Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Perpétuel is an audio installation located in the Geary Street Cemetery. The cemetery, overlooking the Halifax Harbour, was established in 1835 and contains the graves of early catholic setters, Mi’kmaq and Mi’kmaq chiefs, an aunt of Princess Eugene, wife of Napoleon, and the ancestors of many Dartmouth families as well as the Dunn family vault with 13 coffins. It is the site of extraordinary histories. Perpétuel borrows from its definition of a system capable of lasting indefinitely. Through the composed soundscape, created from daily recordings from the surrounds of the cemetery, visitors are offered a contemplative space that celebrates the ongoing energy residing in an environment of memory, loss and life. It is a living memorial amplifying lived moments.

Photography: Matthew Hollett. Mi’kmaq songs from the (NSARM), Nova Scotia Archives and Record Management and collected by Helen Creighton.