Example of a rewritten Parks Canada plaque at N.L. historic site
By The Canadian Press on May 19, 2023.
Parks Canada is in the process of rewriting many of historic plaques and markers to reflect new scholarship and changing interpretations of Canada’s history. Here is one example of original and rewritten text from the L’Anse Amour National Historic site in Newfoundland and Labrador: 1984 text: L’ANSE AMOUR BURIAL This mound of rocks is the earliest known funeral monument in the New World and marks the burial place of an Indian child who died about 7,500 years ago. The Maritime Archaic people, to whom the child belonged, occupied this area between 9,000 and 3,500 years ago. The body was covered with red ochre, wrapped in skins or birch bark, and placed in a large pit 1.5 metres deep. Fires were lit on either side of the body, and several spearheads of stone and bone placed beside the head. A walrus tusk, harpoon head, paint stones and a bone whistle were also placed with the body. 2022 text: L’ANSE AMOUR This is the site of the oldest known First Nations funerary monument in North America. Dating to the Maritime Archaic period about 7,700 years ago, the carefully built mound of rocks over a stone burial box marked the grave of a young person. Interred with reverence, the body was covered with red ochre and fires were lit on either side. Placed with it were stone and bone spearheads, a walrus tusk, a bone whistle, and the earliest known toggling harpoon in the world. Ancient camps of different ages and cultures found on these beaches make this one of the longest used Indigenous habitation sites in Labrador. 8-7
