Msit No'kmaq: all my relations

In the summer, I was chosen to sail across the ocean with forty-seven other indigenous youth from across Canada as part of the Msit No’kmaq tall ship project. On this project, we split into three watches and each watch had to do 4 hours of sailing between 8 am – 8 pm. The watches were then split in half and we had to do 2 hour shifts each. When we weren’t sailing, we mostly participated in cultural activities; we talked about what it means to be indigenous, made wampums, and learned what issues aboriginal people are facing in their communities. These were just some of our cultural lessons. This project was also part of the tall ship race that takes place every year and it took us 21 days to get to the finishing line. We spent 4 days just going port to port until we made it to our final destination, Le Havre, on the 25th.  This sailing project was great because it taught us so many different things. We learned a little more about the other cultures out west and it made us into better people. Many people who went back to these reserves were also able to share this experience with youth on their reserve in hopes of getting them to get out into the world and experience something as great as this project.

Wela’lioq

Dakota Francis

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