Emily Carson-Apstein
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Gabriola Sounder
One topic that came up repeatedly at the Islands Trust Quarterly Meeting on Salt Spring Island in mid-June was indigenous relationships and reconciliation. It’s one thing to make land acknowledgements at events and put reconciliation in a mission or vision statement, but it’s another thing to actually work with indigenous communities to put those words into action. A report from Bowen Island, also a member of the Islands Trust, included information about the renaming of two of their beaches to honour the indigenous history of the island. X̱éla7an, formerly Crayola Beach, and Smí7mant Áyalhḵw, formerly Pebble Beach, were renamed by Aaron Williams, a language specialist with Squamish Nation. Williams and his mother and cousin met with manager of environment and parks planning Carla Skuce in the fall of 2024 to explore the beaches and come up with the new names. Smí7mant Áyalhḵw means ‘place of pebbles’, which is a fairly direct translation of the colonial name, both based on the small pebbles that make up the beach. X̱éla7an translates to ‘marked/coloured on the cheek/side’, because of the red marks left on the rocks by the changing tide. In the Bowen Island Undercurrent, their local paper, Williams said: “It was an absolute pleasure to be a part of this process for the wonderful locals of Bowen Island, and to be able to have a small piece of our identity in the eye of the dear locals of Bowen Island”. Though Gabriola has been an important site for the Snuneymuxw First Nation for millennia as a source of food, ceremonial space, and burial ground, almost all our beaches and landmarks have colonial names. One exception is the Elder Cedar reserve on North Road, which is also called S’ul-hween X’pey (a pronunciation file is available on the GALTT website), though this name is not widely known or used in the community. The colonially named Twin Beaches are also known as xw cumi:lucun/ (pronounced “w tsumi-lutsun”), but again this name is not widely known or used by settler locals and tourists. As the Islands Trust continues their public engagement on the Official Community Plan throughout the summer, there will be opportunities for the public to share their thoughts on our ongoing relationship to the land and how to honour its long and complicated history. Choosing and using names that acknowledge the first inhabitants of the land is one small way to stop erasing that history and pain, and move towards reconciliation.
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