Toqi’maliaptmu’k (Doh-kee-mal-ee-apt-mook) – We will look after it together
For years, Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn has been working to build a stronger relationship with Parks Canada. This led to the drafting of the Toqi’maliaptmu’k Arrangement, which is a co-governance and co-management plan for National Parks and Historic Sites in Nova Scotia.
In 2025, the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia and Parks Canada signed the Toqi’maliaptmu’k Arrangement, marking a new chapter in shared stewardship of Parks Canada-administered places in Nova Scotia. The Toqi’maliaptmu’k Arrangement is a formal partnership between Parks Canada and the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia for co-managing protected areas.
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The Toqi’maliaptmu’k Arrangement & Stewardship Plan
Toqi’maliaptmu’k means “we will look after it together”, and that is exactly what this historic co-management Arrangement represents. This Arrangement both formalizes and builds upon the relationship between the Mi’kmaq and Parks Canada, honouring Mi’kmaw ancestors, knowledge, and responsibilities to the land while fostering reconciliation and mutual respect.
Toqi’maliaptmu’k provides a framework to recognize and implement Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia Peace and Friendship Treaty rights, needs and interests related to the cooperative management and shared stewardship of the natural and cultural heritage of Parks Canada-administered places in Nova Scotia. It also provides for collaboration on economic opportunities.
The Arrangement embodies the shared commitment to ensure ecological integrity and that the Mi’kmaq way of life are maintained and promoted for the use, benefit, education, and enjoyment of future generations.
Click here to view the full Toqi’maliaptmu’k Arrangement document
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Watch the Video
This video explains the Toqi’maliaptmu’k Arrangement between the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia and Parks Canada. It also provides a brief history of the decades of collaboration that precede the Arrangement.
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How the Arrangement works
The Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia and Parks Canada have been working collaboratively for many years. This Arrangement formalizes this relationship through a shared governance structure, guided by a co-management board. Through Toqi’maliaptmu’k, the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia and Parks Canada will cooperate in the planning, management, operation, monitoring, and evaluation of Parks Canada-administered lands in Nova Scotia. The Mi’kmaq and Parks Canada will each make decisions based on their own processes and will work together on issues of shared responsibility for the management of the lands, as set out in the Toqi’maliaptmu’k Arrangement.
The specific details on how Toqi’maliaptmu’k will be implemented will be developed over the coming months and years as the co-management board is formed and begins to operate. The Toqi’maliaptmu’k Arrangement covers all Parks Canada-administered places in Nova Scotia, except for Sable Island National Park Reserve.
The Mi’kmaq and Parks Canada are engaged in ongoing consultation respecting management and governance of Sable Island National Park Reserve. The term of the Toqi’maliaptmu’k Arrangement is 10 years with an option to extend or renew.
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Key objectives of the Toqi’maliaptmu’k Arrangement
Recognizing Mi’kmaw rights
Protecting Aboriginal and Treaty rights Toqi’maliaptmu’k provides a framework to recognize and implement Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia Peace and Friendship Treaty rights, needs and interests related to the cooperative management and shared stewardship of the natural and cultural heritage of Parks Canada-administered places in Nova Scotia. Toqi’maliaptmu’k builds towards the longer-term objective of reconciliation through recognition and implementation of Mi’kmaw Aboriginal and Treaty Rights. The lands, waters and ice that Parks Canada plays a role in administering are the traditional territories, ancestral homelands and treaty lands of Indigenous Peoples. In many instances, when protected heritage places were created, important land, cultural and livelihood connections were severed as a result of past policies. This has led to intergenerational harm and loss of Indigenous knowledge, culture and identity.
Toqi’maliaptmu’k is a time-limited arrangement to respect and enable traditional activities such as harvesting and other land-based cultural practices in places administered by Parks Canada in Nova Scotia. Aboriginal rights, including harvesting, are collective rights of distinctive Indigenous societies that have been recognized and affirmed by Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. The Marshall decision by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1999 affirmed the Mi’kmaw Treaty right to fish, hunt, and gather in pursuit of a moderate livelihood. This right arose from the 1760–61 Peace and Friendship Treaty which was signed by the Wolastoqey, Mi’kmaq, and Passamaquoddy Nations and the Crown at the time, and is legally binding today. Harvesting practices may include gathering plants and natural objects, fishing, trapping, and hunting by Indigenous Peoples on their traditionally used lands and waters. Harvesting methods have evolved over time and, today, may use traditional or modern equipment and technologies such as firearms, motorized vehicles, and GPS. These activities in Parks Canada-administered places in Nova Scotia will respect the guidelines developed jointly and in good faith by the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia and Parks Canada. The cultures and identities of Indigenous Peoples are rooted in the land, and honouring connections to place is an important element for actions and outcomes related to reconciliation. The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring Indigenous connections are honoured, and Indigenous rights are respected.
Strengthening collaboration
Making decisions as a team Shared governance arrangements provide ways for Parks Canada and Indigenous Peoples to engage in collaborative decision-making for protected historic places. Through Toqi’maliaptmu’k, the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia and Parks Canada will cooperate in the planning, management, operation, monitoring, and evaluation of Parks Canada-administered national parks and national historic sites in the Province of Nova Scotia, excluding Sable Island Reserve.
The Mi’kmaq and Parks Canada see the importance of Netukulimk and ecological integrity as an example of Etuaptmumk or also known as Two-Eyed Seeing. In the spirit of two-eyed seeing, the Mi’kmaq and Parks Canada acknowledge and respect each other’s understandings of the lands through principles of Netukulimk and through scientific, cultural and ecological integrity, and seek to ensure the respectful recognition and implementation of Mi’kmaw values, concepts and knowledge system.
Cultural heritage protection
Preserving Mi’kmaw traditions and language Toqi’maliaptmu’k advances reconciliation in a concrete and meaningful way: by acknowledging the contributions of the Mi’kmaq, Mi’kmaw history and culture, as well as the special long-standing relationship the Mi’kmaq have with traditional lands and waters in Nova Scotia. Indigenous practices on the lands, waters, and ice are lived expressions of Indigenous knowledge and rights.
The continuity of these practices ensures that Indigenous knowledge is lived and that Indigenous principles are upheld. Indigenous People, including the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia, consistently describe practices on the lands, waters and ice as necessary to exercise inherent rights and uphold their responsibilities as stewards.
These practices represent important ways the Mi’kmaq maintain active cultural connections to the lands, waters and ice, thereby supporting cultural continuity. Practices on the land in protected heritage places often include: ceremonies Indigenous-led conservation activities place-based learning and knowledge sharing between Elders, youth, knowledge keepers, and community members harvesting for food and other purposes
Environmental stewardship
Integrating Indigenous knowledge to protect nature Toqi’maliaptmu’k enables management informed by Mi’kmaw knowledge, values, and principles, and facilitates the exercise by the Mi’kmaq of their rights and responsibilities as stewards of the lands, waters, and ice they have inhabited for millennia.
Economic opportunities – Creating jobs and business growth Building capacity among the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia to participate in shared stewardship and increasing economic opportunities for the First Nations communities are objectives of the Arrangement. Through Toqi’maliaptmu’k, Parks Canada and the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia will undertake new initiatives to advance shared goals of supporting stewardship of natural and cultural heritage, cooperatively managing environmental and cultural protection, and collaborating on economic opportunities.
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