ABSTRACT
Mi'kmakik is the traditional homeland of more than 20,000 Mi'kmaq living in 31 First Nations communities found throughout present-day Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, eastern and western New Brunswick, and the Gasp Peninsula, as well as parts of Newfoundland, and whose cultural memory and lives comes from living within this landscape. Through a series of Supreme Court of Canada decisions, the Mi'kmaq won their right to sustain a 'moderate livelihood' through 'Harvest, Trading Rights and Aboriginal Title'. This meant that the Mi'kmaq would need to employ a new archaeological approach and develop a new way of thinking in order to meet the challenge of having to document their historical tenure on the land. 'Indigenous archaeology' has become a recognized element of contemporary archaeology in recent decades. Archaeological inquiries of past Indigenous histories should not be carried out separately from whatever place, time, values, knowledge, and traditional practices mean to present-day Indigenous populations.
