 Canada. WWI Toronto's Returned Heroes Commemorative Medal, 1918. US $80.00 
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 Canada. Pre WWI Pair of 37th Haldimand Rifles Collar Tabs. US $50.00
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 Canada. WWI 54th Infantry Battalion "Kootenay Battalion" Shoulder Tab. US $30.00
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 Canada. Pre WWI Pair of Royal Rifles of Canada Collar Tabs. US $55.00
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 Canada. WWI Royal Canadian Artillery Collar Tab Pair. US $30.00
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 Canada. WWI 83rd Infantry Battalion Cap Bage. US $50.00
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 Canada. WWI Pair of Sam Browne Belt Shoulder Straps. US $45.00
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 Canada. Pre-WWI Oxford Rifles Militia Buttons. US $45.00
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 Canada. WWI General Service Cap Badge and Two Collar Tabs. US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI Canadian Army Dental Corps Collar Tab. US $30.00
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 Canada. WWI Lot of Two Royal Canadian Postal Corps Collar Tabs. US $40.00
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 Canada. WWI 120th Infantry Batt. "13th Royal Reg, Hamilton Battalion" Collar Tab US $30.00
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 Canada. WWI Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps Cap Badge. US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI/WWII Lot of Three Service Pins. US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI Pair of UNKNOWN Canadian Shoulder Titles. US $38.00
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 Canada. WWI Lot of Four Canadian Field Artillery (CFA) Shoulder Titles. US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI Medal Pair, CASC. US $85.00
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 Canada. WWI 170th Infantry Battalion Cap Badge US $45.00
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 Canada WWI 51st Bn Edmonton Regt Officer's Cap Badge US $45.00
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 Canada. Pre WWI 44th Infantry Battalion Cap Badge. US $50.00
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 Canada. WWI Lot of Five Tabs/Badges/Pins. US $35.00
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 Canada WWI Canadian Army Pay Corps Lot of 3 Collar Dogs US $40.00
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 Canada. WWI CLH, LSH and MGS Shoulder Tabs. US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI Valcartier Camp Allies Medal, 1914. US $45.00
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 Canada. WWI CEF Veteran's Canadian Pay Book, 1918 and Two Photographs. US $35.00
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 Canada WWI 1st Canadian Construction Battalion Badge US $45.00
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 Canada. WWI 20th Lorne Rifles Collar Dog Pair. US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI Beautiful Plains Returned Soldiers Pin, Neepawa, MB. US $40.00
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 Canada. WWI/WWII Lot of Four of Badges. US $40.00
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 Canada. WWI Veteran's Honourable Service Badge. US $38.00
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 Canada. WWI 202nd Infantry Battalion "Edmonton Sportsmen's Battalion" Collar Dog US $48.00
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 Canada. WWI 76th Infantry Battalion Collar Dog. US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI Infantry Corps Cap Badge. US $35.00
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 Canada. Pre-WWI Victoria Rifles of Canada (Montreal, QC) Cap Badge. US $50.00
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 Canada. WWI 163rd Infantry Battalion "Canadiens Francais" Collar Dog. US $45.00
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 Canada. WWI 157th Infantry Battalion "Simcoe Foresters" Collar Dog. US $40.00
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 Canada. WWI Lot of Two Commemorative Medallions. US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI & WWII Lot of Three General Service Items. US $30.00
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 Canada. WWI CEF For Service At The Front Badge. US $30.00
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 Canada. WWI Era Maple Leaf Patriotic Cloisonne Pin. US $48.00
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 Canada. WWI Lot of Two Shoulder Titles. US $30.00
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 Canada. WWI Trench Art Artillery Bracelet. US $45.00
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 Canada. WWI/WWII Pair of Halifax Rifles Shoulder Titles. US $29.00
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 Canada. WWI 129th Infantry Battalion "Wentworth Battalion" Collar Dog. US $29.00
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 Canada. WWI Shoulder Title and GWV Pin. US $45.00
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 Canada. WWI/WWII Lot of Two Military Service Pins. US $40.00
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 Canada. WWI Easter Vestry Church Soldier's Honour Roll, 1916. US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI Lot of Two CANADA Shoulder Titles. US $55.00
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 Canada. WWI 166th Infantry Battalion Cap Badge REPROD.! US $30.00
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 Canada WWI Canadian Engineers General Service Cap Badge US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI British War Medal, Acting Lance Corporal William Heenie,13th Inf Bat US $70.00
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 Canada. WWI British War Medal, Acting Corporal Wilkie C.S. Louis, Can. Forestry US $55.00
