New Brunswick·New
A number of artifacts were returned to Bilijk First Nation after historian Andrea Bear Nicholas found them while putting together a book on the community’s history.
Andrea Bear Nicholas bought the artifacts from a man whose family was traded the items for food
CBC News
· Posted: May 08, 2026 3:36 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago
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A collection of artifacts were returned to Bilijk First Nation on Thursday. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
A number of artifacts were returned to Bilijk First Nation after historian Andrea Bear Nicholas found them while putting together a book on the community’s history.
On Thursday, the community held a book launch for Bear Nicholas’s book, Bilijk, followed by a repatriation ceremony for the artifacts.
Bear Nicholas, who is from Neqotkuk, said most of the artifacts came from a man who lived across the river and his father. For generations, she said, people from the community would go and trade farmers for food, especially during the depression.
“It was a lifeline for these families here and so they ended up trading valuable things, and he saved them,” Bear Nicholas said of the man from across the river.
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