Lionel Pinn: Sharing the creation story of the Mi'kmaq people

As a child I recall vividly my dear Nana, Lucy Marie Charles, sharing stories of our Mi’kmaq heritage. Some stories stood above others. One in particular had to do with the origins of our Mi’kmaq people. The creation story, as Lucy shared it, was complicated and detailed. There was Glooscap and Martin involved; rocks, islands, fish and little people too. The one thing that really stuck was our physical manifestation. I can still hear her strong voice moving back and forward between her native language and English, “We came from the earth.” As a young impressible child that made a significant impact on me, “from the Earth." All I could relate it to was the dying process, we all go back to the earth but coming from the earth was a new, if not disturbing, concept. She recognized my hesitation and reinforced her proclamation whenever the subject came up, “We came from the Earth”. The earth she referred to was Nova Scotia, Canada. As I grew older and she felt I was ready to learn and understand more she added that the Mi’kmaq people actually rose up from the earth, made up of rock, dirt and minerals of all kinds. From the sweetness of that earthly mixture arose the first Mi’kmaq. One of our first gifts from the Creator was the ability to recognize and honor that which created us. We were also given the gift of intelligence and wisdom. The previously “disturbing” concept left me early as a teenager and into adulthood. Coming from the Earth was and is a good thing. It roots us to our homeland, it gives us our identity. Nana would smile with pride and note that, “We are still in the same place from where we came from, the same good earth.” She would add, “None of the other tribes can say that. They have been pushed up and out of their homelands but us Mi’kmaq’s are still here at our birth place!”