Embodying Emergence: Reclaiming ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱

Abstract

W̱SÁNEĆ territory, located on what is known today as the southern part of Vancouver Island, is a storied landscape, holding within its geographical features many sacred places with their own SENĆOŦEN names and stories. For the Grade 3 students of the ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱ Tribal School, a visit to ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱, the mountain that bears the same name as the school, unearthed an unfamiliar layer of the stories connected to this place, which has long been held sacred to the W̱SÁNEĆ people. In the voices of these students, who are now in Grade 4, this article recounts their trip to the ȽÁU, WELṈEW̱ mountain in June 2018 and the process of toponymic activism that followed. The students’ Grade 3 teacher, a Euro-settler educator, joins the students in co-authoring this article, which illustrates why reclaiming Indigenous place names is important to decolonizing the map, first locally for these students and this particular place, and then in a broader sense.