Storytelling with the Mi'kmaw & Urban Indigenous Community in Kjipuktuk (Halifax)

Thrilled to announce that I am sharing the story of engaging with the Mi'kmaw & Urban Indigenous Community for the Cogswell Redevelopment Project at this year’s National Trust Conference: Heritage Now!

Below is a description of the session:

The Halifax Regional Municipality is undergoing a redevelopment project to remove the Cogswell Interchange and create a new neighbourhood which will connect the downtown, waterfront area, and north end neighbourhood. Early engagement for the Cogswell area found that there was a strong interest in celebrating the stories and cultures of Indigenous, Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian/African Descent communities within the Cogswell District. These communities requested more public spaces throughout the municipality that speak to and celebrate their lived history. The Cogswell District Project provides a unique opportunity to explore this need through community-driven work within an area that is connected to their history and has new public spaces. As a result, the Halifax Regional Municipality committed to including storytelling features for both communities in the District.

Halifax Regional Municipality partnered with Lyndsay Francis and Elkplan Design Inc. to deliver an engagement program tailored to the unique needs of the Mi’kmaw and Urban Indigenous community. The engagement program was designed to gather input on what stories could be told that integrate and honour Indigenous culture and history, and how to present these stories.

This session will use the Cogswell Storytelling Engagement program as a case study. It will explore how the engagement program was thoughtfully designed to meaningfully engage the Mi’kmaw and Urban Indigenous community, strategies used to foster genuine connections and capture Indigenous stories, and how the stories identified by the community can come to life to commemorate Indigenous language, culture, and history.

Check out the conference website here!

Location: Halifax, NS

Date: October 24, 2025