The Significance of Place in Textual and Graphical Representation: The Mi'kmaq on Lennox Island, Prince Edward Island, and the Penobscot on Indian Island, Maine

This research examines representations of indigenous identity and islandness rooted in place. The significance of this qualitative study is to enlarge human discourse on the semiotic interpretations of symbols in indigenous island cultures. If geography helps to shape identity, then identity, in turn, helps to shape place. This is a field study of signs and symbols used by the Mi'kmaq and Penobscot to represent their identity. Nissology assists in determining sense of place and in examining constructed textual and graphical representations of islandness. Documented photographs are examined through a bi-focal lens that is socio-cultural and socio-political. Elements of cultural and historical descriptions are identified in street signs, tourism and corporate signs, photographed on or in close proximity, to Lennox Island, Prince Edward Island, and Indian Island, Maine. Significations of identities are based on these visual images "catalogued, studied, distilled, and sorted into themes" (Harper, 1994). Ethnographic content analysis of the images is used to deconstruct the importance of the elements contained within each photograph. This is followed by image-based analysis of the two data sets and then compared. Findings indicate a complexity of multiple and hybrid identities used in different contexts depending on the interpretant.