This trading post on Halifax’s waterfront was 270 years in the making

Sipekne’katik First Nation officially opened a traditional trading post on Halifax’s waterfront on Tuesday, fulfilling a more than 270-year-old treaty promise.

According to the Treaty or Articles of Peace and Friendship renewed in 1752, the British promised that truck houses would be built so that the Mi’kmaq could sell their wares and crafts. That never happened.

The Mi’kmaq were also promised land by the water after the explosion in Halifaxbefore being slowly moved out of the area.

Sipekne’katik chief Michelle Glasgow said this new trading post, called the Treaty Truck House, fulfills a long-overdue promise.

“It’s just for us to have a place where we can come and where we can sell our crafts, where we feel welcome,” Glasgow told CBC Radios. Information Morning Nova Scotia.

Glasgow said 20 years ago that she would sell earrings at a waterside table but was afraid of being kicked out.

“Having a place here and knowing that this is a place where band members can come and sell their crafts here, I think it’s great,” she said.

The trading post opened last fall, but Tuesday marked its grand opening ahead of National Indigenous Peoples Day. It is owned and operated by the Sipekne’katik band.

The shop features artwork and crafts from Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, including beadwork, mugs, woven baskets, traditional stain kits and musical instruments, paintings, and wood-burning art.

“It’s very important to the Mi’kmaq people because it represents our history here in this area. And to be back on the water in a city is huge for the First Nations community, so I’m very proud to be a part to be part of,” said Brooke Willis, a council member of the Sipekne’katik band.