The Mikmaqis people and their culture - Essay Example

The Mi’kmaqis people and their culture The Mi’kmaqis people and their culture have always been an intriguing subject for me. Although I have known about the people for a while, I have never really learnt much about their culture. Attending the Mi’kmaq Resource Center at Cape Breton University was a valuable learning experience for my classmates, especially the information that the tour guide, Mr. Tuma Young, gave to the class and me. As a young man, he told us he was no good at fishing, and his father chose to take him school instead, following which he became the first lawyer among the Membertou Mi’kmaq.

This was a touching revelation for the class that showed the potential the community holds. However, the most important aspect for the class tour had to do with potential of the Mi’kmaq as a tourism asset. Our first visit was to the heritage park at the University. Mr. Tuma was very interactive with the class during the tour, stimulating conversation through abstract questions about how tourism for the heritage park and how we saw it. He used an anecdote about marketing the heritage park to a Saudi Arabian, which pushed us to think critically about the issue.

On the surface, most students could not think of how this could be done, especially since there is not a lot in common between Saudis and Canadians, let alone Canadian Aborigines. The reverse was also true; we thought so since marketing Saudi Arabia to Canadians would be just as difficult. However, when Mr. Tuma began to talk about the authenticity of Aboriginal culture, we began to see the possibilities. The Mi’kmaq Resource Center is a collection center for tools and other artifacts that were used by the Mi’kmaq, which helped us to learn about their culture, history, language, and general way of life.

As student visitors, we were allowed to access the research papers and books about the Mi’kmaq that covered the culture and history of this native community, especially old newspapers that were availed to us. Mr. Tuma also told us that the books we were looking at were very rare and could only be found at the resource center and other similarly themed aboriginal museums. We learnt a lot about the crafts and tools that the Mi’kmaq used. We got to see their wall baskets made of grass and used for the storage of clothes, as well as the Bi-face tools that functioned as knives.

While thinking back on the tour, it now becomes clear that this is a potential tourist location that should be marketed. However, it is my opinion that the tourist products must be further defined to include all things that the aborigines could be involved in, including entertainment and resorts. I asked Mr. Tuma about this, and he was enthusiastic as he discussed what the community’s long-term plan was with regards to their tourism product. He was adamant that simply being aboriginal did not make for an aboriginal tourist product.

Instead, an aboriginal tourism product must be related to the values and culture of the Mi’kmaq, just as they were trying to do at the resource center. Therefore, from what I understood from the visit, the Mi’kmaq tourist product should be representative of their history, their lifestyle, the role of land in the history and development of the Mi’kmaq, their entertainment and customs, their spiritual values, and their arts and crafts (Campbell, 2009). If all these things could be combined, it would make marketing of the product we saw on the show at the resource center easier.

I am sure Mr. Tuma would agree with me. ReferencesCampbell, B. (2009). Aboriginal Cultural Tourism: The Market. Retrieved November 27, 2013, from; http://archive.canada.icomos.org/bulletin/vol3_no3_campbell_e.html