Just over a year ago, we told you about the passing of Elsie Basque, a woman who belonged to the Mi’kmaq nation, one of the original peoples in what is today Canada.
Today, we’re bringing you happier news. Right now, the gala event to choose Miss Canada 2017 is being held, and one of the finalists is Magan Kateri Basque. She too is of the Mi’kmaq nation, and has that wonderful surname, and is the holder of the Miss Cape Breton World 2017 titleholder.
Apart from wishing her the best of luck, we can’t help but make the most of this opportunity of this surname again appearing in the media to try to explain why so many native people in this part of Canada have this surname.
And we’re again asking this because we have to admit that it’s normal to wonder why a person belonging to a First Nation would have the name of a native European people as their surname.
But if we go through our own blog, we can begin to imagine the relationships between the Basques and the native inhabitants of that area of modern-day Canada, who spoke Algonquian and who were there for centuries, creating a Basque-Algonquian pidgin.
Professor Aitor Esteban, of the University of Deusto, tells us the story of these relationships in great detail in an article published in the magazine Euskaletxeak (see below). In this article, he also discusses how it’s even common to find the surname “Basque” among the Mi’kmaq of northern New Brunswick.
Miss World Canada – 7/2017 – Canadá
2017 Miss World Canada Finalists!
Magan is a young Indigenous woman who continuously practices her cultural by making her own regalia and hand drum. Magan has also participated in high school activities such as basketball, softball, and dinner theatre and drama.
(Continue) (Automatic Translation)
Euskaletxeak – 2007 – Euskadi
Aniaq: Mi’kmaq and Basques
It’s a well-known fact that the Basques were pioneers in whaling and cod fishing in Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence since the early part of the sixteenth century, working the waters before other countries
arrived. Champlain himself, forefather of what is now Quebéc, defined us as protagonists in fishing and trade in the area before other nations.Therefore, it is not unrealistic to assume that the first outside contacts with
(English) (Castellano)
Last Updated on Jun 6, 2023 by About Basque Country
