Pictures, especially the memories that go along with them, are treasures for all Mi’kmaw people. The importance of documenting and saving these stories for future generations is one of the main reasons I love my job. My name is Eleanor Michael-Summerfield, Field Researcher for the Mi’kmaw Oral History Picture Project with the Treaty & Aboriginal Rights Research Centre. I work for the "main-land" communities of Nova Scotia, and today I am sharing a photo from one of Indian Brook’s elders Vincent Toney, also known as Uncle Vinny.
Yasmine Googoo, summer student, and I showed up at Uncle Vinny’s house with all our gear in tow, he was excited to share the photo and the memory of his grandmother with us. Yasmine was eager to see an interview in process. Uncle Vinny invited us into his living room and as we set up our laptop and scanner, he was already telling us stories before I had the recorder on.
His wife, Cynthia, sitting at the kitchen table making a quilt spoke up and said "Wait till they are ready Vin" and he agreed and brought out his photos. The picture is of his grandmother Mary Lucy (Bradford) Toney, from Annapolis Valley First Nation, originally from Indian Brook. She is sitting in her front door step making baskets, adding sweet grass to the bottoms, beginning to create a pattern. He spoke of how she was on pension and making baskets helped her through those times. He remembered going to gather the maple wood for her and how the use of maple for the types of baskets made them more durable.
Within the picture you can see that she has a set way of how she is making her baskets, almost in stages of production. Uncle Vinny tells me she was making shopping baskets. He then told me of his father’s apple baskets, and how strong they were. A local farmer didn’t believe how strong they were, so his dad put the basket upside down and asked the man to stand on it. After a while, and some convincing, the man stood on the basket and when it didn’t break he ordered three dozen baskets on the spot!
Yasmine was amazed by this story and asked how much did she sell the baskets for, and Uncle Vinny told her fifty cents to a dollar fifty, she was shocked. The craftsmanship of the past for pennies, today we would consider priceless. A lost art, Uncle Vinny called it as he looked at his hands and sighed.
Then his thoughts went to his grandmother again, he treasures this picture, it is the only picture he has of her. He knows that the picture was taken in the early 1940's, but is unsure by whom. He also knew the lady seated right behind his grammy. She was a lady by the name of Mrs.Dumnick, who at that time was 74 years old, and lived to be 104.
We thanked Uncle Vinny for sharing his story, and began to put our things back into their cases. Yasmine had mentioned that she was going Rome and Uncle Vinny’s eyes lite up, for he too was on the same trip and was excited for the new adventure. I reminded them both to take lots of pictures and to always share their stories.
If you are interested in doing an interview in the future please contact Maggie Wilkinson at maggie@tarrns.ca .