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 Canada. WWI Canadian Machine Gun Corps Button. US $30.00
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 Canada. WWI 37th Haldimand Rifles Collar Dog. US $30.00
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 Canada. WWI Canadian Machine Gun Corps Cap Badge and Button. US $45.00
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 Canada. WWI veterans Lot US $45.00
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 Canada. WWI & WWII Lot of Two Canadian Engineers Cap Badges. US $45.00
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 Canada. WWI British War Medal, Sapper R.F. Dow, Canadian Engineers. US $55.00
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 Canada. Pre-WWI Canada Militia Button. US $20.00
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 Canada. WWI & WWII Lot of Five Service Badges. US $40.00
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 Canada. WWI Canadian Engineers Sweet Heart Pin. US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI CANADA Shoulder Title. US $30.00
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 Canada. WWI 36th Infantry Battalion Cap Badge, Collar Tabs and Shoulder Title. US $60.00
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 Canada. WWI 133rd Infantry Battalion Cap Badge. US $45.00
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 Canada. WWI Lot of Four General Service Collar Tabs. US $30.00
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 Canada. WWI 120th Inf Batt "13th Royal Regiment, Hamilton Batt" Sweetheart Pin US $40.00
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 Canada. WWI Pocket Watch. US $100.00
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 Canada. WWI Overseas Contingent Commemorative Medal, 1915. US $55.00
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 Canada. Lot of Two WWI/WWII Women's Membership Pins. US $39.00
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 Canada. WWI British War Medal, Gunner Gordon A. Campbell, Canadian Field Artil. US $55.00
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 Canada. WWI Canadian Expeditionary Force Print. US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI British War Medal, Private G.G. Jamieson, Manitoba Regiment. US $55.00
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 Canada. WWI 173rd Infantry Battalion "Canadian Highlanders" Cap Badge. US $60.00
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 Canada. WWI Lot of Five "CANADA" Service Tunic Buttons. US $35.00
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 Canada. WWI Lot of Eight Badges and Pins. US $30.00
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 Canada. WWI Pair of 212th Infantry Battalion "Winnipeg Americans" Collar Tabs. US $50.00
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Canada Wwi
World War 1 History - Canada 1/5
Centuries of Sharing between Mi'kmaq and Acadians
A Synergy of Spirit In Nova Scotia
In his book, The Great War and Modern Memory, historian Paul Fussell writes, "The Somme [WWI battlefield] is now a peaceful, but sullen place… the saddest place in France." The same can be said of the bucolic tract of land flanking the Minas Basin, near Grand Pré, Nova Scotia.
Next to the French Cross marking the Acadian deportation, is a stark, dead tree, a symbolic adjunct. When one crosses the soft green sod to the black iron cross, there is a tangible weight that penetrates the heart, a palpable sorrow that invades even the most sunny day. And yet this lesser known attraction also harbors the strong spirit of a people who were driven out, but came back, in some cases centuries and many generations later, to one of the most beautiful, abundant places on earth. Many a tourist visiting this area returns to make residence, permanent or for summers.
Grand Pré (great meadow, in English) is about an hour's drive from the beautiful, vibrant city of Halifax that lies on the Atlantic Ocean on the south shore of Nova Scotia, sometimes referred to as Canada's best-kept secret. Grand Pré is situated at the eastern end of the world-famous (for its apples an other fresh produce, and lately, for its wines) Annapolis Valley, a wide valley that parallels the southern shore of the Bay of Fundy, with the highest and lowest tides in the world.
Serviced by Stanfield International Airport, Halifax is the largest and capital city in the province of Nova Scotia, but more pivotally to the tourist, it's at the hub of everything and centrally located; a drive south to Yarmouth, the southwestern tip of the province takes about 3 hours; to the northern reaches, on Cape Breton Island, about the same. But Nova Scotia is more than breath-taking scenery at every turn, fresh lobster and other seafood, and the art and music of an eclectic population, it is the settling point (in 1604) of one of the earliest European settlements in North America, and the home of one of the most ancient indigenous tribes on the continent. It is a dream for the traveler interested in culture and history.
Having lived in Nova Scotia for 10,000 years before the French arrived as seasonal fishermen and neophyte settlers, the Mi'kmaq possessed innate knowledge of the land. Edible fruits, berries, nuts and fungi were known to them, as were methods of trapping, and construction of shelters capable of withstanding winter.
The natives cultivated and preserved crops — beans, corn, squash and tobacco — understanding the essence of what thrived in the unique climate, using what we now call organic methods; they planted beans next to corn, encouraging vines to grow up stalks, and keeping the ground virtually free of weeds that could hamper corn growth.
Documented by Sally Ross and Alphonse Deveau in The Acadians of Nova Scotia, Past and Present, the indigenous peoples even named the newcomers, using a derivative of their own place names, like Shubenacadie: La Cadie; now l'Acadie.
