Music and Dance
Music culture is very popular in Nova Scotia. This deep love for music is expressed through the performance and enjoyment of all types and genres of music. While popular music in Nova Scotia has experienced almost two decades of explosive growth and success, the province remains best known for its folk and traditional music. Despite the small population of the province, Nova Scotia's music and culture is encouraged by several cultural groups, referred to as the "Founding Cultures." Gaelic and Celtic Folk music is the two genres of music that is played a lot in Cape Breton Island because more than half of the residents are descendants from the Irish and Scottish immigrants. Music is another important element of Mi’kmaq culture. Many traditional songs and chants are still sung during spiritual rituals, feasts, gatherings, cultural ceremonies and powwows.
Arts and Crafts
Like other Indigenous peoples in the Eastern region, Mi’kmaq practiced art naturally linked to the world. Contemporary Mi’kmaq artists like Alan Syliboy have replicated Mi’kmaq artistic traditions, like rock painting and ornate quill work clothing. The Mi’kmaq are noted for their moose hair embroidery and porcupine quill work on birch bark and basketry, as well as hide and textile clothing. The glass beads were welcomed early on by Mi’kmaq and other Aboriginal women artists as substitutes for quills and moose hair, which are more difficult to work with. The use of beads, with their diversity in colour, size and transparency, naturally changed the character of Mi'kmaq design. Mi'kmaq women's art in quills, moosehair and beads was largely two-dimensional, nonreligious in function and abstract in style. Men, who worked in three dimensions with harder and more resistant materials such as wood and stone. This was a contrast to the women's art.
Languages
The main people of Nova Scotia, the Mi'kmaq and many other colonies in Nova Scotia spoke an Algonquin language known as Míkmawísimk. This language is spoken by 14,000 to 15,000 Indians from Nova Scotia. The name of the language also has a meaning to it. The Algonquin word "Mi'kmaq" means "My friend" in English. Whereas, when you change the word to it's plural form, "Míkmawísimk", the English translation becomes "My kin-friends".
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