Mi'kmaq vendors will sell handicrafts and other wares in prominent tourist areas around Halifax this summer, exercising a treaty right dating back more than 250 years.
Three designated sites, two on the waterfront and one along the fence at the Halifax Public Gardens, have been agreed on between the Mi’kmaq community and the Halifax Regional Municipality. Mi’kmaq vendors will not have to pay licence fees that apply to other vendors, which range up to $250.
Members of the Mi’kmaq community have certain rights under a treaty signed in 1752 and confirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada in the mid-1980s.
“It gives them the right to vend their wares throughout any place in Halifax,” said Don Awalt, who works with the urban Mi'kmaq community. However, he said that because there is no mutual understanding the exact rights provided under the treaty, this summer’s arrangement really amounts to a vague compromise.
He said the regional municipality is accommodating the vendors without acknowledging the treaty's authority. “Because HRM is not really, truly recognizing the treaty, then technically we cannot agree to anything being an agreement,” Awalt said.
“What we've been able to do is to have a very co-operative, friendly, two-way conversation about how this can work for everyone,” said Shaune MacKinlay, manager of public affairs for HRM. “What we are doing here is in the spirit of co-operation and friendship.”
Awalt said that for many years Mi’kmaq vendors sold items, particularly baskets, throughout the city. With the advent of big supermarket chains in the 1950s and '60s, demand for shopping baskets dropped and the vendors stopped selling.
“In the last decade or so a number of Mi'kmaq vendors have been trying to get the permits and have been turned down,” Awalt said.
An expert in First Nations and constitutional law said the treaty might allow for negotiations to expand Mi’kmaq commerce beyond handicrafts. “I think the real point of the Supreme Court of Canada case is that these things shouldn’t be litigated,” said Naiomi Metallic, a Halifax lawyer specializing in aboriginal issues. “We shouldn’t be fighting, we should be negotiating and having nation-to-nation relationships.”
Awalt said there are plans to build a birch-bark wigwam next year in the green space next to the Halifax Ferry Terminal and to have traditional drumming and dancing.