Remembering the Mi'kmaq: A Gambo teacher and her class explore the history of a cemetery

Jo-Anne Broders is passionate about Newfoundland and Labrador history. Just ask any of her students who've been in her class at Smallwood Academy in Gambo, N.L. 

The classroom walls are decorated with drawings of significant figures in this province's history. There's one of Sybil Johnson, who went to war as a volunteer nurse's aid, and another of Tommy Ricketts, who enlisted for the First World War when he was just 15, and was later awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery.

"If I could fill the walls here, the walls would be filled. I'd have the gym filled, I'd have the corridors filled, because there's so much rich history," said Broders.

As rich and as varied as Newfoundland and Labrador's history is, Broders points out to her class that there are a lot of untold stories from the past.

"History is written often by which group? The dominant group. It's written by the dominant group, and sometimes the less dominant group doesn't get to tell their story. Their story is not so popular so it's who is recording history that is important," said Broders.

Broders wanted to inspire the students to retell a story from Gambo's past. She took them to a little-known cemetery in the town where Mi'kmaq were laid to rest. When the class made their field trip, there were no markers indicating who is buried at the site and nothing about the lives they lived.

At that time, Broders and her Grade 8 students set about to tell their story.

"One of our goals as a class now is to not only find the history, but to share the history with others," said Broders.

Broders contacted Fred Jeans, a member of Gambo's heritage committee, who pointed them to documents in the town's archives that show the presence of Mi'kmaq in Gambo from as far back as the 1790s.

In the early 1900s, Newfoundland was under the colonial governance of Sir William McGregor, who designed land as a reserve for the Mi'kmaq.

"Gambo has a fantastic history and the Indigenous part is very interesting," said Jeans.

'They wanted to share what they know'

Records show that many members of the Joe family are the ones buried at the site, including a woman who died in 1906 and is legendary among the older generation in Gambo. She was a Mi'kmaw woman named Madeline Joe, for whom a popular woods trail in Gambo is named.

"Madeline, she was a hunter, fisherperson and berry picker," said Jeans. "She knew all the herbs and medicines from nature and they named this trail for Madeline because she lived up here on the reserve and she did her fishing down on the river."

Once Broders and her students learned more about who is buried at the site, they developed a family tree as a class assignment. Then, they wanted to share what they know with their own community and with the Miawpukek First Nation community in Conne River.

They invited Chief Mi'sel Joe to pay a visit.

Just before the school year ended in June, Joe, Broders, her class and residents of Gambo took part in a traditional Mi'kmaw cleansing ceremony at the grave site.

"It's an incredibly moving moment walking into this sacred place," said Joe. "It's an emotional feeling and a sorrowful one because they're my family and I didn't know they were here. I'm a part of this family that's here so I can only ask for forgiveness for not being here sooner."

Jeans and Gambo's heritage committee have now erected signs at both the cemetery and along Madeline Joe's trail, giving the history of the Mi'kmaw who lived in Gambo.

"I think every community needs a Joanne, and some Grade 8 students to take it upon themselves … to look at the history of our people that's been there for a long, long time," said Joe.

See the full Land and Sea episode about this story by clicking the video above.

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