Mi’kmaq ingenuity and creativity has been a well-documented aspect of Mi’kmaq life in Atlantic museums and beyond. Whether it is how they built their canoes, or wigwams, or beaded the coats they received from the Crown, or how they used porcupine quills on their birchbark boxes or chair seats and backing and made baskets from black ash or maple—all these are well-known arts and crafts that belong to the eastern First Nations.

While Mi’kmaq are among the Algonkian family of people who have traveled as far west as Alberta and as far south as Wisconsin, the people have shared the skills, such as basket making and birchbark work,  among themselves,but in each area there are  unique designs that have remained among each region. Today’s Mi’kmaq have kept many of these traditions alive and the teachings that come from them are important to the Mi’kmaq peoples’ humanity.