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(map of route goes here)
Facts
Sources:
Land Acknowledgement
Mi'kmag word for the harbour, Jipugtug / K'jipuktuk, "Great Harbour" anglicized to Chebucto, you'll see the word in a variety of places.
I've had several Mi'kmag partners and have spent a bit of time on reserves; you very often get tested there with the question, "Do you have a little indian in you?" The standard answer, which identifies you as one kind of ally, is, "My great-great-great-grandmother was a Cherokee princess." But not for me...
Introduction to me: I don't expect you to believe this, but my literary education was done by an extremely rural enclave of lesbians -- anthropologists of the indigenous people here, the Mi'kmag, art and folklore book authors and publishers and artists. I can tell you about it over a beer some time.
I moved to Halifax about 45 years ago and through a sequence of salacious accidents, got very very connected to the gay community here, very quickly.
The harbour's first human use was of course by the Mi'kmag people probably starting 4000 years ago; they were were semi nomadic and spent the summers near the shores and winters inland where big game was abundant and have a really beautiful language - Algonquian family, verb centered. So "red" is not an adjective, it's a verb, "Being red." And, nouns and pronouns aren't gendered, they're animate or inanimate.
The first europeans here were in the 1500s - fishermen and traders; French settlers ("Acadians" - now my partner) starting in the 1600s; 1700s there were many battles between the Acadians and Mi'kmag and British including boats landing here loaded with typhus and typhoid and between that and the battles, the Mi'kmag population was decimated.1.
I'll include as many links to the Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia (the H•R•E) as I can fit in.
We'll do a short detour "West" - we pretend that the Halifax peninsula is laid out on a north south east west grid - but it's not really.
Cross to the N side of Coburg
[ ] Scout Carleton Street the day before and pick route
Scotiabank Parking Lot / St Andrews Church
Gottingen