The Feather
Kwe!
I promised to post online the story behind the feather design we use here at First Nations Storytellers. Hover your mouse over words for pronunciations / translations. When I decided on walking down this road I wanted to make sure our logo was something meaningful. It was always going to be a feather but I was not happy with just that.
It occurred to me that the lands I was going to be operating in is the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik and I am a Mi’kmaw of the Mi’kmaq people. I have lived here at the headwaters of the Wolastoq for over 20 years and since my mission was to bring awareness and appreciation of our Indigenous cultures to the greater Saint John area, a place that was lacking in this exposure, I felt I had to make sure all our Nations were represented.
In New Brunswick, there are 15 of our communities. Our feather is comprised of 15 sections that represents each community. The sizes approximate the relative size of those communities by population.
Not every community in New Brunswick are the same Nation, so I changed the colors to represent them. The golden color (as the tip of the feather) represents the Mi’kmaq that live in 9 communities. The brown color represents the Wolastoqiyik (5 communities) and the single reddish segment are our Peskotomuhkati friends.
There are about 50 different nations across Canada, not to mention the many distinct nations in the United States. Take some time to discover what Nations whose land you are on and learn their names. Then, once you learn their names, learn how to say it, how to spell it and honor them by using it.
Most are not aware of the number of distinct cultures and languages that exist across Turtle Island and I hope that I have had some success in opening up your mind, just a little to learning more.
First Nations Storytellers recognizes and affirms that we operate on the unceded and unsurrendered ancestral lands of the Wolastoqiyik, Peskotomuhkati and Mi’kmaq, respectively known as Wolastokuk, Peskotomuhkatik and Mi’kmaki. These lands are covered by the Treaties of Peace and Friendship first signed with the British Crown in 1725, and then recognized and affirmed by Canada in section 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982. We invite you to learn about these agreements and how they protect the livelihood and cultural practices of the original inhabitants of this land you call home.