Lennox Island is my home, I love Lennox Island. I grew up on sand hills, running bare feet along the beaches, watching my parents fishing.
Left: Lennox Island and Its central port
Middle: Lennox Island’s red sand ground
Right: Lennox Island during the winter
Geographically, Lennox Island is located on the east coast of Canada, a small island on Prince Edward Island.
It is located in the Malpeque Bay Area and is surrounded by several islands. The Hog Island in front manages to be a natural barrier for Lennox Island to resist the tide from the North Atlantic Ocean.
It is a 540-hectare island, with 79 homes.
Instead of relying on agriculture as the mainland of PEI, Lennox island’s income is mostly from fishery around the Malpeque Bay. This is a fishing map of Lennox Island. Oysters are one of the most major species.
Besides its natural conditions, Lennox Island, a sovereign Mi’kmaq territory, is surrounded by seven other Mi’kmaq lands.
It’s been a place of many stories. There were fishing, hunting, trapping and all of the stuff for survive. We move around a lot, to keep the land healthy.
The timeline above presents a five-hundred years history of Lennox Island based on western records. The very first record started in 1500 when the region was famous for its Fur trade with Europeans. The island was turned into French Colony and then transferred to England. In 1770, Lennox island was first divided into grid systems by European ideology. Later in 1820, after the establishment of the Aboriginal Protection Society, the island was purchased by Theophilus Steward and given to the local Mi’kmaq community for their self-government. In 1900, Lennox island became a significant Powwow site for the First Nation community around PEI. In the 21st Century, a 10-year ecotourism plan is designed to develop the territory.
Coastal erosion and sea-level raising is a merging crisis to our planet, caused mainly by the sea’s thermal expansion, glaciers, and the loss of ice sheets due to human activities. Globally, due to the influence of climate change by the dominant society, the sea level is rising at a rapid speed, which results in an average of 3.6mm rise in height.
To the right, there are maps indicating the area of lost land by the sea-level rise. Many major cities with cultural, economic, political significants will disappear by the rising water. However, when the majority are finding solutions for those big cities in fighting against the flooding with billions dollar, many cultural important sites are neglected.
The Lennox island is experiencing a disproportionate consequence for climate change; as first nation community, they contribute very little to the production of greenhouse gasses compared to the dominant activities but are impacted by sea-level rising severely.
We are constantly losing at least three feet a year. And that’s the end result.
I have lived here basically all my life. I see a lot of changes while growing up.
I am 36 now, and looking back I was about 8 or 9, when all these areas were a lot bigger. Over by a church, there used to be a field, where we used to play football. That field, was further out towards the bay. A good 25, 30 feet further out.
map shows PEI’s lost of land when Lennox Island
The burial ground and sacred sites are grounded in Mi’kmaq heritage. Threatened by flooding, people are losing their family histories, Communal memories in their cultural gathering places.
There was a playground near the shoreline where I played games with my friends when I was a child. And now the playground is flooded by the water entirely. I can not tell where it is actually located.
The Fisherman’s Pride Inc. in Lennox is the only lobster processing plant owned by Aboriginals in Canada. The forest located on the north of the island, used for traditional medicine plucking, is now seasonally flooded.
I have been living and working on the island for my whole life. My parents built the house I lived in. The Fisherman’s Pride is where I work. And now the water is coming. I don’t know where I will go.
The sewage lagoon is a million investment owned by the island. Only 3 meters above the sea, the lagoon will cause severe pollution once flooded. The bridge linking Lennox Island to PEI, or even to the rest of the world, is also touching the water and is seasonally flooded.
By the time I grow up, the only bridge that connects our island to the rest of the world will be flooded. I don’t know where the island will be.
BRIDGE SEWAGE LAGOON
Gilbert Sark Mi’kmaq First Nation Elder
Lennox Island is my home. This is where I grew. It means everything to me. We can not beat the sea.
The water and the sea, rivers whatever, It always gonna find its way around. We have put our voices out there and hopefully, I am not saying that someone is gonna come by with a mirrorical idea and that’s gonna solve all our problems, but maybe somebody will believe and actually working on that mirrorical idea.
because it belong to all of us, not just to Lennox, not just to Abegweit. It belong to all Mi’kmaq and all islanders.
The timeline above presents a 100-year proposal for Lennox Island and its people. During the design stages, I was thinking of using architectural technologies, urban strategies to shape resilience design in preserving the life on the island as much as possible. However, as the research goes further, as an architectural student I felt the weakness in fighting the nature. Just as Gilbert Sark mentioned, we can not beat the sea. Thus, a negotiation strategy is designed for the island, entitled “A Powwow Dance With the Water”. The phrase I is from now to 2050, and shifting to the phrase two when the island starts to split into two. And by 2100, when there is only small territory left above the water, the phrase three starts.
This is really who we are, you know. I know that a house doesn’t determine who you are, or some type of monument doesn’t determine who you are. But this has been home to our ancestors, whether they lived in a wigwam, or one of the homes we have here now. This is where our people come from. It will be devastating because you lost where you came from.
In this site plan, the red line illustrates the shrinking of Lennox Island. Highlighted in the drawing, the powwow stage, the sewage lagoon, and one-third of the residential area will be underwater by the end of Phrase I.
