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TWO NATIONAL HISTORIC SITES

We the Mi’kmaq of Metepenagiag have lived in this place since time immemorial. We have always known this. It has been handed down to us through generations of oral history. Our people have lived on this land, a vibrant and spiritual life, and inseparable from Mother Earth.

We have fished and hunted, built vessels for transportation, traded to the far reaches of the earth, spoke our language, raised children, buried our dead and celebrated the new seasons with reverence and respect. We are a communal people – self sufficient, steady, proud. Through all adversity of time, we have endured.

It was in the 1970’s when two National Historic Sites were discovered.

When a company was planning to expand it’s gravel pit in our community, our beloved and respected Elder Joe Augustine remembered being told from his Elders before him, of an old burial ground in the area. He went to the site they described and found what was to become the Augustine Mound - a cemetery dating back to over 600 BC. The concept of preserving, protecting and presenting the rich Mi’kmaq culture is expressed by our Elder and lives on in our community.

In 1977 work began on another site founded by Elder Joe Augustine - the Oxbow, a deeply stratified village site called Metepenagiag. Situated at the head tide, Metepenagiag has had over 3,000 years of continuous settlements right to the present day.

The findings of these two archeological sites scientifically prove the ancient oral history we have always known, passed down through many generations.

This is our legacy and how two national historic sites came to be.