Daniel Paul, Mi’kmaw elder and author of We Were Not the Savages, dead at 84 | CBC News

Mi’kmaw elder, activist, historian and author Daniel Paul has died following a battle with cancer. He was 84.

Paul, who was from Sipekne’katik, told friends and family in an email last fall that cancer in his lungs had spread to his liver.

“During my time on Mother Earth I sincerely hope that I’ve made a difference for Indigenous peoples all over Turtle Island by revealing and proving the horrors that our ancestors suffered since Columbus got lost and landed in the Americas in 1492,” the email said, in part. 

“I do hope that younger generations will pick up the torch and keep going, teaching and preaching the truth for many generations to come!”

Paul’s book, We Were Not the Savages, is considered a landmark work in Mi’kmaw literature and Nova Scotia literature that covered 300 years of Mi’kmaw history.

He was a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia.

Renaming of Cornwallis monuments

Paul was also a recipient of a Nova Scotia Human Rights award in 2022. According to the commission, the Wel-lukwen Award recognizes “contributions to building cultural awareness and understanding of L’nu’k history, traditions and community.”

For three decades, Paul advocated for renaming landmarks named after Edward Cornwallis. The British governor of Nova Scotia issued a so-called scalping proclamation against Mi’kmaw men, women and children in 1749, the same year he established Halifax.

In an interview with CBC in June 2021, after a Halifax park named after Cornwallis was renamed Peace and Friendship Park, Paul reflected on the meaning of reconciliation.

He said it required examining the past in a way that doesn’t “leave out the oppression of a race of people, such as ours, which has been the practice in Canada for far too long.”

“What is better, for us to live in harmony and accept one another in peace and friendship?” he said. “Good things happen when people get to know one another.”