New campground honours Mi'kmaw, Acadians

CHETICAMP — Cape Breton’s newest campground officially opened on Canada Day and honours the history of the island’s Acadian and Mi’kmaq peoples.

The Mkwesaqtuk/cap-rouge Campground, near Cheticamp, was a $7-million project that now features 47 walk-in camping sites, along with five otentiks (a cross between a tent and a cabin) and six accessible campsites. It is located within the boundaries of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

The site also includes off-grid, solar-powered infrastructure along with using native vegetation to build stable, climate-resilient slopes.

The project was the result of a collaboration between Parks Canada, La Société Saint-pierre and the Parks Canada-unama’ki Advisory Committee.

“It is our hope that this is but the beginning of many more collaborative projects for many years to come,” Napoleon Chiasson, president of La Société Saint-pierre, said in a news release.

Pronounced “Mm kwas sock took,” the new facility is described as offering a private, backcountry feel with the convenience of front-country camping.

“Sharing the Mi’kmaw perspective enriches and enhances any story told about the landscape of Nova Scotia. We are proud that both the Mi’kmaw and Acadian historical and cultural connections to these lands are being share with visitors to the Mkwesaqtuk/cap-rouge Campground,” said Chief Wilbert Marshall, who heads the culture, heritage and archeology portfolios for the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs.

Created in 1936, the highlands park was the first national park in Atlantic Canada. Some Acadian landowners saw their properties expropriated as a result.

The new campground offers an opportunity to learn about Indigenous contributions to the region along with interpretation panels in Mi’kmaw, French and English. An interpretation house on site is built in the Acadian style.

Mkwesaqtuck is a Mi’kmaq word noting a place or feature that distinctly changes to red.