“Much bigger than just beads,”: Two Mi’kmaq beaders recount experience repairing century-old Mi’kmaq relics at Smithsonian Museum

By  Meghan Dewar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter  Membertou’s Jocelyn Marshall, an expert beader, had the opportunity to assist with repairs of century-old Mi’kmaq relics at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. Marshall was chosen alongside Nik Phillips of Millbrook First Nation by Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre to spend a week assessing and restoring historical pieces this past May. Marshall is a third-generation beader, she says, and originally learned to bead from her aunt, Laura Marshall, who had learned from Marshall’s grandmother. Having beaded for the past 20 years, she was honoured to receive the opportunity, she says. “I got on board with Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Curators and I was, for about two years off and on, going up to beadwork shops on the bead panel…

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