Editor:
With the call to change the name of our hospital, Sunshine Coast residents have been given an opportunity to express a gesture of reconciliation with the shíshálh.
Our colonization of their unceded lands upon which we prosper and call home has caused horrific suffering. This truth of Canadian history has been revealed to all Canadians who have been listening through the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
A name change is fitting with the whole motif of shíshálh culture as is evident in the architecture and décor of the new hospital. The bentwood box structure of the building, the emblazoned sun, the canoe, the clan sculptures on the walls, along with the soon to be erected totem poles, are all symbols of the First Peoples of these lands, the shíshálh.
The original gifting of 11 acres with the government required $1 exchange and now the beautification of the structure with shíshálh creative and artistic expressions deserves our respectful appreciation. Shíshálh children were forced from the embrace of their homes and families into the St. Mary’s Residential School in Mission, B.C. through the government policy to separate siblings and parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.
Given that the name “St. Mary’s” conjures painful memories of the reality of shíshálh suffering and our historical injustices of colonization, it seems a small act to respect the request to change the name of our hospital.
This is a wonderful and timely opportunity for Sunshine Coast residents to make a tangible act of reconciliation towards the first people of Sechelt.
Nancy Denham, Sechelt
