November 3, 2025
This month, our students Drew and Kallan went to McCulloch School in Pictou to teach drumming with Music Teacher Dave MacDonald.
One of our grade 8 students wrote the following letter to Premier Tim Huston:
Dear Premier Tim Houston,
I feel as though it’s a general consensus that doing anything like harvesting, gathering, fishing, or building on peoples land without permission is frowned upon, if not
illegal. The current situation in Hunters mountain is wrong on the government's part, coming from a citizen of Nova Scotia with Mi’kmaq descent. As far as I am aware the
current situation with Port Hawkesbury Paper is in violation of one if not multiple of the treaties signed between the Mi’kmaq and some British settlers from 1726 to 1761. As the member of parliament, Jamie Battiste said it would be quite important to establish some form of place or course for people to learn about the importance of moose to the Mi’kmaq people. I believe it is very important for members of the government and other high ranking officials with conglomerates, such as Port Hawkesbury Paper to learn more about the culture and land of Mi’kmaki. It is imperative in the typical law to ask for permission before doing anything on other peoples land, and the land that is currently being protested on is still on the land of the Mi’kmaq. In Mi’kmaq culture it is an extremely important lesson to respect the land and take only what you need, therefore I believe all the protests are completely deserved and shouldn’t even need to happen in the first place. Respecting the land is something that many officials of not just the companies, but the government has to learn. Everybody must do their part in protecting the sacred land of Mi’kmaki, especially the government.
From,
Elton Irving
Grade 8 Student - Pictou Landing First Nation School