Editor:
A few years ago I learned about the shíshálh burial site that was carbon dated to about 4,000 years ago. If you haven’t already seen the information on this site at the tems swiya museum in Sechelt, you will be amazed. Before that, the statement that Indigenous people have lived here since “time immemorial” had little meaning to me. I was staggered by the literal truth of that statement.
I understand how non-native residents are deeply attached to the names of beautiful places they call home – names conferred by individuals who settled here perhaps 140 years ago. People are hurt by the seeming demotion of these familiar names, without much consultation. We have come to expect a modicum of respect from our governments and we are incensed by any perceived disrespect.
Unfortunately, Indigenous people were offered no such respect. No one consulted them about changing the names of places they inhabited for thousands of years. They weren’t consulted when colonization brought devastating disease, forced them onto small parcels of land, depleted the resources that were their lifeblood, and stole their children away to attend schools where they were all too often humiliated, abused and robbed of family love and cultural wisdom.
Fixated on our everyday lives, we can have huge blind spots about people who are living right next door. It’s only in recent times that details of our treatment of Indigenous people have become ever more explicit and horrific. In this context I am glad to support the name changes/additions and other acts of reconciliation that start to redress the balance of respect towards First Nations. These “new” names are evocative and invite curiosity about the reality of life here long before European settlement. I feel they will only enrich our community and the experience of visitors.
Liz Neil, Gibsons
