Heritage awards highlight those working to preserve P.E.I. culture and traditions
CBC
The P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation hosted its annual heritage awards, recognizing Islanders who help maintain the island's culture and traditions.
People were honoured at the Eptek Art and Culture Centre in Summerside on Sunday for work ranging from activism to environmental efforts to language preservation.
"A lot of these people are unsung heroes. They don't really get the attention that they deserve most of the year," said Matthew McRae, executive director for the P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation.
"This is a chance to say thank you to the people that are really making a difference."
The Native Council of P.E.I.'s Connecting Conversations Indigenous Language & Drumming Program won the Boyde Beck Memorial Award, which was accepted by Stephenson Joe.
"Passing down Mi'kmaw language is passing down thousands upon thousands of years of existence, thousands upon thousands of years of Indigenous identity and heritage," he said.
Joe, originally from Esgenoôpetitj First Nation in New Brunswick, teaches people who live off-reserve the Mik’maw language and traditions on Epekwit.
"If you lose your language, you lose your heritage, you lose your culture, so being just one small part of preserving that is a privilege," he said.
Naturalist Jake Harding received the Natural Heritage Activity Award for his work catching, identifying and cataloguing insects and arthropods on P.E.I.
"It's kind of an integral part of the heritage of the Island. Without the biodiversity that we have around us, we would just have a rock and sand, there'd be nothing left," said Harding.
The Town of Stratford was also among the winners, receiving the Catherine Hennessey Heritage Activism Award in both the adult and young adult categories.
The town was recognized for its work connecting youth to Stratford's heritage through its 30th Anniversary Book Project and the knit and crochet poppy project.
The award, which was established in 2011, honours Catherine G. Hennessey, who died earlier this month.
“I think with the passing of Catherine, it really has that much more meaning now,” said McRae.
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