The Mi’kmaq community of Turtle Grove existed on the shore of Tufts Cove in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. The community, which was located on the Dartmouth shore of the Halifax Harbour near the current site of the Nova Scotia Power generating plant, comprised several families and a school. On the morning of December 6, 1917, the community was destroyed in the explosion and tsunami that rocked Halifax Harbour.
On December 6, 2017, exactly 100 years after this tragic event, NiS+TS members gathered together with Catherine Martin of the Millbrook First Nation to commemorate the Mi’kmaq settlement lost in the disaster. Amidst the blowing wind and rain, community members gathered to honour their ancestors, offering gifts of flowers, tobacco and thoughts to the sea.
Afterwards, ceremony participants were welcomed into the Shannon Park School to watch a performance by Catherine Martin of her play “Turtle Grove.”
Please view this brochure produced by NiS+TS, “Walking the Debris Field – At Tufts Cove”, for more information on the Tufts Cove area through time.