Phrase I suggests a relocation and repurposing of the existing residential buildings, reinstall and relocation of sewage lagoon, Rare species research and protection in Lennox Forest, Bridge protection, Archeological research around historical burial ground and remaining powwow dance activities for the Mi’kmaq community.
Relocating Residential Blocks involves Moving existing houses to the mainland of Prince Edward Island by transportation, freighters and trucks. A new site is proposed to build a new Lennox Community, where the Federal Government transferred a planned crown land to Lennox Mi’kmaq Band in November 2021. In the first stage, houses 1-3 meters above the current sea level will be given the privilege of relocation.
This is a zoomed-in scope for the new Lennox Community. Although the given land is one thousand square meters large, the community will be suggested to construct around the site, where this rectangular area is 120 hectares. It will have the capacity to house all the residential blocks from Lennox Island.
Right:
While Repurposing Residential Block is a strategy designed for houses further inland and situated at a relatively higher level. The owners could cooperate with Lennox Island Inc. and redesign the residential buildings into tourism or commercial buildings. The Experience Lennox Island could promote workshops, restaurants (with shellfish), tourist centers, and hotels following its ten-year eco-tourism plan. The daytime activities on Lennox island will be preserved for both local community members and visitors. However, the overnight stay will be gradually reduced over the years.
To know your history is to know who you are. If you know exactly how you are, where you come from, it’s a pride of who you are as a person, not just as a first nation. If we could show who we are, a lot of miss conceptions will be erased. If we share as much as we can while they are here, believe and understand that they are welcome, they can actually take a lot of these things.
The Powwow dance for the Mi’kmaq community around PEI will still be hosted over the first phrase. However, a relocation to the inner land, which suggests a wide-open space inside the forest, will be proposed due to current coastal erosion. Following its tradition, an easy-installing structure benefits from moving from one place to another.
In communicating with the Lennox community, some of the historic burial grounds could be cooperated with archeologists in researching the heritage and cultural development of the Mi’kmaq. At the same time, landmarks could be installed to cover other burial sites around.
The Sewage Lagoon, currently 3 meters above sea level, will start the procedure of its closure with scientific approaches, which usually take around 5 to 10 years. The relocation of a new sewage bed will be proposed on a relatively small scale, which is planned to be used from 2030 to 2050.
The seasonal flooded Lennox bridge will be paved higher and installed with slabs to prevent the rising water for the first phrase.
Lennox Island was most successful in identifying species at risk within their region (33% success rate) and also species of other areas. On the existing record, 18 species are endangered in PEI. Thus, inviting ecologists to analyze and relocate rare species before the flooding is crucial to the island’s natural heritage.
Our main product right now is oyster sea. Based on our study, this is the biggest need of Prince Edward Island. We are PEI’s only shellfish factory. One of our roles primarily is economic development for Lennox Island and for the community.
The second phrase of the Dance between land, water and people is the Fancy Dance, which has one of the most rapid and aerobic dance paces in the traditional Mi’kmaq powwow dance. Like the second phrase, during these fifty years, under the theme of leaving, it is rapid, competitive, and the Dance reaches its climax.
The second phrase includes port relocation, powwow relocation to the mainland of PEI, deconstruction of the houses and sewage beds, and the expansion of fishing yards.
The shellfish companies, whose commercial fishing boat crews are 100% First Nation fishermen and fisherwomen, will keep developing possible sites when land is flooded, where cooperation with Lennox Islanders will be encouraged. The recently flooded lands could be leased to the shellfish companies for shellfish bed expansion. Property rights between the previous landowners, companies and the community will be involved and negotiated. (Potential: When the land is flooded below 3 meters, it still belongs to the original owner; when it is 3 meters and above, the sites’ ownership will be transferred to the Lennox Island Band)
The houses left and temporarily built in the first phrase will be removed. Uninstalling harmful building materials and home implements, such as PVC, asbestos, and volatile organic compounds, prevents further water pollution. Other building materials, such as wood and steel, could be recycled for the new Lennox community.
The Powwow site is proposed to be relocated to the mainland of PEI. Its mission of gathering the Mi’kmaq community will be continued.
The final phrase of the dance on Lennox island with its people, land and water is a Grass Dance, which is all about respecting nature, herbs and cures. In this stage, the island will be ready to return to nature. However, the Lennox Community, who leaves their traditional territory and the land with a built environment, will be cured and prepared for life afterwards.
Thus the last phrase is gradually launching Connect-Lennox Project and Fishing Yards Expansions. The Connect-Lennox Project will be settled in the new Lennox Community in PEI. With a spatial design, the project could be a museum, a community center, or a gathering space for people in Lennox to be spiritually connected back to the island they once lived.
The shellfish companies will keep developing possible sites while flooded. A portion of the income will contribute back to the development of the new Lennox Community. The oyster beds will be planned to sit beside the cultural importance sites, functioning as a second shield to reduce the washouts from the sea. The graph indicates the potential fishing areas according to the depth, temperature, speed of the water, and seawater concentration.
Finally, the dance comes to an end. The Lennox Island underwater is ready for its afterlife.
