Reconnecting with the Sky: A Journey Through Nova Scotia's Cultural Landscape

Abstract

This thesis challenges our Western understanding of the sky by exploring the ethnoastronomy of the Mi’kmaq, Acadian, and Black Loyalist people of Nova Scotia, located along Canada’s Atlantic coast. It proposes four architectural pavilions, with three being located along Nova Scotia’s coast in culturally significant locations. As a result of light pollution, a complete understanding of the Mi’kmaq, Acadian, and Black loyalist ethnoastronomy cannot be achieved, resulting in a fourth shared pavilion in the dark sky preserve at Kejimkujik National Park. The construction of these proposed structures relies on traditional construction techniques as a means of knowledge presentation and preservation, to communicate a more complete cultural understanding unachievable with contemporary colonial museological strategies.