ABSTRACT
Eagles are quite common along Newfoundland’s Conne River. They live among the forested rocky crags across the river from the Mi’kmaq town of Miawpukek (a First Nations reserve recognized by the Newfoundland and Canadian governments). They often take salmon or trout from the community’s fishery in the nearby Bay d’Espoir. Local people see them every day. However, when the people of Miawpukek held their first traditional, non-competitive powwow in 1996 an eagle flew one perfect circle over the central drum group during the final ‘honour song’, and then flew back to its treetop eyrie across the river. Everyone, locals and visitors, noticed. Cries of ‘kitpu’ or ‘eagle’ simultaneously greeted the eagle, expressed pleasure at its beauty and presence, and declared that its flight demonstrated approval for the event. The flight of this eagle, in this way, at this moment, was celebrated by many participants as an encouragement to the Mi’kmaq community to continue the process of (re-)gaining confidence in traditional knowledge and its relevance in the contemporary world. Several people told me that what was happening at Miawpukek was not a ‘revitalization movement’ because traditional worldviews and lifeways did not need revitalizing, the eagles and bears had always maintained them. Now that significant numbers of the indigenous human population of the area, and of the island more generally, were returning to participate in traditional ways of life and traditional understandings of the world, a representative of the eagles was honouring them for coming home and joining in. The eagle participated in the powwow because the humans were participating in local culture again.
