30-30 Names

I have a well-researched map of the pre-colonial place names of Canada.
It’s inevitably incomplete
So much is lost

But

The names are instructional
Advice for pathways along rivers and land
How to travel across the ice
Which directions are bad ways to go
Where resources exist
They even tell short stories

And it just strikes me as not only so much more poetic
But so much more practical
So much more useful
So much more connected

Than names of military officers
Royally-appointed explorers
And mass murderers

Almost anything would be

Our settler names don’t make sense
They only highlight our disconnect

I hear there’s a movement afoot to rename British Columbia to something First Nations.
I’m all for it

Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Canada itself all have First Nation origins
Only Alberta and the coastal provinces have pure colonial names
With British Columbia being the biggest non-sequitur of them all

I want to bring back names that make sense

Our town and city names

Even our own bland, meaningless, personal names

Mark us as lost

Even though our ancestors keep insisting that we won



tags