News Release Archive

EDUCATION/CULTURE--1997 MUSEUM RESEARCH GRANTS ANNOUNCED
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Eleven innovative community-based research projects have been
made possible thanks to almost $37,000 provided through the Nova
Scotia Museum Endowment Fund.

The Nova Scotia Museum board of governors have approved more
projects this year than ever before in six categories:
archeology, black history, Mi'kmaq history, music, paleontology
and rare species.

Candace Stevenson, executive director of the museum, said the
research is being made possible through the generosity of the
people who donate money to the museum's endowment fund.

"As a result, the museum can carry out special activities -- in
this case, important research on a wide variety of Nova Scotia
topics that enable us to learn more about our past, present and
future. We are then able to build on what is already known and,
through the Nova Scotia Museum's 25 sites, share this valuable
and interesting information with all Nova Scotians."

Education and Culture Minister Robbie Harrison commended the
museum's board for making research projects a priority.

"For a relatively small investment, Nova Scotians are learning
more and more about important aspects of our natural and cultural
history and our way of life in communities across the province,"
Mr. Harrison said. "As one example, archeological research at a
Black Loyalist settlement in Birchtown, Shelburne Co., uncovered
information that will assist protection efforts of this important
heritage site."

Individual grants range from $2,000 to $4,000. This year's
recipients are:

Archeology

- Dr. Ronald Nash will complete his fieldwork on the Tracadie
  Harbour Archeological Project in Antigonish Co. An aim of the
  project is to assess the region's cultural history and the
  economic adaptations of the Mi'kmaq who once lived there.

- Through a partnership including the Nova Scotia Highland
  Village and the University College of Cape Breton, Scott
  Buchanan will continue research into the lives of Scottish
  immigrants who settled in Nova Scotia. His fieldwork in 1997
  will be in western Cape Breton and northeastern mainland Nova
  Scotia.

Black History

- Helen Sheldon of Enfield will research a possible site of an
  African Nova Scotian home in the Preston area. The research
  involves archeological testing in an attempt to gather data on
  black sites of the 19th century in Nova Scotia.

- Working with the Black Cultural Centre in Halifax Regional
  Municipality, Sharain Jones will research the genealogies of
  the black settlers of Nova Scotia in the 18th and 19th
  centuries. The links between these settlers and the Mi'kmaq
  will also be explored.

Mi'kmaq History

- Francis Sylliboy of Eskasoni will research and document
  information on Mi'kmaq poet Rita Joe, who recently received the
  National Aboriginal Achievement Award in Calgary.

Music

- Marcus Merrin of Truro will research amateur music-making in
  rural and urban Nova Scotia. The research will concentrate on
  the written and oral records of the singing-school tradition
  and artifacts of that tradition such as tunebooks and other
  teaching tools.

- Paul Martell of Waverley will receive funding to catalogue the
  Ross-Thomson Music Collection. The collection, now owned by
  Dalhousie University, provides a cross-section of middle- and
  upper-class musical taste in Nova Scotia between 1800 and 1900.

Paleontology:

- Tim Fedak will work with the Fundy Geological Museum in
  Parrsboro in preparing a prosauropod dinosaur specimen. He will
  also conduct further examination of the area in which it was
  found for remaining materials that could tell more about the
  existence of dinosaurs in the Parrsboro area.

Rare Species:

- Mark Butler and Karen McAllister, based at Halifax's Ecology
  Action Centre, will study deepsea corals off the shores of Nova
  Scotia. This study is intended to enhance the knowledge of Nova
  Scotia marine biodiversity and contribute to the sustainable
  management of Nova Scotia's marine ecosystem.

- Ruth Newell and Gini Proulx from the Annapolis Valley will
  research the distribution, abundance and habitat of a rare
  coastal plain plant, Golden Crest (Lophiola aurea), on Digby
  Neck. Southwestern Nova Scotia is the only place in Canada
  where this species is found.

- Max Moseley of Halifax will research rare caverniculous
  invertebrates -- animals without backbones living in Nova
  Scotia caves.

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Contact: Donna MacDonald
         Education and Culture
         902-424-2615

trp                       May 28, 1997 - 1:30 p.m.