More Than History: Understanding Treaty Day as a Living Commitment

On October 1st, 2025, the Sociology 329 class on Climate, Truth and Future held a presentation for Treaty Day at the Antigonish Public Library. Treaty Day in Nova Scotia is to recognize the Peace and Friendship Treaties signed in 1752.  

The presentation began with a land acknowledgement, recognizing that we are in Mi’Kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people. Then, an explanation on what it is that Treaties truly means and why it’s important.  

The British Empire signed a series of treaties with various Mi’Kmaq, Wolastoqiyik, Abenaki, Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy peoples living in what is now known as the Maritimes,  the Gaspé region in Eastern Quebec and parts of New England. The treaty, signed by Jean Baptiste Cope, the Chief Sachem of the Mi’kmaq and Governor Peregrine Hopson of Nova Scotia, was intended to make peace and promised hunting, fishing, trading and land-use rights.  

The Peace and Friendship treaties are constitutionally protected by Section 35 of Canada’s Constitution Act, which recognizes and affirms existing Indigenous and treaty rights. These precedents mean that when governments or companies try to restrict or criminalize Indigenous hunting, fishing, land access or natural resource use, Indigenous groups can invoke the treaties as legal backing to challenge these actions.  

This is particularly significant, as highlighted during the presentation, because on September 23rd the province introduced the Protecting Nova Scotians Act. The bill promises to keep forest access roads open and allow the removal of any structures that threaten public safety or block lawful use of Crown lands, without prior notice. Mi’kmaq land defenders have been on Hunters Mountain, located in the Cape Breton Highlands, for a month with a checkpoint and a cedar line. They are not blocking the forest road or access to the mountain, as locals are welcome to visit the mountain. From their perspective it’s an act of self-governance to protect their lands, waters and rights from damaging logging operations. The clear cutting of trees is threatening the moose population, the land’s medicinal properties and the destruction of habitats.  

A large section of the presentation discussed what it means to be Treaty People, emphasizing how the existence of every home, business, and even St. Francis Xavier University is possible because of treaty agreements. All Indigenous and Non-Indigenous residents of Treaty Land are Treaty People.  Treaties are grounded in the values of mutual respect, peace and shared responsibility which we as Treaty People should carry with us everyday.  

Dr. Riley Olstead, the professor who teaches Sociology 329, also researches settler colonialism and decolonization. At the event she sparked a thoughtful conversation after the presentation discussing how climate change is what initially inspired her to integrate Indigenous teachings and knowledge into her course.  

She explained how two-eyed seeing, a framework for understanding and problem-solving that combines the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing with those of Western perspective, allowing both perspectives to guide how we see and act in the world, can offer a more balanced and understanding path to addressing the anxiety that many of us experience regarding climate change and how unsustainable we as a society have been living. 

Dr. Olstead shared that what led her class to focus on Treaty Day in Nova Scotia for their presentation was a part of a “relational invitation for students to step into their place within our binding agreements (to the Peace and Friendship Treaties) and to better understand our relationship to the land.”  

As students, understanding the accountability and obligations we are held to as Treaty People reminds us that reconciliation is not just a national project, but a daily responsibility rooted in respect, learning and action.