There are two new highway signs written in the Mi’kmaw language on Prince Edward Island, bringing the province’s total to over 40.
One of the signs was installed at Portage Lake, and includes its traditional name of Meski’k pu’ta’sk. The other is in Rocky Point, and displays the area’s traditional name of Kuntal Kwesawe’kl.
The first Mi’kmaw-language signs on the Island were installed by L’nuey P.E.I. as an Indigenous Awareness Week project in 2020.
L’nuey’s executive director Jenene Wooldridge said language revitalization has always been important to the organization. She has fond memories of when the first signs went up on the Island.
“It was something new, and it was really something that had our shared history included in it,” Wooldridge said. “That included description and story of how the M’kmaq relied on different locations for their survival in the past.”
Since then, she said L’nuey has tried to add more signs every year during Indigenous Awareness Week, and she’d like to see that practice continue.
‘It adds a rich historical context’
Wooldridge described the feedback about the signs as extremely positive.
“We’ve had municipalities wanting traditional place name signs installed across their location; we’ve had Stratford install a number of signs on their own through partnership with L’nuey,” she said.
“People have been very supportive of this initiative, and it adds such a rich historical context to where they live today.”
