Snuneymuxw, Stz'uminus, and Thuq'min, the Names That Were Here First

Hello everyone. This week Kim is away, celebrating her parents' 50th wedding anniversary out in Manitoba. I'm stepping in for her today, and thankfully for me, our Teachings Tuesday comes from Wholwolet'za, George Harris Jr, my husband. By now he is a well-known Mentors in this circle, and being married to him means I get an inside line on these teachings long before they ever reach the page.

Once again, George has taken something many of us probably scrolled right past, a video about Nanaimo bars, and turned it into a teaching about names, places, and what it means to really see the land we live on. That's the gift he keeps giving us: nothing is too small to hold a lesson, if you're willing to slow down and look.

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Uy skweyul (Good day) everyone,

I recently watched a video of people from around the world trying the Nanaimo bar. (You can watch it here) With the World Cup bringing so much attention to our country and our province, the Nanaimo bar has been presented to the world as one of our signature desserts. In their videos, each person did their best to say the name of the city of Nanaimo. The video I watched was a reaction video featuring the Mayor of Nanaimo, and you can see him visibly covering his face, shaking his head, and covering his mouth as he listens. Then the Mayor says:

"Clearly a bunch of folks who have no idea where Nanaimo is, have no idea what a Nanaimo bar is, making fools of themselves trying to pronounce, what most of us here on the West Coast is a pretty commonly known, well known, respected, name. Listen carefully everyone. It is Nanaimo. Nanaimo. I would hope that people would just figure out how to pronounce Nanaimo."

I know this video was made in good humour and was tongue in cheek. But nonetheless, it got me thinking about pronunciation, and about how offended the Mayor appeared to be that Nanaimo was mispronounced so many times.

Because when you really think about it, Nanaimo itself is a mispronunciation. The people who have lived on those lands for thousands upon thousands of years call it Snuneymuxw. The same is true for so many cities and towns across Turtle Island. The people who came and settled on these lands could not pronounce the names correctly, and instead of learning to say them properly, they translated them into English as best they could, and those translations became the names of the new cities and towns.

I am reminded of this often in everyday conversations. A few months back, my wife and I were at a couples 9 and dine golf tournament. These events are always fun, and they are a great place to meet new people. Often one of the first questions people ask is, "Where are you from?" I am always proud to say that I am from Stz'uminus First Nation. And often the response I get is, "Oh, I have been to Chemainus, the Mount Brenton Golf Course is beautiful." I then have to gently let people know that I actually live across the harbour from the town of Ladysmith. Stz'uminus is the name our people carry. Chemainus is the version of that name that settlers could pronounce, and over time it became attached to a different town altogether. Two names, one root, and a whole lot of history in between.

The same can be said for so many locations across these lands. In settler naming traditions, places are often named after people. A governor, a captain, a distant royal who may never have set foot on the land that carries their name. But in our culture, places are often named for the activities that take place in those spaces, or for what the land itself provides. The land tells you what happens there. The name carries the teaching. When you learn the Traditional name of a place, you are not just learning a word, you are learning a relationship.

Let me share a story that brought this teaching home for me. A few years back, there was a fairly big wind storm, and I noticed two boats floating loose in the bay. So I decided to call the Coast Guard to let them know what was going on. The Coast Guard operator asked me, "Which bay are you talking about?" and without hesitation I said, "Thuq'min." The operator paused for a moment and asked me again, "What bay are you talking about?"

It occurred to me at that moment that I did not know the English name of the place I lived. I only knew the Traditional name for it. I apologized to the operator for this, and he laughed, and then said something that has stuck with me for years. He said, "No need to apologize. That is the name that your people called it long before settlers showed up and gave it a different name. I think it is beautiful that you only know it by your people's name."

The operator then asked me for my address, and once I gave it to him, he let me know that the English name for where I live is Sibell Bay. But he did not stop there. He asked me how to spell and pronounce the name of where I live, so that he could add it to the notes of the file. I shared with him the spelling of Thuq'min. Then he asked, "What does that mean?" and I told him, "Thuq'min is a place name in Stz'uminus, which means spearing place."

Think about what happened in that phone call. A stranger, in the middle of doing his job, took the time to ask, to listen, to learn, and to write our name down so it would be there for the next person. He did not brush past it. He did not treat it as an inconvenience. He met it with curiosity and respect. In a few short minutes, Thuq'min went from being a name he had never heard to a name in the Coast Guard's file. That is what it looks like to come to these teachings with an open heart.

So my ask to each of you reading this Teaching Tuesday is this: give yourselves permission to be human beings. None of us is perfect, and all of us will make mistakes. If you come to this work with an open heart and an open mind, we will continue to move forward in a good way.

Please learn to say the Traditional names of the cities and towns you live in. Ask what those names mean, because the meaning is where the teaching lives. And if you get it wrong, ask for forgiveness and try again. Our people will not react the same way the Mayor of Nanaimo reacted. You will be met with love and respect for your attempt.

Huy ch q'u (Thank you) for taking the time to read and reflect.  

Wholwolet'za | George Harris Jr

Huy ch q'u, George. Thank you for this, and for the reminder that an open heart is often all that's asked of us. I'm grateful to share this circle with you — as a community, and at home.

If this teaching stirred something in you, sit with it a while before you move on.

Learn the name of the land you're standing on.

Huy ch q'u.

🧡Rebecca Harris