By: William Zhou
People should learn about a lot of different cultures because people from different cultures have different ways of doing stuff. I am writing this because I want to tell people to learn a lot about different cultures.
One culture I think you should learn about is the Mi’kmaq. The Mi’kmaq are a group of people who were part of Canada’s “First Nations.” In Canada they say “First Nations” instead of “Native Americans,” which is what we say in the United States. The Mi’kmaq people have many interesting customs such as drumming, smudging, and sweet grass basket weaving. Would you like to learn what smudging and sweet grass weaving are? Well, let's start with smudging. Smudging is sacred smoke created from burning medicinal or sacred plants. Sweet grass basket weaving is using bundled dry sweetgrass, which tends to grow in sandy areas found near beaches. Things like palmetto fronds secure the coils, pine needles and bulrush to fortify and decorate.
One place that celebrates the Mi’kmaq people is at John J. Sark Memorial School on Lennox Island in Canada’s Prince Edward Island province. Even though people celebrate Mi’kmaq culture today, it wasn’t always like that. As recently, as the mid-1980s, practicing Mi’kmaq culture, including drumming, speaking the language and other practices was illegal.