, Indigenous people from all over Canada, they would come into Halifax and want to know right away, ‘Where’s the friendship centre?’ We’ve dealt with so many issues, everything from the homeless, to addictions, to early childhood,” Chief Robinson said.

There were several political dignitaries in attendance from provincial cabinet ministers to the mayor of Halifax.

“The Mi’kmaw people have called this home for 13,000 years and while our shared history has had lots of challenges and different chapters, I hope in today’s Halifax, we are, more than ever, a city elevated by an increasingly rich mix of culture and tradition, from the ancient to the more recent,” Mayor Mike Savage said.