From Tobacco Plains to Yaqit ʔa·knuqti\u0027it, Queen Charlotte to Daajing Giids, Squaw Island to Equay Miniss — the renaming of Canada\u0027s geography is under way
It was a celebration of reconciliation to raise awareness of a change to the island’s name.Sign up to receive the daily top stories from the National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc.
This year, 24 First Nations bands officially had their names changed in Ottawa’s records. That’s the most in more than 20 years. There were just six changes in each of the previous four years, according to data from Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. The peak over the past 37 years is 35 band names changed in 1997.
The Geographical Names Board of Canada, the national coordinating body on placenames, champions this evolution and links the revised naming to political and social outcomes. Nietschmann, who died in 2000, said mapping was a marker of colonization and the start of creating political boundaries and ownership over the original inhabitants.
Arriving from England in 1791, as the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe purposely removed names derived from Indigenous words, including changing Toronto to York. It was changed back after he left.