Mi’kmaq Heritage Actors to mark Indigenous Veterans Day with new performance

The Mi’kmaq Heritage Actors will placed on a brand new present on the Kings Playhouse in Georgetown on Tuesday that centres on their current journey to Dieppe, France, the place 2,700 Canadians died on Aug. 19, 1942.

Sma’knis, which implies “warrior” in Mi’kmaq, will mark Indigenous Veterans Day, which is noticed annually on Nov. 8.

Six members of the Indigenous theatre group travelled to France in August to mark the eightieth anniversary of the raid. P.E.I.’s poet laureate, Julie Pellissier-Lush, was considered one of them. She mentioned it was an honour to be the primary such group invited from the Island. 

“This was our flip to have the ability to be part of one thing so massive and so huge and so particular and necessary to have the ability to present the dedication and the last word sacrifices that had been made at this website,” she instructed CBC Radio’s Island Morning host Laura Chapin.

‘We had been so proud’

The group, which spent seven days in France, will replicate on their journey in Sma’knis via pictures, story, music and dance.

Pellissier-Lush mentioned a part of the journey included a efficiency for the area people on the seaside.

“We had a jingle-dress dancer, a hoop dancer, a grass dancer and drummers with our massive drum, and we travelled a great distance to have the ability to carry out and showcase this lovely, wealthy tradition of the Mi’kmaq on P.E.I., and we had been so proud to have the ability to do it as nicely,” she mentioned.

Pellissier-Lush mentioned the night will finish with the names of 66 members of Lennox Island who fought within the First and Second World Wars, together with some who died. 

Lennox Island had extra volunteers join per capita than any different neighborhood on P.E.I., she mentioned.

“They had been providing their lives to a rustic that did not even actually acknowledge them as residents, but they cherished their nation.”

The present begins at 7:30 p.m.