New campground in Cape Breton Highlands park honours Mi’kmaq and Acadian peoples
CHÉTICAMP, N.S. — Cape Breton’s latest campground formally opened on Canada Day and honours the historical past of the island’s Acadian and Mi’kmaq peoples.
The Mkwesaqtuk/Cap-Rouge Campground, close to Cheticamp, was a $7-million mission that now options 47 walk-in tenting websites, together with 5 oTENTiks (a cross between a tent and a cabin) and 6 accessible campsites. It’s positioned throughout the boundaries of the Cape Breton Highlands Nationwide Park.
The positioning additionally contains off-grid, solar-powered infrastructure together with utilizing native vegetation to construct secure, climate-resilient slopes.
The mission was the results of a collaboration between Parks Canada, La Société Saint-Pierre and the Parks Canada-Unama’ki Advisory Committee.
“It’s our hope that that is however the starting of many extra collaborative tasks for a few years to return,” Napoleon Chiasson, president of La Société Saint-Pierre, stated in a information launch.
Pronounced “Mm kwas sock took,” the brand new facility is described as providing a personal, backcountry really feel with the comfort of front-country tenting.
“Sharing the Mi’kmaw perspective enriches and enhances any story informed concerning the panorama of Nova Scotia. We’re proud that each the Mi’kmaw and Acadian historic and cultural connections to those lands are being share with guests to the Mkwesaqtuk/Cap-Rouge Campground,” stated Chief Wilbert Marshall, who heads the tradition, heritage and archeology portfolios for the Meeting of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs.
Created in 1936, the highlands park was first nationwide park in Atlantic Canada. Some Acadian landowners noticed their properties expropriated consequently.
The brand new campground gives a possibility to find out about Indigenous contributions to the area together with interpretation panels in Mi’kmaw, French and English. An interpretation home on web site is constructed within the Acadian model.
Mkwesaqtuck is a Mi’kmaq phrase noting a spot or characteristic that distinctly adjustments to crimson.
