Ancient Land, New Land

Skmaqn — Port-La-Joye — Fort Amherst National Historic Site reflects on a place that helped shape and define Prince Edward Island, offering a history of the site and explaining its importance to three distinct peoples.

For the Mi?kmaq, Skmaqn was and is part of their ancient and ongoing traditional territory of Epikwitk.

For the Acadians, Port-la-Joye was a new home and the scene of great tragedy.

For the British, Fort Amherst was a place where another chapter of colonization began.

This history speaks to nation-wide and universal themes: Indigenous-settler relations and the challenges of newcomers adapting to a new land. The story presented in these pages is a witness to the struggle of refugees, the desire to plan and build, the destruction of war, and, throughout, the resilience and resolution of the human spirit.

"As the location of the first formal settler - Mi'kmaw interaction and relationship-building on our Island, it marks a before-and-after moment, a turning point in our history." — Chief Darlene Bernard, Lennox Island First Nation, Co-chair, Epekwitk Assembly of Councils.