Mi'kmaw sunrise ceremony near Louisbourg starts National Indigenous Peoples Day

About 40 people gathered at the break of dawn Saturday along the Atlantic coast near Louisbourg, N.S., for a Mi'kmaw sunrise ceremony to kick off National Indigenous Peoples Day.

The ceremony was led by Eskasoni First Nation Elder Lottie Johnson, who said it's meant for all people to share.

But as a residential school survivor, Johnson said the ceremony holds extra meaning for her.

"It's a very special time. It's quiet and as the sun comes up, you see the creation of [the] creator. Everything is so beautiful and it's like almost-new again. That's where you get the hope and the will to go on."

Johnson regularly conducts the sunrise ceremony and said dawn is a good time to connect with the Earth and to pray.

National Indigenous Peoples Day did not exist when she went to the residential school in Shubenacadie, but June 21 and the summer solstice hold special meaning for many of those who went.

"June 21 was Freedom Day, what they called it," she said.

"That was the day you get to go home for the summer. But not all of the kids went home. Some of them had no places to go, so they stayed."

The sunrise ceremony, which is sacred and cannot be recorded, was organized by Allison Bernard Memorial High School teacher Jonathan Cox, along with other members of his union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

He said holding the ceremony at Louisbourg is an important part of reconciliation, honouring the original inhabitants of what is now Canada.

"It's not just a checkbox. It's something we need to do — all the settlers, colonizers, Mi'kmaq, non-Mi'kmaq, visitors."

The union's first sunrise ceremony was held last year in a clearing by a look-off not far from the historic Louisbourg lighthouse, which was being refurbished at the time.

The beacon is on the site of the first lighthouse in Canada, lit in 1734 by the French at the entrance to the harbour across from what is now the Fortress of Louisbourg.

Now that the work on the existing structure has finished, the sunrise ceremony was held east of the lighthouse on a small cape looking out over the cold North Atlantic Ocean.

Before dawn, it was windy and cold, with the ceremony conducted in a huddle using a couple of large vehicles as windbreaks.

Not long after the ceremony, the clouds broke up and the sun came out.

Cox said despite the cold, everything was as it should be.

The Mi'kmaq are known as the People of the Dawn and they call Cape Breton Island Unama'ki, the Land of Fog.

"It is a perfect way to start this day," he said. "This should be a national holiday, but we'll start with ceremonies like this, so that people can celebrate heritage."

"I don't think there's a better place anywhere, period, to see the sun come up."