Kids on P.E.I. explore Mi'kmaw art and engineering

Children on P.E.I. got the opportunity to learn about Mi'kmaw art and engineering during an event at STEAM P.E.I. on Monday.

Claire Gallant, 10, tried her hand at building a small home in the shape of a teepee — taped at the top because "no one wants rain to get inside."

"I was thinking of, like, a regular house and then that didn't work out because the pieces were too floppy. So then, that's how I got this little tiny teepee thing."

The event was held as part of Treaty Day, which was held Sunday on P.E.I. but some organizations observed it on Monday because of the statutory holiday.

STEAM P.E.I., located in the Epekwitk Assembly of Councils building in Charlottetown, offers hands-on programs, including camps, in-school workshops, after-school classes and team-building workshops.

Nathan Belanger, an engineering student who helps with STEAM P.E.I., said it was "pretty cool" to see the kids design and build their own custom huts similar to how the Mi'kmaq made them centuries ago.

"Obviously they didn't use popsicle sticks and duct tape but they would use, like, tree branches and mud and vines and things that would just find around in nature. They would just put them together, probably, through trial and error, just try to figure out, OK, we need to keep the wind out, we need to keep the rain out, the snow out, how do we do that?"

Belanger was also interested in the two types of canoes, one for freshwater to fish in lakes and rivers and one — which was more stable — to travel in the ocean.

"That's a really good example of Mi'kmaw engineering because they had to make this specifically for them because they would have to travel between different islands because they lived around the ocean."