On signs and markers throughout Greater Victoria, Indigenous place names are starting to become more common.
The shift has seen Greater Victoria enter something of a “toponymic revolution,” according to University of Victoria historian John Lutz.
“By and large, we like to kind of take advantage of place naming to kind of make it a link to a story. There are some Indigenous places, things like Esquimalt, Saanich, Camosun that still are part of our culture, but most of those stories have been overwritten by settler stories. It’s time to start telling the Indigenous stories again.”
Early similarities and differences
Indigenous place names were used even in the earliest days of colonial settlement. A map dating from 1860 – 11 years after the British colony of Vancouver Island was established – shows several co-opted Indigenous names like Sooke, Esquimalt and Saanich, although the boundaries have changed. Central Saanich is South Saanich (hence the North and South Saanich Agricultural Society) and Saanich itself is the Lake District. That border stretches from just east of Thetis Lake, across to Lost Lake (now called Blenkinsop Lake) and through Mount Douglas Park (now PKOLS).
Those boundary changes explain some of the names that seem out of place with modern geography. What was then dubbed Salt Lagoon is now Esquimalt Lagoon, which sits entirely within the municipality of Colwood, but back then was part of the sprawling Esquimalt District, which encompassed most of the West Shore. Highlands existed back in the day, encompassing a large tract of land west of Beaver Lake and north of Thetis Lake and east of Finlayson Inlet (now Saanich Inlet).
Many places have kept their names, while others have been altered slightly. Albert Head in Metchosin was then First Nations land (marked on the map as an unnamed “Government Reserve”) but would later become a Canadian Forces base. Pre-lighthouse, there were still Fisguard Islands (misspelled likely because the name was relayed orally – see “Cadborough Bay” in Oak Bay for a similar example, noted Lutz). Rodd Point came before a fort was established at the mouth of Esquimalt Harbour. Triangular hill in Langford later became Triangle Mountain.
Lutz said the fort established in the area was originally going to be called Camosun, but was first named Fort Albert – after Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband – which was then renamed Victoria after the Queen herself.
“Every name has a story attached to it and not every place – like Victoria as a whole – has no kind of Indigenous equivalent because the Indigenous people didn’t have a reason to name that kind of either Victoria area,” said Lutz.
“There are lots of Indigenous place names that you name places that Europeans don’t have any names for. Indigenous people have names for even very specific rocks where they catch their fish from that Europeans would never name and likewise, Europeans have named places where they would anchor their ships like Royal Roads, for example. Here the road is a reference to where you anchor ships, not a driving road but a road for ships. First Nations would never think about a place where you would anchor ships, that wasn’t one of the things that they had to deal with, so each culture has different reasons for naming different kinds of places.”
Name changes now
While change has come gradually, it seems to have recently picked up momentum.
Mount Douglas, named after a key figure in drawing many of those initial boundaries that have changed over time, was renamed to PKOLS in August 2022 after Saanich council announced plans to do so in 2019.
READ MORE: Reclaim the name: Saanich park to return to its Indigenous title, PKOLS
PKOLS is the name for Mount Douglas in the SENCOTEN language and a historically significant location steeped in culture and tradition, Tsawout First Nation elder and WSANEC Leadership Council community engagement coordinator Eric Pelkey explained in a news release.
“PKOLS is an extremely important location in the history of the WSANEC Nation,” he said. “It was created by XALS as the border between us and the Lekwungen people, and it was where we met with James Douglas in 1852 to discuss what became known as the Douglas Treaty. For reasons, we as WSANEC people have a special relationship with PKOLS.”
READ MORE: VIDEO: UVic adds Lekwungen names to two new buildings
There have been other changes throughout Greater Victoria: McDonald Campground in Gulf Islands National Park Reserve just north of Sidney became SMONECTEN (meaning “fir pitch place” in SENCOTEN) in May 2021; Trutch Street in Victoria was renamed to Su’it Street, which translates as “truth” in the Lekwungen language; and the University of Victoria recently unveiled two Lekwungen names for new student resident buildings.
One is called Cheko’nien House, the name for the territory that is now called Oak Bay, and the second is called Sngequ House, after a village in what is now known as Cadboro Bay. It was used for camas harvesting, trading and cultural and spiritual practices. It means “snow patches.”
READ MORE: Sign of the times: Park to be called John Dean and ȽÁU,WELNEW
In 2019, John Dean Provincial Park became LAU,WELNEW/John Dean, a WSANEC word for a “place of refuge.”
Lutz expects giving places dual names may be the way moving forward, to help navigate any opposition people might have.
“I understand how people may identify themselves with the places that they live, and there’s a comfort there and even a history there … I can see how when you try and rename something, you provoke resistance and response. And this is why I think it’s particularly effective to start at least by adding names rather than changing.”
Lutz expects that’ll continue and that more names will be added in the future, with the old names eventually falling out of use.
“Names aren’t fixed, and they do change over time. I think we’re in the middle of quite an active period of that right now.”
READ MORE: Campground near Sidney renamed to recognize First Nations
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