Kespu’kwitk is a Mi’kmaq word meaning “land’s end.” The region of Southwest Nova Scotia is one of the seven traditional Mi’kmaq districts and its name, Kespu’kwitk, reflects the fact that we are bordered by the Atlantic coast and the shores of the Bay of Fundy.
The Kespu’kwitk Métis Council is a non-profit society registered with the Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stock Companies in 1999, having originally been part of the Confederacy of Nova Scotia Métis. Our database houses over 3000 members.
The Acadian Métis originate with core families, such as the Mius, Corporon, Doucet, and Amirault families, who emigrated from France in the 1600s and intermarried with the Mi’kmaq. Many of these mixed-heritage families settled in the Port Royal area until a good number of them were exiled by the British in the Acadian Deportation of 1755. Several families returned to Nova Scotia in the 1760s and ‘70s, and were forced to re-settle in Southwest Nova Scotia, the British having taken their original land. Communities of mixed-blood Métis people, or sang-mêlées, were established in places such as Quinan and Wedgeport, where they were shunned by the pur Acadians, as chronicled by the parish priest of the day, Père Jean-Mandé Sigogne. Because of this marginalization, Acadian Metis families tended to intermarry with each other and with the Mi’kmaq, strengthening their mixed-blood heritage.