The Mi'klmaq in the Port Royal area ensured that the settlers made it through their second winter in 1605; the first had proved fatal. Settling in 1604 on St. Croix Island, a location with insufficient firewood and limited wildlife, almost half of the all-male settlers died of scurvy or starvation. The rest braved forward, knowing that their friendship and trust with the natives was their insurance marker for life in the New World.
While the French brought firearms and Christianity to the Mi'kmaq, they also provided a natural supply of husbands for the native women; few French women joined the men in those early days. The first Acadian Catholic nun was the daughter of a Frenchman, Charles de la Tour, and a Mi'kmaq woman. André Lasnier, born in Cape Sable in 1620, is believed to be the first child born in Acadie; he, too, had mixed blood. According to Leland Surette, a spiritual leader, almost all present-day Acadians have native blood.
Inter-marriage was common; a racist element did not enter the equation. A balance ensued, one based in sharing skills and goods; the French/Acadians kept written records, whereas the natives' method was largely verbal. As a result, we have recorded history of the Mi'kmaq.
Once French women arrived, they learned healing skills from their Mi'kmaq sisters. Plants and herbs with medicinal qualities were used to make poultices, tinctures and other curatives, and some, like making cough syrup from the bark of a young fir tree, are still made by tradition-leaning Acadian women.
Accomplished craftspeople, the Acadians learned from the Mi'kmaq such skills as rug-hooking, basket-weaving and making musical instruments. Mr. Surette, whose mixed-blood roots trace back to the 1700s in Tusket, takes an active part in Aboriginal Day celebrations, making baskets and fish (or eel) spears with his father. He also officiates at celebrations, carrying the sacred pipe, and performing sunrise and sunset rituals on important dates, the turning of the equinoxes and solstices.
Evidence of the inter-dependent relationship between the Acadians and the Mi'kmaq continues to be revealed, corroborated in the display at Grand Pré National Historical Site; a painting illustrates the peaceful exchange of goods. At a public-participation archaeological dig at the former Acadian village at Beaubassin, items as diverse as native beads, fishhooks and arrowheads lie in the same layers as shards of European pottery, buttons and clay pipe stems, suggesting co-habitation, or at least consummate cooperation. Even communication became blended, and stays thus, with both languages peppered with words and phrases from the other.
But a change was pending. "The deportation separated the natives and the Acadians," says Mr. Surette. "The links were not as strong because the Mi'kmaq feared being deported with the Acadians; those of mixed blood living with the Acadians were deported." And so a rift was driven into a tight-knit group. Over time, religious beliefs and lifestyles shifted apart, but circumstance formed a new glue: the strains of land loss thanks to political gain.
A former member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Mr. Surette, sees the re-emergence of a spiritual bond; its re-emergence in the last 20 years comes after centuries of being forced underground.
With a history of mutual support and shared anguish, and despite fractionalization during deportation, the link between the Acadians and local First Nations peoples remains intact today, and is growing.
Bernice d'Entremont, program director at the Musée acadien et Centre de recherche in West Pubnico (originally called Pombomcoup), a museum, research centre and archives, says that the meeting of the two factions is obvious in the national Acadian celebrations held annually on the summer solstice, June 21st. "I cannot speak accurately of the Mi'kmaq because I am Acadian only, but the blended French and natives in this area, would be considered to be Métis," says Ms. d'Enrement, emphasizing, "This is not the Métis as in Manitoba." In fact, Métis has become a legal definition in order to establish societal and land rights, and has minimal bearing on Nova Scotians who consider themselves Métis.
During the annual celebration, Acadian and Nova Scotia Métis join hands for a series of ritual celebrations, often conducted by native elders, including spiritual prayers, the raising of a traditional tee-pee, a smudging with prayers to the four compass points (signifying a return to the earth of what has been taken from it), and culminating in a shared meal. The event also hosts sessions in basket-weaving, drumming and genealogy, in the case of the Acadians and Métis, that trail almost inevitably leads back to Philippe Mius d'Entremont, whose son, Meuse, married, over time, two native women.
Leland Surette puts it best: "What I try to bring back to the people is the native ceremonies that have been forgotten, to help them know how to live their lives with respect. Then you can return to any place that you have been." This means respect for all things. Mr. Surette closes his rituals and celebrations with a poetic, all-encompassing Mi'kmaq phrase that means, simply, "all my relations". It is spoken: Msit no'kmaq [ma-SIT no Gmah].
The deep importance of our connection with others lives on in Acadie, and may serve as a good example to other cultures, better aligned than divided.
About the Author
Catherine Stanley is an award winning writer. Catherine currently writes informative travel tips along with information on how to find discount airline tickets for all your travel.
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