William Hall — born in Nova Scotia, hero, VC recipient.
• His father — born in the U.S.
• His mother — born in the U.S.
• Nova Scotia archives label them as “African”
• Living Line principle: land first, labels second
This quote shows that Mi’kmaq Inuk were a brown people whose culture and voices endured despite systematic suppression. Preserving our language, our records, and our stories isn’t just history. It’s restoring the Living Line.
During the mid-18th century, Nova Scotia experienced
•Continuous warfare
•Raids and reprisals
•Population flight
•Scalp bounties
•Forced relocations
•Strategic mislabeling of non-European peoples
Records produced under these conditions are, by definition, incomplete.
Treaties:
•Govern political relations, not population censuses
•Recognize nations, not all inhabitants
•Do not require enumeration of every resident or kin group
Therefore, treaties cannot be used to exclude peoples who were never asked or required to sign them.
Modern archival restoration must treat colonial grants and maps as metadata of European misunderstanding, not definitive evidence of Indigenous dispossession
“New Englanders have many trumped-up grants
of Indian lands in Nova Scotia” “Many grants of land in disputed territory between New England and N. S. are especially in favor of the President of this college, and many Indian grants never properly sanctioned.'”
For generations, families in Mi’kma’ki and beyond have lost access to ancestral lands and histories.
The Living Line is actively restoring these connections, combining research, legal strategy, and community engagement.
For decades, systemic programs like the Land Titles Initiative have formalized loss instead of restoring historic lands and communities. Our work ensures Indigenous voices lead the narrative.
https://t.co/UAiVNDEhkt
Civic leaders need to answer for decades of dispossession, not just issue performative funding. Anyone in government or administration must stop treating this as a minor bureaucratic issue — this is systemic theft.